St. Louis native Nelly performed at one of President Donald Trump’s inaugural balls Monday and the rapper is speaking out about the backlash surrounding his participation.

There were critics who said he, and other celebrities, should not be performing at Trump’s inauguration. 

Spectrum News caught up with Nelly before he took the stage.

“Long as you know you're doing right, as long as you feel you're doing right in your heart, there's no problem. Like I said again, I don't campaign. I'm not out on the trail. I'm not telling you who to vote for. But, having respect for the office is what I think more of us need to do,” Nelly told Spectrum News reporter Reena Diamante. 

The announcer at the Liberty Inaugural ball introduced Nelly by saying he was born on a military base in Austin, Texas and several family members served the country. It also mentioned he has entertained troops across the world. The announcer then said, “Only in America, can you come roam the streets of St. Louis to the White House. There is nothing more American than Nelly.”

Trump’s victory this time around was decisive and while Hollywood may always skew largely liberal, the slate of names participating in his inauguration weekend events has improved.

Nelly joined country music band Rascal Flatts, country singer Jason Aldean and singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw at the Liberty Inaugural Ball.  Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Village People and Lee Greenwood all performed at a MAGA style rally Sunday.

“The people who are coming out and participating directly are still a small subset of the entire universe of what we call celebrity,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. “But we’re seeing a lot more celebrities who are coming out and supporting Trump. There may not be that distinct division that we saw before.”

Even some who have publicly criticized Trump in the past seem to have changed course. One of the highest-profile examples is the rapper Snoop Dogg, who in a 2017 music video pretended to shoot a Trump lookalike, and then this past weekend performed at a pre-Inaugural event called The Crypto Ball. When a social media user posted a video of his performance, his name quickly became a trending topic on social media with a fair amount of disbelief and outrage.