Miller Genuine Draft, Cee-Lo and The Roots Rock Chicago
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Chicago – During the sound check for MGD Genuine Flow Concert at The Vic, Atlanta MC/crooner/hip-hop pioneer Cee-Lo had plenty of jokes. “I need a robe for a tonight,” he said, laughing with The Roots drummer and fellow music genius Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson. Backstage before the show, Lo was giddy when asked about his big show with the Legendary Roots Crew. In fact, he scoffed at the idea of the Midwestern audience not being familiar with him pre-Gnarls Barkley.
“Who doesn’t know about Cee-Lo, huh,” he asked, before explaining what was in store for the night. “We’re going to do something old, something new, something purple, something red, can you dig it? We’re going to take ‘em back down memory lane and then give them some of the new current stuff. I think a lot of people coming out know that I’m here, so I’ll probably bump into of old friends who are familiar with what I do or what I have been doing for the last 15 years, so I don’t know if I’ll surprise anyone completely.”
In front of a capacity crowd, The Roots and Cee-Lo gave their audience a rare delight. Thanks to MGD’s Genuine Flow Concert series in the Windy City, the crowd was treated to individual performances by both genre-bending artists before the two joined forces for an unforgettable set.
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With The Roots band playing as his own, Cee-Lo – who ditched his robe idea in place of a black t-shirt, black cargo pants and all-black Air Force One’s – traveled back to his Goodie Mob days ripping through classics like “Cell Therapy,” before jumping into his Gnarls Barkley favorites like “Crazy” and “The Last Time.”
After the joint performance, The Root’s Black Thought returned to the stage but, made his case for a Cee-Lo encore. “There are very few artists in hip-hop that I like and this is one of them,” he said. As Cee-Lo approached the stage, he ripped into “Git Up, Git Out” with the crowd rapping every single word with him along the way. Instead of playing in front of strangers it was just like ‘Lo said it would be – a way to musically catch up with old friends.
—gavin philip godfrey
