Longtime fans of legendary hip-hop act Goodie Mob already have a release date for the four-man group’s reunion album Age Against The Machine (Aug. 27). Indeed, with their Janelle Monaé-assisted single “Special Education” already making noise, the respected Atlanta representatives—Cee-Lo Green, Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp—are plotting a return-to-form.
“We are very proud of this project,” says Cee-Lo, who is being credited with spearheading the group’s charge back onto the rap landscape following a well-received stint as a judge on NBC’s vocal talent show The Voice, as well as his Grammy-winning success as a songwriter and member of the alternative duo Gnarls Barkley. But the flamboyant music visionary made it known that the first release from the full-lineup of the Dirty South icons since 1999’s World Party is more than just making an entertaining record. He says Goodie Mob wants to inject a more worldly point of view into today’s club-or-bust hip-hop scene.
“I want to elaborate a little more on the [album title],” he says. “It’s experience against the machine. It’s imperative and it’s urgent that we bring about a balance. I believe that we have been activists fighting for the civil rights of hip-hop where we were once not respected as an authentic artform. I think that we proved ourselves worthy. But the spoils of the inheritance have allowed the children to run amok, if you will. It’s like Lord of the Flies out there [laughs]. So therefore, as elder statesmen it’s very important that we just bring a lot of knowledge. This is not to undermine; this is to be an alternative, another option.”
T-Mo echoes Cee-Lo’s view on the importance of a Goodie Mob reunion in 2013. “It was totally God that brought us back and humbled us to be able to grow again as a unit and to do something that hasn’t been done,” he says. “Because there’s not any [hip-hop] groups anymore in the industry. We are the only four-man group in the industry right now…we are an alternative in music right now. We just want y’all to understand that we are trying to make a difference in our music by saying something.”
Goodie Mob is set to hit the road this summer, starting with Washington, D.C. on August 24. —Keith Murphy (@murphdogg29)