Two decades later, Kelly Rowland still laughs about being teased for a not-very-tech-savvy move she made in her 2002 “Dilemma” music video with Nelly.
The duo won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for the song, but most people only remember the awkward moment when she attempted to contact the rapper via spreadsheet.
“Oh, my God, do you know how much flack I get from that?” Rowland, 43, asked on the Saturday, March 2, episode of Mystical Kitchen’s Last Meal series after host Josh Scherer joked about the moment.
“I’m sorry to be one of the people adding to that,” Scherer said. Rowland brushed off the apology, though, replying, “Oh, it’s alright. I’m so used to it now.”
In the now-infamous scene, Rowland tried to send Nelly, 49, a message — “WHERE YOU AT? HOLLA WHEN YOU GET THIS” — on her cell phone using Microsoft Excel. She then dropped the phone in anger when he didn’t answer. In the years since, the clip has become the subject of countless memes and social media jokes.
Scherer asked Rowland on Saturday whether anyone on the set questioned the use of Excel for texting, but Rowland said no one ever did. “And I’m actually mad at them that they didn’t, because they made me look nuts,” she added.
“You seemed so mad that he wasn’t returning the text,” Scherer recalled. Rowland joked in response that her video character was just practicing.
“What did you expect? Because it’s just a draft, my dear,” she quipped.
The clip from Rowland’s Last Meal interview elicited numerous comments about the “Dilemma” video, with one fan writing, “This was a pop culture moment I’ll not soon forget.”
Rowland previously addressed the “Dilemma” video during a 2019 interview on The Real. Host Jeannie Mai asked her to explain why she attempted to send Nelly a message through Excel.
“Guys, so here’s the sitch, OK? I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what Microsoft Excel is,” Rowland said, adding that she was aware of how people were joking about the video on social media. “I don’t have a clue, so when I saw all these memes, I was like, ‘I don’t care.’”
Rowland added that the producers of the clip “thought that [Excel texting] was a brilliant idea.”
Nelly defended the Excel text in a 2016 interview on The Project but admitted that the Excel usage wasn’t the most timeless choice. “It looks a little dated now,” he said. “I can see that.”
