Cee-Lo Green

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This article is about the musician. For dice game, see Cee-lo.
Cee-Lo Green

Cee-Lo at a Gnarls Barkley concert
Background information
Birth name Thomas DeCarlo Callaway
Born May 30, 1974 (1974-05-30) (age 35)
Origin Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A
Genres Hip hop, funk, R&B, soul
Occupations Singer-songwriter, rapper, producer
Instruments Singing, rapping
Years active 1992–present
Labels Arista
Associated acts Goodie Mob, Gnarls Barkley, MF DOOM, Jazze Pha, Dungeon Family, Kilo Ali, Jade Ewen, OutKast, Estelle, Asher Roth, Nas, Lauryn Hill, Common

Thomas DeCarlo Callaway (born May 30, 1974)[1], better known by his stage name Cee-Lo Green, is 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. He's also known for his strong Southern accent and smooth harmonizing vocals. Among Cee-Lo's solo hits are the singles "Closet Freak" (2002) and "I'll Be Around" (2003), produced by and featuring Timbaland.[1] He also performed background vocals on multi-platinum selling R&B trio TLC's 1995 # 1 single "Waterfalls."[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early and personal life

Cee-Lo was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and attended Benjamin E. Mays High School in southwest Atlanta.

Both of Cee-Lo's parents were ordained ministers and he started his music career in his church. His father died when he was 2 years old. His mother Sheila J. Tyler-Calloway was involved in a car crash leaving her quadriplegic and died 2 years later when Cee-Lo was 18 years old and his career with Goodie Mob had just begun taking off. His mother's death led him into depression, as is reflected in various songs throughout his career, including "Free" by Goodie Mob, songs on St. Elsewhere, and on The Odd Couple ("She Knows", "A Little Better").[2][3] Cee-Lo also expresses his love for his mother in the song "Guess Who" from Goodie Mob's Soul Food album.

He has two stepdaughters, Sierra and Kalah, the daughters of his former wife Christina Johnson, and a son, Kingston. Sierra was on an episode of MTV's My Super Sweet 16 in season 1. She was also featured on the follow-up MTV television series, Exiled. She is now pregnant with her first child. Kingston is featured on the intro of Cee-Lo Green... is the Soul Machine.

[edit] 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.[1]

During the 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.)

[edit] 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 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 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 released a 17-track "Greatest Hits" collection of Cee-Lo songs, Closet Freak: The Best Of Cee-Lo Green the Soul Machine. It features predominantly Cee-Lo solo tracks and several Goodie Mob songs.

[edit] Gnarls Barkley

Along with DJ Danger Mouse (The Grey Album), Cee-Lo is currently part of a collaboration called Gnarls Barkley. They first met when Danger Mouse took second in a talent contest and opened for OutKast and Goodie Mob at a University of Georgia concert in 1998. Afterwards, Danger Mouse gave Cee-Lo an instrumental demo tape and told him to call him if he was interested. They didn't make contact again until Cee-Lo was contacted to be featured in a remix of the Danger Mouse and Jemini song "What U Sittin' On?" from the album Ghetto Pop Life. They worked together again on the 2005 Danger Doom (Danger Mouse and MF Doom collaboration) album The Mouse and The Mask on the song "Benzi Box" where Cee-Lo sings the chorus.

Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo's first collaborative album, St. Elsewhere, was released on April 24, 2006 in the United Kingdom and May 2, 2006 in the United States. St. Elsewhere entered the charts at #1 in the UK, as did the first single "Crazy". "Crazy" is the first single to go straight to #1 in the UK based on digital download sales alone. The album is Cee-Lo's greatest selling venture yet, currently having shipped over 1 million copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.[1]

A second album by Gnarls Barkley, titled The Odd Couple, was released in March 2008. Its first single released in January called "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)".[1]

[edit] Future projects

Cee-lo is collaborating with producer Jazze Pha to release an album called Happy Hour on Jazze’s record label. The songs "Happy Hour" (as well as the remix with Bun B, Snoop Dogg & Tone Tone), "Man of the Hour", and "Disco Bitch" (featuring The Pussycat Dolls) from the album have already been released as singles and B-sides. Jazze Pha has produced numerous hit singles with many artists, but this project is his rapping and singing debut. Cee-Lo is co-producing the album with him, so both artist and producer share equal roles in vocals and production.

Although previously shelved, the album is expected to be rescheduled for release after the success of St. Elsewhere by original label Columbia Records.

Cee-Lo teamed up with Plantlife's Jack Splash to form the group formally known as "The Heart Attack". "The Heart Attack" project is due out later this year. Very little is known about this upcoming collaboration, but a CD sampler was packaged in some of the early copies of St. Elsewhere with '70s-influenced songs like "Gangsta Boogie" and "Right Now." "Gangsta Boogie" was recently released on the Disturbia soundtrack.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Goodie Mob albums

[edit] Solo albums

[edit] Dungeon Family albums

[edit] Gnarls Barkley albums

[edit] Collaborations

  • With Seeed
    • "Aufstehn"
    • "Rise and Shine"

[edit] Songwriting credits

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e allmusic Biography
  2. ^ rollingstone.com. "The Acid Nerd Gangsters" (reprint of an interview originally published in Rolling Stone Magazine), published August 9, 2006
  3. ^ Chang, Jeff (April 6, 2008) "First Comes Crazy, Now Comes Odd" The New York Times.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Gnarls Barkley
Cee-Lo · Danger Mouse
Studio albums
Singles
Related articles
v • d • e
Dungeon Family
Groups
Members
See also
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