Goodie Mob
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Goodie Mob is one of the premiere hip hop acts to come out of the Dirty South. Based out of Atlanta, Goodie Mob's debut, Soul Food (1995) was critically acclaimed. Along with OutKast's Southernplayalisticadillacmuzak, it put Atlanta on the hip-hop map.
The album's follow-up was Still Standing, which expanded Goodie Mob's considerable fanbase just as the Dirty South broke into the mainstream with OutKast's Stankonia. In1999, the group released World Party, their third release.
Group member Cee-Lo has since embarked on a solo career, releasing the critically acclaimed album Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections in 2002, to limited commercial success. The album explored many new frontiers for hip hop, with elements of soul, jazz and pop combined with Cee-Lo's signature vocal style, positive messages and constantly changing delivery. His 2003 single "I'll Be Around" (featuring megastar producer and fellow southerner Timbaland) was a much more commercially successful song, but still maintained his idiosyncratic style.
Cee-Lo was not the first and definitely not the last member of the group to try his hand at a solo career. T-Mo started the trend with his 2000 album, T-Mo 2 The Fullest; this was followed by Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections. Next, Khujo Goodie, despite a near fatal car crash that cost him a leg, released Man Not The Dog. The solo array was rounded out by the vet, Big Gipp's 2003 Mutant Mind Frame.
Other than Cee-Lo's commercial achievements, Big Gipp is the only Goodie Mobb member who achieved some notoriety as a soloist. His debut single, "Steppin' Out" featured southern R&B newcomer, Sleepy Brown, on the chorus and received some radio and video airplay.
Despite the group's woes as performers and as people, their new album One Monkey Don't Stop No Show was released in June, without Cee-Lo. To prevent people from assuming that the "monkey" mentioned in the album's title might be a reference to former member Cee-Lo, the current members have stated that it is actually more or less a reference to the industry (Goodie Mob was dropped from Arista after lackluster sales of their commercial effort World Party) and truly believe that this album will pick up where Still Standing left off.