Get To Know: Cee Lo Green's 'Bodies'

A few weeks ago people stopped a little short of calling Cee Lo a coon for his performance at the Grammys. What most people who are not familiar with Cee Lo and the Dungeon Family is that when Cee Lo was with Goodie Mob, he was always a bit eccentric. When he left and launched his solo career even his bandmates hit him with "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" an inside diss on him wanting to do something different. OutKast's Andre 3000 hit the same wall when he began wearing turbans on ATLiens. What no one was paying attention to was the maturation process of the emcee and the fact that Dungeon Family is one of the most musically diverse crews in the history of Hip-Hop. Cee Lo is one of the greatest emcees ever. If you want to try him, listen to Big Ole Words. This Get To Know though is about his new video and how the connection to his greatest song Gettin Grown show the growth and talent of the artist. In Gettin Grown Cee Lo uses the backdrop of a children's story/theme. The video is quirky and actually hinders the song, and makes the song great. A contradiction, yes, but it's the truth. Cee Lo Green may be the Marvin Gaye of our time. He creates concepts and performs with a passion that hasn't been seen in music for a long time. His songs go completely against the grain and rarely get airplay on traditional Black radio outlets. Cee Lo has expanded his audience in a time that is divisive and complicated. This new video, holds allusions to Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone" in the way it is created in 2D. Actually the whole video is a great marketing plan for the launch of a second video, new artists and is creative in its goal of showing you artists that matter. Common appears in the Shade Killer's (Janelle Monae) monuments as well as Bilal and Raphael Saadiq. Mikael Columbo has created a work of commercial art and in this case it's not an oxymoron. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Oh and Kerry Washington is in it, nuff said.

Get To Know: We Are MLS

If Janelle Monae decided to record a Hip-Hop cd and joined forces with Art-Official era De La Soul and added in a sprinkle of MF Doom, the outcome would be MLS (Major League Spittaz) and the album The Legendary Sharpshootaz. The group originally seemed to be following in the footsteps of Wu-Tang with it's multi-voiced trio utilizing snippets of film and samples that create an eerie backdrop behind Rza inspired production, it seemed natural to draw comparisons to an east coast group, but after listening there is flavor in their use of extensive hooks which have a musicality that only California natives are capable of producing. In short, while the pictures show a grimey edge with battle ready fatigues and artillery, the group is distinctly Cali, northern Cali, Sacramento. Which makes the group more interesting when you consider that Sacto is not considered as a frontrunner in the Bay Area. The Bay Area is personified by Thizz, Hyphy, E-40 and Keek da Sneak, sounds full of drugs, bravado and unique lingo. MLS however has approached a status that I consider closer to what Fashawn, out of Central Cali-Fresno, has captured. MLS at the core are a group of lyricists. Which brings me back to the Janelle Monae meets De La reference.