DX: I don’t mean to switch off topic here, but what does the Goodie reunion mean for Cee-Lo Green? Is the third solo album still gonna happen?
Cee-Lo: I have a solo album that I’m working on. That’s the next deal that I signed. So like I said, I already have an itinerary that’s put into place, etched into stone because [Atlantic] paid me in advance. I almost wish that we were on those type of cordial terms at the time [that I signed with Atlantic] I woulda made a demand like, “I won’t sign with you unless you sign the Goodie Mob too.” Buy it’s a little late for that, so all I can do is prove my own worth. And Gnarls Barkley doesn’t do that alone, immensely successful as it was. They’re still not taking into consideration my 14 years of work up until this point. I’m more or less defined by just the one song. You do have [true] Gnarls fans, but you mostly have fans of the song “Crazy.” And so if anybody wonders why we took a darker direction on The Odd Couple it’s because [we] had to kinda get sucka free.

DX: This new solo album, is it gonna be back to Soul Machine or you feel like you kinda gotta do a third Gnarls album?
Cee-Lo: No, I don’t. Gnarls is for Gnarls. The [new] solo record to me is…I guess aesthetically it may be similar to Soul Machine. But definitely improved on, because I’ve gotten so much better since then.

DX: Yeah, I read where you said your first two solo albums were too schizophrenic, but to me that’s what made Soul Machine one of the best albums of the last five years [click to read]. Maybe it needed a little bit more spittin’ to suit someone like me, but overall that was some damn-good sounding schizophrenia.
Cee-Lo: Well yeah, I would describe it as such too, undiagnosed schizophrenia. You’re exactly right. I felt like at the time I was suffering from something that I like to call assembly line syndrome. And I felt like this [album] is all that I embody [musically], and all that I aspire towards. So I [felt like] I’ve got one album to do it [all] in. So it was like let me get a little some of this, a little some of that. And maybe the average consumer’s mind doesn’t deviate that often throughout the course of an album. But again, ultimately that’s what ends up being special about me. And like if you were to break retardation down into the simplest terms, wouldn’t it just be single-minded? So I feel very healthy and very sane that my brain is that active and that my horizons are that broad.

DX: Is it Cee-Lo Green and His Broad Horizons, is that the title you think [Laughs]?
Cee-Lo: I was gonna call it Solid Gold [at one point]. I was [flirting with] calling it Cee-Lo Green Is A Tree In The City. You know what that means right? You can’t cut down all the trees for the sake of commerce.

DX: You said you still gotta tour with Danger, we talking ’09 you think [for the solo album]?
Cee-Lo: Yeah, ’09, because I’ll be working on the Mob this year. That’s what I was afraid of. I didn’t want it to be thrown together, just trying to send a song here, “Okay, let’s get together and do one song [now] because I gotta be in Japan.” I miss the times when we went to the mountains [for] the Still Standing album. We didn’t record it [there], we went and wrote it in the mountains. We got up, we went on nature trails and we cooked for each other. Or when we did Soul Food we were all staying in Curtis Mayfield’s house in Curtom Studios. So I know we won’t really have that this time around, so I don’t really know how it’s gonna be. And it scares me. It’s like I would almost rather a prolonged maybe [on the group’s reunion effort] than a definite no, this is not gonna work. ‘Cause let’s face it, the shit’s gotta be awesome.

DX: It’s gotta be. Back to your solo joint, please promise me that for your third go-round you’re gonna get at least one DJ Premier track. “Evening News” is one of his illest creations ever and I wanna hear more of what you two can do.
Cee-Lo: Aww man, you are a man after my own heart. That’s my favorite song. To me, that was one of the better blends of the spittin’ and a little bit of the melodic stylistic kinda joint. Plus, it’s dark like the Gnarls shit. I love it like that.

DX: I think you already answered this question but I’ll just ask it [since] we’re talking about Soul Machine: “Before we came being southern wasn’t something to claim/That flag wasn’t something to fly it was something to blame/Smilin’ and juckin’ and jivin’, I was so ashamed.” Are you ashamed of contemporary southern Hip Hop?
Cee-Lo: Well, it’s almost like how can you be ashamed of something shameless? It’s just shameless.

DX: There was a video about eating fried chicken that looked like it was shot on a plantation.
Cee-Lo: Yeah dog, it’s like, damn! I’ve gotten older and I’ve stopped pointing my fingers at people. And I stopped talking so much, I felt like I just wanted to do. But I do slow down enough to watch. I see what’s going on. But the reason why I don’t judge it completely – I don’t totally get enraged and start slapping little muthafuckas in the mouth behind it for misrepresenting the city or the culture – is because I’m optimistic about and because of my own aspirations, for what I have in mind. So I know [this] is not gonna be the end all be all, it’s just a period [in time]. It’s just a matter of time [before it changes]. That’s the best way I can answer that without insulting anyone. The only reason I spare people is because I feel like if I say their names and somebody say something back to me that’s when I’m gonna know all respect has been lost and I’ma get in some trouble.

DX: I just love how you end that verse [on “Die Trying”] explaining what motivates your content direction: “I know too much and I owe too much.” I’m not even trying to gas you up, but gotdamn you have the power to make a muthafucka freeze up and just start contemplating their whole existence when you start spittin’ out them life gems.
Cee-Lo: That’s my thing! I judge myself before I judge [other] people. I testify and I confess in front of everyone. I’ma tell you something real, my music was always done in the event of my demise. If I died in the line of duty I would wanna be remembered for these words and this particular stance and these actions. And that is the sentiment and the statement and the stance of a revolutionary. I thought that I would be fighting toward a change so aggressively, and so effectively, that somebody would want me dead. I said that in that song too didn’t I? “I thought if I died for you that would be an honorable death.” So I thought it was honorable [to say those things]. Continued on page 5 »