Good Mob January 14th

T-Mo, Khujo, Dig Gipp, and Cee Lo, the street poets that make up the legendary hip hop group, Goodie Mob, are making their way into H Town to the House of Blues on January 14th together and touring for the first time in 10 years. The Dirty South giants have been exemplifying intelligent progressive Southern Hip hop since the mid 90's. Perfering to stay more in touch with reality than some of their other Southern Rap peers they've touched up on every issue from railing against a system that's bias against blacks to tributing their mamas.Goodie Mob does it all with a certain spirtual flavor uncommon in the Rap music of today giving them unique place in the history of Hip Hop.

I admit, being a southern boy born and raised I've betrayed the hip hop that has originated from where I'm from. I've preferred the more soulful, intellectually stimulating rap from other parts of the country. Generally, Southern Rap has tended to ignore actual social issues in exchange for talking about big titties, candy colored caddies with badass rims, sippin syrup,and being too gangster to be still gripped in reality. Sure, all that can be great sometimes but with monotonous exposure? I don't know about you but my ears bleed. There are certainly some exceptions though. Goodie Mob happens to be one them, they've been exemplifying intelligent progressive Southern Hip hop since the mid 90's. And lucky for us, the Dirty South giants are making their way to the House of Blues on January 14th together and touring for the first time in 10 years.

The Atlanta based group along with OutKast were the first Southern hip hop artists to gain nationwide attention and were even the first to coin the phrase "Dirty South" on their classic debut album, Soul Food. The Mob also introduced the world to the flamboyant, insanely talented Cee Lo whose soulful crooning holds the melodic hook to many of Goodie Mob's best songs and also has the best verse on nearly every song he raps on.

Unfortunately, Goodie Mob didn't last too long and after a few releases over the course of a 5 year span Cee-Lo split with the group seeking a successful solo career which he later found with the international hit single, 'Crazy' from his side project Gnarles Barkley. If you weren't living under a rock during the summer of 06, you've heard it. Goodie Mob on the other hand, floundered at his departure hit a snag commercially and artistically eventually changing their name to the Lumberjacks after another member departed in 2005. Almost a decade after Cee Lo's leave, Goodie Mob have reunited, are in the midst of a nationwide tour and with rumors of a new album in the brew, the Mob are looking better than ever.

Anyone going to the show can expect chill keyboards and fat bass lines to compose the funky grooves with rhyming from some of the Dirty South's finest. Rhymes riddled with gritty street tales stripped of the gansta flavoring and planted firmly in reality. Cee Lo had this to say regarding their tour and reunion:

"The reunion was inevitable. The void in today's music and marketplace ironically has become the very place prepared for us. There's a need and want for what we do and represent as the Mob. Consider the tour a mission....an order if you will. The last of a living breed, the Goodie Mob marches on." The Mob march into Houston's House of Blues on January 14th along with Houston's own Southern Rap legend, Scarface. Tickets are thirty dollars.