The track explores Green attaining unexpected popularity and his influence among Caucasians. The singer points to a new track, “Power” – one of the first they recorded for the album, sampling the Moody Blues’ “Question” – as one of the new LP’s most poignant pieces. “Anyone knowing Goodie Mob knows our stance has been civil service and social service,” Green says. They primed and polished an amalgamation of genres on their acclaimed debut album, 1995’s Soul Food, and its 1998 follow-up, Still Standing. Adds Gipp, “It was just us and the music.”Īge Against the Machine is a return to form for Goodie Mob, who made their name as socially conscious rappers mixing funk and soul, never afraid to push the lyrical envelope. “We really got in a groove when we were in Jamaica,” says Green. “You just try not to stretch yourself too thin.” The bulk of the album, though, was recorded last winter at Geejam Studios in Portland, Jamaica, an isolated studio southeast of Kingston accessible by chartered flight over the Blue Mountains. “The one thing that I’ve always tried to master is being able to multitask,” Green says of popping in and out of Goodie Mob sessions while touring behind his solo album. But Green’s solo success, and particularly the longevity of “Fuck You,” made recording a slow process. Writing for Age Against the Machine began in earnest in late 2009. “We talked the entire time that we weren’t together,” he says. But Gipp insists the group (which also includes Khujo and T-Mo) have always remained close.
Rumors of internal feuding within the group were common in the years following Green’s departure. “But isn’t it a beautiful story? reaching the success that he’s reached and to come back and get his brothers?” I just didn’t know when,” adds group member Big Gipp. “I knew always that we were gonna do another Goodie Mob album. Goodie Mob came of age in the mid-Nineties as part of the Dungeon Family, a diverse collective of Atlanta-based hip-hop and soul artists including Outkast. Listen to Cee Lo Green’s Top Southern Hip-Hop Songs
“It’s definitely coming back around full circle,” Green tells Rolling Stone of recording Age Against the Machine, the first Goodie Mob album with the original lineup in over a decade, due next week. Yet he felt it only right to return to his roots.
He followed up his Gnarls work with the infectious single “Fuck You” off his 2010 solo album, The Lady Killer, and a high-profile judging gig on NBC’s The Voice. The result? Goodie Mob’s comeback album was put on hold. When Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, the producer with whom the soulful singer would form the avant-pop duo Gnarls Barkley, sent over the music for the soon-to-be chart-topping song “Crazy,” Green had no choice but to move forward with that project. But just as they were getting into a groove, Green backed out. In mid-2005, the hip-hop crew Goodie Mob holed up in a studio to begin work on their first album with original member Cee Lo Green since 1999’s World Party.