Cee-Lo Biography

Cee-Lo Biography

Cee-Lo Green is the stage name of Thomas DeCarlo Callaway (born May 30, 1974), an American hip hop, funk, soul, and R&B musician. He is a singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a member of Goodie Mob and more recently Gnarls Barkley, and has also recorded two critically acclaimed solo LPs. Among Cee-Lo's solo hits are the singles "Closet Freak" (2002) and "I'll Be Around" (2003), produced by and featuring Timbaland.Born in Savannah Georgia, Cee-Lo is one of a number of artists to successfully record as both a rapper and singer or general vocalist.[specify] He started his music career in his church. He's delved artistically into drawing, dancing, DJing, and fashion throughout his life, not wanting to be narrowly defined as an artist.

Goodie Mob Along with Big Gipp, T-Mo, and Khujo, Cee-Lo was an original member of the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob. He is the youngest of the four. When commenting about his role in the group's collective sound, he likened his influence to water: "I provide depth in my rhymes, but not too much depth to where you can't swim. Sometimes all you know about is what you don't know. It's intriguing. Large volumes of water can be intimidating, so if you go deeper, you don't know what to expect. I have the will to go deeper, to seek knowledge. Knowledge is not coincidental, it's given to you." Cee-Lo was featured in the following Goodie Mob albums before pursuing a solo career:Soul Food, Still Standing and World Party. During making of the album World Party, Cee-Lo left the group to pursue a solo career under Arista and the remaining members continued to perform together under the Goodie Mob name with Koch Records. They did however collaborate in combinations in the Dungeon Family album Even in Darkness. Although the next Goodie Mob album seemed to mock Cee-Lo with its title, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, the group expressed that it was more of a jab at Arista and the music industry as a whole. In 2005, Cee-Lo and Big Gipp were both noted in interviews as saying the entire group is back on good terms and that they have been in the studio working on a new Goodie Mob album. No title or release date have been given for the new project. The song "Hold On" from Big Boi of OutKast's Got Purp? Vol 2 album was the first newly recorded Goodie Mob song with all four members since World Party. (Khujo later revealed to fans at an album signing for his new album "Mercury", that the song "Hold On" was originally recorded in 1995 before Soul Food was released.)

Solo career Cee-Lo's Arista career was short-lived, as he was dropped after only two albums due to low record sales. His first album, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, was heavily in the vein of various other Dungeon Family releases, with southern soul/funk/jazz backings produced solely by himself (except for the single "Closet Freak", produced by Timbaland) and boasting appearances by fellow Dungeon Fam members Big Gipp and Backbone. The album explored his departure from Goodie Mob and his solo growth in the song "El Dorado Sunrise (Super Chicken)", as well as socio-political issues, and showcased his singing. The album did not sell very well, but Cee-Lo achieved some airplay with the single "Closet Freak". His second Arista album, Cee-Lo Green... is the Soul Machine brought a more branched-out sound and more deeply explored southern rap music. This is evidenced by collaborations with Ludacris, T.I., and Pharrell and production from Timbaland, The Neptunes, and Jazze Pha among others. The only other Dungeon Family member that appeared on his second release was Big Rube. This album saw Cee-Lo delve into other styles besides traditional rap (see Technique). Timbaland once again proved to be Cee-Lo's single producer as their song "I'll Be Around" received mild airplay. They performed the single on an episode in the second season of Chappelle's Show. "The One" featuring Jazze Pha and T.I. was also released as a single. On the heels of the success of Gnarls Barkley, Arista has decided to release a 19-track "Greatest Hits" collection of Cee-Lo songs. It features 15 Cee-Lo solo tracks, three Goodie Mob songs, and Cee-Lo's debut on the OutKast song "Git Up, Git Out". It's tentatively called Closet Freak: The Best Of Cee-Lo Green the Soul Machine.