Cee-Lo is southern rap royalty. And if you denounce, deny, or even just disagree with that statement then please click on one of the other feature selections to your right, ‘cause this interview is not for you.

The following Q&A is for Dungeon Fam faithful, for those fans whose lives were irreversibly changed for the better when they first heard the motivational messages contained in the certified classics that are Soul Food and Still Standing.

This feature is for those same fans who faithfully followed the star of those two albums on to his two stellar solo projects and listened in awe as he developed into the Al Green of Hip Hop, and began balancing his skilled socially-conscious rhymes with vocals so soulful the Green comparison is considered apt by all who’ve heard him instead of outrageous hyperbole.

This reprinting of the lengthy discussion Cee-Lo had with HipHopDX recently is for those that were well versed in Lo long before he became an acclaimed songwriter for The Pussycat Dolls (“Don’t Cha”), Brandy, Amerie and the like, and long before he went to St. Elsewhere as one half of The Odd Couple [click to read] alongside producer Danger Mouse.

This piece is for those of us that actually still care about the long-delayed Goodie Mob reunion, who want to hear Andre 3000 and Cee-Lo spittin’ on the same track, and most importantly those that know Cee-Lo the emcee is desperately needed back on the scene if southern Hip Hop is to ever reclaim its respect amongst all regions.

This is the definitive Cee-Lo interview. Enjoy!

HipHopDX: My six-year-old niece has taken to singing, “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me,” because she heard Alvin singing it in the Alvin And The Chipmunks movie. So, who’s more to blame for this, Alvin or Cee-Lo [Laughs]?
Cee-Lo: [Laughs] I think we’re all a little guilty. I’m sorry little one.  

DX: Now on to the hardcore questions. Let’s just get funky with it, Cee-Lo vs. Andre 3000, who’s the nicest emcee out The Dungeon Family?
Cee-Lo: I think that we’re more allies than adversaries, and always have been. I think our agendas are similar in spirit and sentiment and style, and a little bit of sight, but I think our sounds are different. But I, as well as many others, revere Dre 3000 as one of the best. So he will never get anything but a compliment from me. But I also would rate myself as a pretty good emcee too [Laughs].

DX: When you gonna follow Dre and start “Brett Farve’n,” as he calls it, reminding this new generation of Cee-Lo the lyricist?
Cee-Lo: Soon. I guess as far as emceeing is concerned, I do have a specific agenda, and it’s more [slanted] towards social conscious[ness] and politically-charged [content]. And so what better vehicle to use [for that] than Goodie Mob and the new project that we’re working on?

And speaking of [emceeing], I’ve become a fan of Dre’s all over again with his resurgence on the scene. I’m turned on by that. He’s actually made me want to rhyme again. [Gnarls Barkley] having the cover of The Source this month and [Dre] having the [“Hip Hop] Quotable” with that “Royal Flush” verse in the same issue, it’s [all] quite a bit of confirmation of our longevity and power.

So yeah, I think I’ll direct [back towards emceeing]. Truth of the matter is, I’m glad that people are inquiring about where I stand as far as that’s concerned. I wasn’t [thinking] anyone needed that from me.

DX: I was afraid that we had lost MC Cee-Lo to Cee-Lo Green entirely. I personally believe you’re the best emcee-turned-singer in Hip Hop history, but in the 21st century we’ve heard less and less of the emcee we came to know and love in the ‘90s.
Cee-Lo: Believe it or not, you haven’t at all. And I must say that [my] evolution outward [towards singing] is very natural [for me].

As far as Gnarls Barkley, [that] was not contrived in the least bit. When we recorded the first Gnarls record [St. Elsewhere], I had also done a full-length with Jazze Pha [Happy Hour] that nobody ever got a chance to hear, and I was spittin’ on that. I had planned on both of those albums being released somewhat simultaneously. But when one got picked up [by a major label for distribution] prior to the other, that’s what made [it] contractual and exclusive [to] where I couldn’t [have both released at the same time].

I wanted to prove what was possible [with Gnarls]. Especially when I felt like I had [already] done quite a bit of proving myself as an emcee. Not to say that I was done with it, but I didn’t feel like I really had any competition. And rap just became a little less challenging for me, being that what rap is equated with and how easy it is to infiltrate. I just felt like the bar was lowered. And this is not to insult anyone, it’s just an observation. But I was born out of the golden era of emceeing. I’m talking about the Brother J’s from X-Clan, and the KRS-One’s, and the Rakim’s. My elders don’t rhyme anymore, and myself becoming an elder as well – after the 14 years I been around – I felt like I wanted to prove you could move on and make music that acts your age so to speak. You feel me?

DX: Yeah, I felt you 10 years ago: “Now, the listener in here want the same flow but I gotta let it grow/Love it enough to let it go, if I don’t wanna rap no mo'.” So you made that prediction [a decade] ago [on “Still Standing”] that this transition from spittin’ to singing was gonna happen.
Cee-Lo: Yes I did. I always knew that I had this other music in me. What shape and form and fashion it would manifest itself in remained to be seen [at the time]. So with me predicting that 10 years ago by the time [the full transition] happened you knew I was very secure in that. And I do think I’m [still] emceeing. I think that the Hip Hop community as a whole is able to look at me as one of their own. Continued on page 2 »