On Tuesday, Goodie Mob will release Age Against The Machine, their first record with each member since 1999's divisive World Party. Despite the runaway success and mainstream exposure of the group's most famous member, Cee Lo Green, the idea of a Goodie Mob album existing in 2013 is a little perplexing. What does a Goodie Mob record sound like in 2013? How will it fit in with modern hip-hop? Is there a place for them?

Luckily, Goodie Mob has made a career out of confounding expectations and side-stepping trends. The group—Cee Lo Green, Khujo, T-Mo, and Big Gipp—formed in 1991 in Atlanta, GA, soon becoming an essential part of the city's musical identity as part of the emerging Dungeon Family collective. On their first two records, Soul Food and Still Standing, they established a rhythmically daring and socially conscious style, combining aggressive political lyrics with adventurous production choices.

With the new album's release date fast approaching—and the record already streaming—we thought this would be the perfect time to take a look at the group's back catalog and explore some of their most iconic and essential songs, along with some rarities (and a new track!) that help give you a full portrait of the group's identity. You can quibble over our selection below, but remember, as Goodie Mob explained on their first album, the good die mostly over bullshit. So don't get too worked up.


"Call Of Da Wild" OutKast Featuring Goodie Mob
Album: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994)

This was Goodie Mob's first introduction to the public and they couldn't have asked for better ambassadors for their sound than Andre 3000 and Big Boi of OutKast. As members of the Dungeon Family music collective, the two groups would push each other over the years, collaborating with each other on various projects and feeding off each other's creative energies. As great as it is, "Call Of Da Wild" was just a hint of what was to come.


"Git Up, Git Out" OutKast Featuring Goodie Mob
Album: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994)

Even on their first album, OutKast were already masters of creating epic songs that smuggled ambitious ideas and themes into completely charming and easy-going packages. This seven minute track features four expert verses, each one equally intricate and impressive as the last, but it's Cee Lo who establishes the song's casual, self-deprecating tone early on when he raps ,"I admit/I've done some dumb shit/And I'm probably gon do some mo'/You shouldn't hold that against me though." That ability to call attention to one's own flaws while offering solutions to larger social problems would go on to define the group in the coming years.


"Thought Process" Featuring Andre 3000
Album: Soul Food (1995)

Let's get this out of the way: Soul Food is a classic. It's one of hip-hop's most assured and singular debut records; so choosing the "best" or "most essential" tracks off of it is a bit of a fool's game because the whole thing is great and if you haven't heard it you should go run to your local iTunes and purchase it immiedietly. That being said, "Thought Process" is a particularly brilliant and low-key introduction to the group's aesthetic and worldview. "Each and every day as I comb my city streets," raps T-Mo. "Sometimes I wish I never had been a part of this mess/Cause the system got us fucked up." That urge to attack systems, not individuals, is what makes Goodie Mob's political rhetoric as poignant as it is radical.


"Dirty South" Featuring Big Boi And Cool Breeze
Album: Soul Food (1995)

Sure, Goodie Mob had complicated and compelling political ambitions early on, but what made those politics go down easy? The beats. "Dirty South" is one of the group's most iconic and just plain fun tracks, featuring bumping production work from Organized Noize, the kings of '90s Atlanta rap. It's a seemingly simple beat that contains enough little flourishes—guitar clinks, murmuring bass, quiet keys—to make repeat listens not just rewarding but required.


"Cell Therapy"
Album: Soul Food (1995)

"Cell Therapy" was the single from Soul Food, and though its black helicopter filled lyrics and general sense of unease might it seem like an unlikely choice, once the sing-song-ey chorus kicks in you'll get why the song went on to be such a hit. Despite Cee Lo's later chart success as a solo artist, this is the only Goodie Mob track that cracked the Billboard Top 40, peaking at 39 on the Billboard Hot 100.


"Sesame Street"
Album: Soul Food (1995)

Though Cee Lo would eventually actually spend some time imitating a member of the Sesame Street cast, this twinkling, bass-filled song describes a more violent version of street life.


"Guess Who"
Album: Soul Food (1995)

As dark and melancholy as Goodie Mob gets on Soul Food, it's never a hopeless album. "Guess Who," a somber album cut, is the perfect example of that. Cee Lo's verse in particular is moving and honest as he crafts a chilling but inspiring narrative about his mother. "But what a surprise a car wreck left you paralyzed," he raps. "The sheet was pulled over yo' eyes when the doctor advised/The family that you might not ever talk again/But you talkin' so I know that you gon' walk again."


"Soul Food"
Album: Soul Food (1995)

The connection between food and community is made explicit on Soul Food's groove-based title track. But even at their most playful, the group still knows how to make a point, like when Cee Lo raps, "Fast food got me feeling sick/Them crackers think they slick/By trying to make this bullshit affordable/I thank the Lord that my voice was recordable."


"The Coming" Featuring Witchdoctor
Album: Soul Food (1995)

Here again, Goodie Mob delivers hard, ferocious rhymes over an Organized Noize beat that rumbles and glides at the same time, like an old car that can still make its way down the street when it needs to. This one will get you moving.


"Angelic Wars"
Album: Set It Off Soundtrack (1996)

Organized Noize contributed production work to the soundtrack to Set It Off, Queen Latifah's heist film, and it's a killer collection of mid '90s hip-hop and R&B luminaries. Busta Rhymes, Bone Thugs, Brandy and Seal all contribute tracks, but Goodie Mob's "Angelic Wars" is the real gem here.


"Blood" Featuring Big Rube
Album: America Is Dying Slowly Compilation (1996)

This track off America Is Dying Slowly, a compilation recorded by the Red Hot Organization to raise AIDS awareness, builds on "Blood," a mid-album interlude from Soul Food. Over six minutes the group delivers compassionate and reflective rhymes over a creaking beat.


"Decisions, Decisions" DJ Muggs Featuring Goodie Mob
Album: Soul Assassins: Chapter 1 (1997)

Goodie Mob's genius wasn't just limited to their albums. "Decisions Decisions" comes from Soul Assassins: Chapter 1, a fierce, almost Wu-Tang like track that's equal parts terror and menace. The song's horror movie beat is a perfect fit for the song's narratives of people being systematically oppressed, swindled and abandoned by the government.


"Black Ice (Sky High)" Featuring OutKast
Album: Still Standing (1998)

On Still Standing, Goodie Mob was determined to expand their sonic palette and introduce new sounds to their clearly defined style. Like OutKast's ATLiens, this is the sound of a group determined to not be boxed in or restricted. "Black Ice (Sky High)" is one of the album's simpler tracks, brining OutKast back into the midst over a shuffling beat.


"They Don't Dance No Mo"
Album: Still Standing (1998)

It's difficult to make a danceable song about how nobody dances any more, but somehow Goodie Mob pulls it off here. The group delivers their typically stark lyrics, like Khujo saying, "They get off on holdin folks hostage," but it's the song's oddly sinister mood that makes it work. Plus, it has a crazy video with laser eyes and tanks.


"Beautiful Skin"
Album: Still Standing (1998)

Goodie Mob had songs for the ladies too. "Beautiful Skin" finds the group providing some sweet talk but its cut with the harsh realism that the group injected into everything they touched. Big Gipp offers the most poignant verse here, talking about the real work that goes into any successful relationship. "Looked me in my eye, I listened," he raps. "Sucked it up, pushed on, we made amends/both sides clicked, true friends/Since then, years done gone by/Brought a baby girl into this world, made our parents grandfolks."


"Ghetto-Ology"
Album: Still Standing (1998)

When Cee Lo raps he has this ability to sound like he's talking through his teeth or like his mouth is getting smaller as he tries to deliver each line. His flow is elastic, but not in a showy way—he uses it to inject bits of rhythm and melody into whatever he's saying, heightening the urgency of the song. "Ghetto-Ology" is one of his most inspired vocal performances, perhaps most so in the furious chorus.


"I Refuse Limitation" Featuring Backbone
Album: Still Standing (1998)

"I Refuse Limitation" is one of two songs on Still Standing that crosses the six minute mark, but, like OutKast, when Goodie Mob goes long it's always warranted. The song's patient shuffle gives the group ample room to deliver their finely observed verses.


"Just About Over"
Album: Still Standing (1998)

It can be a dangerous sign when hip-hop groups trade in their turntables for guitars, but Goodie Mob's "Just About Over" is a worthy experiment in swirling funk-rock. Cee Lo shows off his pipes here as the guitars cling out with an almost metal-like stomp. It has a weight to it. It sounds large and aching, like the swelling heart of a giant.


"What It Ain't" Featuring TLC
Album: World Party (1999)
In a Goodie Mob profile from the February 2000 of XXL, the group was already on the defensive about the newer, more mainstream sound displayed on World Party. There's no denying that 1999's World Party represents a shift for the group, finding them more concerned with starting a George Clinton style celebration than a revolution, and after it's creation Cee Lo would leave to pursue a solo career and the group would never really return to its previous heights. But there are still some great songs on here, like this cut featuring TLC.


"Rebuilding"
Album: World Party (1999)

One of the bright spots of World Party is this ruminative track produced by a young, emerging producer from Chicago: Kanye West. This was one of Kanye's first placements on a major label album and it shows his sound already emerging in a slightly primitive, early form.

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"Pinstripes" Feat. T.I.
Album: Age Against The Machine (2013)

The first song we heard from the reunited Goodie Mob was "Fight To Win," a garish and disappointing song that the group premiered on The Voice. It's hard to know exactly what to expect from Age Against The Machine but this song featuring a game T.I. suggests that the group might still have some of that old spark.

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