Gnarls Barkley Biography

Gnarls Barkley is the two-person band responsible for the hit single “Crazy,” a thumping, swooning song that proved a single could owe much of it’s popularity to widespread downloading while still being a commercial success. After releasing their debut album St. Elsewhere and follow-up The Odd Couple, Gnarls Barkley has gained legions of fans who, whether they first heard them on the radio or a bootlegged version of a song on the internet, desperately await whatever this duo comes up with next. Gnarls Barkley consists of Danger Mouse, the mix master/instrumentalist, and Cee-Lo, a vocalist with a wide range of talents behind the mic. Brian Burton is Danger Mouse, an artist who was popular in the early 2000s, largely within the underground scene, due to the controversial release of a mash-up called Grey Album. Danger Mouse attempted to mix together Jay-Z’s Black Album with The Beatles’ White Album, and the result was both a hit in internet circles that downloaded the bootleg, and a pain in the neck for record labels trying to keep the copyrighted music from being tampered with and profited from. The virtual band Gorillaz noticed Danger Mouse’s talent and had him lay down beats for their Demon Days album, released in 2005. Cee-Lo, born as Thomas Callaway, met Danger Mouse when the two were working on the same tour in 2003. Before forming Gnarls Barkley with Danger Mouse, Cee-Lo was part of another successful team, Goodie Mob, pioneers in the Dirty South style of hip-hop during the 1990s. Goodie Mob would go on to make a couple of successful albums, and after Cee-lo left the group he made two on his own (Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections and Cee-Lo Green... is the Soul Machine) which were both popular and profitable. Cee-Lo also worked with many other artists in the genre, such as Outkast and Timbaland, before going into business with Danger as half of Gnarls Barkley. In 2006 Gnarls Barkley released “Crazy,” which was an instant hit in both the U.K. and the U.S. Based on the acclaim and radio play “Crazy” received, the album that followed, St. Elsewhere, soared on the charts as well, eventually reaching number one in the U.K. The Odd Couple followed in 2008, with the most popular tracks being ‘Run (I’m A Natural Disaster), “Going On” and “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul.” Certainly anxious for their next album to drop, Gnarls Barkley fans can rest assured that whatever comes next will be just as musically diverse and catchy as their past work.