Cee-Lo Green

Part James Brown, part Dirty South, part gospel choirboy, Gnarls Barkley’s vocal half has been a man of many talents since entering the music world via the Goodie Mob in the early nineties. That hip-hop quartet spawned from the Dungeon Family collective alongside fellow ATL’ers Outkast, and released three albums employing Green as both rapper and singer. His solo breakthrough came in 2004 with Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine. Though he reinvented himself here as a full-time singer, he continued to indulge in Dirty South hip-hop culture, right down to trading verses with Ludacris and T.I. and lending his whimsical falsetto to beats by the likes of Timbaland and Pharrell Williams. However, it was his collaboration with trendsetting producer Danger Mouse as Gnarls Barkley that introduced most of the world to the charismatic warbler: the surprise hit “Crazy,” powered by Green's unhinged vocals, gave the supergroup one of the touchstone singles of the 2000s.  In Gnarls Barkley, Green’s persona was that of the crazed preacher; on his third solo effort, The Lady Killer, Green refined his character into a sly male take on the femme fatale. The album was preceded by late summer 2010's inescapable viral smash “Fuck You,” which reacquainted millions of YouTube viewers with the Soul Machine.