Songfacts®:

• You'd think MC Hammer, a former batboy for the Oakland Athletics, would have delivered the first big baseball-themed rap song, but that honor goes to Nelly with "Batter Up."
  
  Nelly was a star shortstop who played in an amateur league and got some attention from professional scouts, but he found his calling in front of the microphone, not on the diamond. On this track, he loads up on baseball metaphors to rap about his lifestyle and his ascent to the big leagues of hip-hop.
• The chorus is an interpolation of the theme song to the TV series The Jeffersons, "Movin' On Up." That song has some baseball references that fit the bill:
  
  Now we're up in the big leagues
  Gettin' our turn at bat
  
  Jeffersons star Sherman Hemsley appears in the video, breaking out some of his signature dance moves.
• Ali and Murphy Lee of Nelly's group St. Lunatics each get a verse on this track. When the group signed to Universal Music in 1999, Nelly got a solo deal and was the priority. "Batter Up" appears on his debut album, Country Grammar, which exploded soon after it was released in 2000, going to #1 in America for five weeks thanks to the hit singles "Country Grammar (Hot S--t)" and "Ride Wit Me."
  
  The song later appeared as a bonus track on St. Lunatics' 2001 debut album, Free City.
• Marc Klasfeld directed most of the early Nelly videos, including "Batter Up," which sees Nelly and his fellow St. Lunatics effortlessly dominating their opponents in a baseball game.