Cee-Lo/Goodie Mob

Goodie Mob's debut, Soul Food, is considered a harbinger of the Dirty South sound — for bringing blues, soul, and gospel overtones before funk-driven drums and heady rhymes. The rest of these Basics expand on that groundwork while bringing in like-minded creative chameleons like Common, Lauryn Hill, and OutKast.

Goodie Mob's motley crew plunges tacks all over the musical map. At home in Atlanta, they BBQ Hendrix riffs with OutKast ("Gasoline Dreams") and bring creepiness to crunk alongside Ludacris ("Childz Play"). Elsewhere, Cee-Lo drops hip-hop for trip-hop ("Gone") and Big Gipp takes over NYC with a subway-shaking bass line ("Domestic Violence, Pt. 2").

Did we mention Cee-Lo is crazy…in a good way? Since providing Goodie Mob with a neo-soul backbone for songs like "Sesame Street," he's gone solo and materialized as an eccentric, garish version of Al Green. "One for the Road" freaks it over a piano and shuffled beat, while "Living Again" is lounge-lizard electro.

Outside of Outkast, Goodie Mob and its most outspoken mouthpiece, Cee-Lo, are the defining artists of the Dirty 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 fitting, collaborative singles. They even have a party-rocking record — the bounce-first-and-think-later statement that is World Party.