Cee-Lo has had a remarkable career thus far. From his start as the backbone of Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob to his criminally slept on solo albums to his surprise international smash “Crazy” as a member of Gnarls Barkley, his diversity as an artist has always been more than impressive. Effortlessly switching between singing and rapping, both at the top of his class, he brings an unforgettable touch to any track he appears on. He’s quite simply a natural.
This summer is shaping up to be a good one for Mr. Thomas Calloway. A month ago, seemingly out of nowhere, Gilles Peterson debuted a song of his titled “I Want You” on his BBC radio program. Officially not released yet, the static-laden radio rip spread wide across the internet the next day with rave reviews. Word is that we will have a third solo album out soon, tentatively titled “Lady Killer”, and with that single in the cards I’m expecting big things. Recently, the first official single “Georgia” was released, a gospel flavored homage to his home state. It’s great as well, and should hold me over until I can get a higher quality copy of my summer-jam-to-be.
Then yesterday, again out of nowhere, an entire mixtape of his new music shows up on the internet. “Stray Bullets” is an eclectic mix of Cee-Lo recordings, credited to a few producers I don’t know much about, continuing in the vein of Cee-Lo’s genre defying sound. If this is what he’s got laying around as ‘stray’ tracks, we’ve got some amazing music ahead of us. One of my favorite cuts on here features him rapping and singing over “I Like It”, an early hip-hop vocoder song by The Extra T’s that was later sampled by Prince Paul for De La Soul’s contribution to A Prince Among Thieves, “More Than U Know”.
Featured below is just one of many great songs on this mix. Click on the ‘eject’ button to download it, but make sure you check out the whole thing! Really good stuff. As a bonus, I’ve thrown in the original tune (a digital copy I grabbed from friend & great producer/DJ U-Tern) & the De La Soul track. Hopefully that’s not an overload. Too much of a good thing?
Enjoy!
The Extra T's - I Like It
De La Soul - More Than You Know
