"Midway through the '90s, hip-hop's plate consisted mainly of two flavors - East Coast lyrical bravado and West Coast gangsta tales. The South, at the time, was still seen as a condiment - good to add, but not always needed. But every so often, an artist or group from below the Mason-Dixon Line would emerge and whet the people's appetite. Composed of Robert "T-Mo" Barnett, Thomas "Cee-Lo" Callaway, Cameron "Big Gipp" Gipp and Willie "Khujo" Knighton Jr., Goodie Mob blended the alley, the church and the school into one necessary concoction, their 1995 debut, Soul Food. "We said we gonna do great shit on all ends of the spectrum so no one could diss us," says Gipp. "We showed the people who dissed [the South], the ones who said we ain't rapping about nothing, that we are rapping about something. But are you smart enough to listen? Originally an Organized Noize-helmed compilation project, Soul Food was to feature the OutKast production team's new crop of artists: T-Mo and Khujo as a duo and Cee-Lo and Gipp as solo rappers." Click play, cont'd below...
"...But during the recording process, a strong musical chemistry formed, and the four A-Town rappers christened themselves Goodie Mob (Good Die Mostly Over Bullshit). Impressed with the guys' cameo verses... L.A. Reid signed the group to LaFace Records in 1994. They thought we was gonna be more like OutKast. I think that's what initiated the deal," laughs Cee-Lo. "We was nothin' like them, but after we was done with the album, they was kinda stuck with us." What they were stuck with was an organic album that painted the gritty, not-so-playalistic side of Atlanta and literally made the South dirty." The feature below in XXL adds, "With the region they helped build now eating good, the G-Mob shares the ingredients of their classic" discussing "Cell Therapy," "Thought Process," "Dirty South," and "Soul Food" from Goodie Mob's classic, Soul Food." - XXL.
