CeeLo Green

CeeLo Green (born May 30, 1974, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.) is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter known for his soulful voice and flamboyant persona, both as a solo performer and as part of the rap group Goodie Mob and the eclectic duo Gnarls Barkley.

He was born Thomas Burton and grew up in Atlanta as the son of two ordained Baptist ministers, both of whom died when he was young; sometime after his father’s death, he assumed his mother’s maiden name, Callaway. As an adolescent, he engaged in gang activity and committed petty theft, and, after dropping out of school in the ninth grade, he was sent to a military academy, where he eventually earned a GED. Having early displayed an affinity for music—he sang in his church and played the piano at home—by his late teenage years he sought to pursue it as a career.

In 1991 Callaway, along with three friends, formed the hip-hop act Goodie Mob. Three years later the group appeared on the first album by fellow Atlanta rappers OutKast, and their own debut, Soul Food (1995), soon followed. With its optimistic attitude and its incorporation of live instrumentation infused with the sounds of classic soul and funk music, Soul Food became a touchstone for an emerging subgenre of hip-hop based in the South. Callaway, who rapped and sang under the pseudonym Cee-Lo (or Cee Lo, later CeeLo), earned particular praise for his spirited high-pitched delivery. Goodie Mob later recorded Still Standing (1998), which won further acclaim, as well as other collaborations with OutKast. World Party (1999) was considered an artistic and commercial disappointment, however, and Cee-Lo subsequently left the group. He reunited with Goodie Mob for the somewhat more successful Age Against the Machine (2013).

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Appending a surname to his moniker, Cee-Lo embarked on a solo career with the stylistically varied rhythm-and-blues (R&B) record Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections (2002). The album further showed off Green’s rich tenor, garnering him comparisons to soul singer Al Green. Cee-Lo Green…Is the Soul Machine (2004) boasted a similarly wide-ranging sound.

For his next project, Green teamed up with the hip-hop producer Danger Mouse (byname of Brian Burton). As Gnarls Barkley (a pun on the name of basketball star Charles Barkley), the pair released St. Elsewhere (2006), an offbeat R&B album on which Green mused upon such dark themes as paranoia and suicide over slick sample-based arrangements. Mostly because of the single “Crazy,” a buoyant pop-soul confection that became a surprise worldwide hit, Gnarls Barkley brought Green mainstream popularity for the first time. After winning two Grammy Awards, the collaborators, who played up their eccentric image by frequently performing in extravagant costumes, returned with The Odd Couple (2008).

Green scored his first solo hit with “Fuck You!” (2010), an infectious up-tempo track rooted in 1960s soul on which he assumed the role of a heartbroken lover gleefully casting spite upon his ex-girlfriend’s well-to-do new mate. The single (which was sanitized for radio and other contexts as “Forget You”) served as the centrepiece of his lushly orchestrated album The Lady Killer (2010) and earned four Grammy nominations; it won for best urban/alternative performance. In 2012 his sultry single “Fool for You” won Grammy Awards for best R&B song and best traditional R&B performance. Heart Blanche (2015), however, was uneven and received mixed reviews.

As his profile increased, Green ventured into television. He was a coach on the first three seasons (2011–13) of the singing competition The Voice and the host of the 2011 show Talking to Strangers, on which he interviewed other musicians. He later appeared in the 1960s-set musical film Sparkle (2012) and provided a voice for the animated movie Hotel Transylvania (2012). The reality series CeeLo Green’s The Good Life (2014) was canceled in the wake of controversial tweets he posted about rape and consent. Those comments came after an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Green had resulted in his pleading no contest in 2014 to the furnishing of Ecstasy; he received no prison time. In 2020 he released his sixth solo album, CeeLo Green Is Thomas Callaway.

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