Poor Nelly. Despite being responsible for some of the biggest bangers of the early noughties, the Missouri rapper is now allegedly drowning in millions of dollars worth of debt. According to reports from earlier this week, he owes the IRS (America’s federal tax agency) an eye-watering $2.4 million, and the Missouri Department of Revenue almost $150,000. 

Fortunately, this highly-publicised dilemma has only mobilised his fanbase. With the help of a new #SaveNelly hashtag, a group of campaigners have decided to harness the power of Spotify’s “per stream” profits to save the rapper. Thanks to figures crunched by Spin, fans now know that if they stream Nelly’s 2002 hit “Hot In Herre” between 287,176,547 and 402,880,500 times, he may be able to significantly lower his alleged debt.

These numbers were reached by examining the streaming service’s royalty policy, which pays between $0.006 and $0.0084 to an artist each time one of their tracks are played.

It’s hard to tell how successful this campaign will actually be – although, at the time of writing, Nelly is yet to make Spotify’s global top 50 chart. Make a difference by streaming “Hot In Herre” on the streaming site below, or share your support publicly with a #SaveNelly hashtag: