Cee Lo

Goodie Mob's debut, Soul Food, is considered a harbinger of the Drirty South sound — for bringing blues, soul, and gospel overtones before funk-driven drums and heady rhymes. Together with solo cuts from the outfit's chief crooner, Cee-Lo, these tracks expand on that groundwork while roping in likeminded creative chameleons.

Goodie Mob's motley crew plunges tacks all over the musical and lyrical map. On "The Experience" the word nigga is intelligently dissected over a warp-speed rap. And did we mention Cee-Lo is crazy . . . in a good way? Since providing Goodie Mob with a neo-soul backbone, he's gone solo and materialized as an eccentric version of Al Green.

Cee-Lo grew up admiring new wave and heavy metal, which explains why he freely experiments with music today. Given the choice to play guitar like Jimi, freestyle like KRS-One, or sing like Luther Vandross — Cee-Lo immediately chose the latter. Much better to express himself, he said.

Outside of Outkast, Goodie Mob and its most outspoken mouthpiece, Cee-Lo, are the defining artists of the Dirrty South's wonderfully weird side. Which means a playlist of songs that couldn't be more different from track to track. Ah, but they're wildly accessible as well, stamping the mainstream with the brilliant, bumping productions of Organized Noize and a daunting stack of collaborative singles. They even have a party-rocking record — the bounce-first-and-think-later statement that is World Party.