Cee-Lo is a musical artist who wears many hats, both literally and figuratively. On any given day he might don a crisp, straight-billed baseball cap, show off his many tattoos and spit rhymes like Rick Ross or some "Dirty South" rapper. Then the next day one could spot Cee-Lo decked out in a purple felt top hat with a matching dual-tailed jacket singing faux gospel hooks. Such is the slippery, greased pig elusiveness that has kept Cee-Lo from being wrestled to the floor of one genre or another. He can rap. He can sing. He can produce, promote and write. But if there's one thing the ostentatious and theatrical Cee-Lo refuses to succeed at, it's being corralled.Born Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, the young Cee-Lo grew up in the rich and diverse musical culture of Atlanta, Georgia. His first major step to popularity came when he joined Goodie Mob in the early 1990s. Along with another A-T-L product, Outkast, Goodie Mob built the foundations for the "Dirty South" style of rap, which would eventually influence artists like Petey Pablo and Ludacris. With smooth hooks and liquid raps crooned by Cee-Lo, Goodie Mob built a large following with Southern hip hop fans who were previously neglected by both West Coast and Easy Coast rap artists of the mid-1990s. With Cee-Lo, urban music had a transformative voice that came from neither Los Angeles nor New York City, but rather from a previously untapped resource in the South that contained both a humongous audience and a bonanza of musical culture.After Goodie Mob released Soul Food, Still Standing and World Party, Cee-Lo started out on his own, eventually creating a successful solo career for himself. In 2002 he dropped Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections under the Arista label. Two years later he finished Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine. While rap, soul and R&B music lovers might have been familiar with Cee-Lo, the mainstream was out of reach until Cee-Lo joined up with Danger Mouse to form Gnarls Barkley. The duo's first album, St. Elsewhere, contained the radio-friendly hit "Crazy." Insanely popular with fans from all musical tastes, "Crazy" conquered the UK singles charts before invading the States with similar success.
