Nelly Says He Probably Wouldn’t Have Done ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Had He Known Who His Competitors Were

Dancing With the Stars came to an end on Monday with Bachelorette alum Kaitlyn Bristowe being crowned as the winner. Bristowe beat out rapper Nelly, One Day at a Time actor Justina Machado, and Catfish star Nev Schulman to take home the Mirrorball Trophy. Following his time on the ABC competition, Nelly took some time to look back on his DWTS journey in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. According to the “Hot in Here” rapper, he may not have competed on the season at all if he knew that there would be so many strong competitors in the mix.

Nelly was asked directly if he still would have competed on DWTS if he had known that there would be so many competitors with backgrounds or prior experience with dancing (both Bristowe and Schulman, the two finalists, have prior dance experience). He candidly replied that he “probably” wouldn’t have done the competition if he had known that information in advance. Nelly explained, “Because you don’t stack yourself up against that. Why would I get in a boxing match with someone whos’ been boxing since they were 12? Why would I go play basketball with somebody who played in college? There are certain things that you’re basically setting yourself up for.”

Even though he said that he probably wouldn’t have taken part in DWTS if he had known about his fellow competitors’ dance experience ahead of time, he doesn’t fault those such as Schulman and Bristowe for utilizing their dancing skills in the ballroom. He added, “Obviously, it’s still a competition and you use whatever you have to win. So it’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing. So you want to work that much harder because the odds are stacked up against you.” While Nelly admitted that it was “bittersweet” to make it to the end without taking home the top prize, he couldn’t be happier for Bristowe, who did end up winning Season 29.

“You’re always happy for the winner,” Nelly shared. “Kaitlyn’s beautiful, she’s a sweet person, she really wanted it. She won! You can’t say anything about that… I just would have liked to have known that coming into it. That’s all. You don’t want to get side swiped once you get in.” He added, “But that being said, she deserves to win, because she won. She danced beautifully. She’s a sweet person, she did her thing. Me and my partner [Daniella Karagach], we did our best and the experience was great.”