Goodie Mob Research Paper

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Goodie Mob, a backronym that stands for the Good Die Mostly over Bullish*t, is a southern hip-hop group that consists of four members– each from Southwest Atlanta. The members that are in Goodie Mob include Thomas Callaway A.K.A “CeeLo Green” (The leader), Cameron Gipp A.K.A “Big Gipp”, Robert Barnett A.K.A “T-Mo”, and Willie Knighton A.K.A “Khujo”. Even though the members of Goodie Mob attended the same high school, CeeLo only attending the same high school as them for the ninth grade, they did not form until André Benjamin introduced CeeLo Green to the other three members of the group. Goodie Mob is associated with the Dungeon Family, a music collective that includes artist/groups such as OutKast, Janelle Monáe, and Parental Advisory.…show more content…
CeeLo Green was born in 1974 to two ordained Baptist ministers in Atlanta, Georgia. His father died when he was two years old, which left him in the care of his mother. In his adolescence he became a part of the street culture in Atlanta– street culture in Atlanta included theft and violent gang activity. During this period he was involved in church where he sang and played piano. After he dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, his mother registered him in a military school called Riverside Military Academy where he obtained a GED. After obtaining his diploma, he began his musical career by joining the Dungeon Family allowing him a feature on OutKast’s album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik exposing him to hip-hop before his debut with Goodie Mob in 1995. T-Mo lived not to far from where CeeLo Green lived, and also attended the same day care as CeeLo, because of this T-MO and CeeLo considered each other brothers. In an interview with Prince Dajour T-MO states “He would interact with interracial (many different types of children) kids… and was exposed to a lot of stuff.” Khujo was raised in a single parent household along with his brother. In high school Khujo formed a rap group called “Six Sense” which is how he met Big Gipp. After high school Khujo formed a duo group with Big Gipp before joining Goodie…show more content…
This form of discrimination was predominant where ever hip-hop moved after it’s birth in the South Bronx. T-Mo recognized this trend of labeling southern hip-hop as inferrior and states in an interview with Randy Reiss, a writer for MTV news, “I just feel like when I go past the Mason-Dixon [Line] we don’t get a lot of radio airplay.” Goodie Mob’s success with Soul Food provided the hip-hop community with another voice that was contrary to what other regions in hip-hop believed southern rap to be. This new form of rap talks about both the troubles of being poor and the lingering of white supremacy in the south post slavery, specifically Atlanta. “Free” the first song on the album is reminiscent of a negro spiritual. In an interview with Prince Dajour CeeLo recalls an interaction he had in a convenience store “It was a little hat… with a confederate flag that said y’all got y’all X and we got ours.” Though racism does exist in other regions of hip-hop, Goodie Mob raps about racism in a way that is meant to uplift the black community in the south. A skit in the album titled “CeeLo” CeeLo states “He (G-d) working through them crackers to save us… Is it bad that they are the way they are?” Goodie Mob displayed a Christian based form of “conscious” hip-hop that was contrary to what conscious rap in other hip-hop regions–

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