The Boys are Back in Town: Goodie Mob's Reunion Show

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Photos by Jason Reed

Back before Cee-Lo graced the cover of this very magazine, way before he drove us "Crazy", there was Goodie Mob (the Good Die Mostly Over Bullshit). Cee-Lo, T-Mo, Big Gipp and Khujo, the architects of the Dungeon Family, fused soul and socially-conscious hip-hop in a way that had never been attempted. Their 1995 debut Soul Food put Atlanta (and southern) rap on the map, transforming a marginalized subgenre into a movement with clear direction and purpose. And this past Saturday (Sept. 19), nearly a decade since Cee-Lo split from the group, they assembled at Atlanta's Masquerade Music Park for their hotly-anticipated reunion show.

It was sprinkling at the outdoor venue for most of the night, but the rain did little to dampen the crowd's spirits (or the numerous blunts that generated a rolling cloud of weed smoke about a half-hour after the gates opened.) And when it started to rain harder, a forest of umbrellas sprouted up to bob in time with the crowd's heads and hands.

A few track-acts and DJs kept the crowd occupied until the openers. Atlanta hip-hop luminary Pastor Troy took the stage first, followed by the YoungBloodz, a one-two punch that revved up a crowd that needed very little provocation to party. Troy lit a fire underneath onlookers with old-school southern jams like "We Ain't Playin", and YoungBloodz delivered a finishing blow with "Presidential". This was a show by and for ATLiens, and the crowd mouthed, sung and pantomimed every lyric.

As the sky darkened and the rain picked up, sporadic chants of "good-ie-mob" broke out. And then, floodlights went up and the Goodie Mob entered to the Rocky theme music, clad in their signature red outfits and sparkling like four walking, rapping rubies.

Showmanship was the order of business, and the Mob delivered: "They Don't Dance No Mo," "Soul Food" and "Beautiful Skin" were all performed with infectious exuberance, sounding as good or better than when they dropped years ago. Not a verse was missed or a beat skipped, and Cee-Lo took the spotlight more than a few times for some soulful crooning, and to lead a rousing singalong of "Crazy." The already-packed crowd became super-pressurized when Goodie Mob stopped "Cell Therapy" after a few bars and their Slash-tophat-wearing guitarist added the signature riffs from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" to the mix.

As their set wound down, Big Boi made his much-rumored appearance on "Get Rich to This" to ear-shattering applause and cheers. And he stuck around until the epic outro of "Git Up, Git Out (Get Something)," blowing the proverbial roof off as women screamed, friends high-fived, and grown men embraced in tears.

Southern hip-hop has mostly become associated with snap rap, trap rap, and a host of other unflattering genre pejoratives. But there's a real history to it, and a well-deserved sense of pride too. The Goodie Mob is the embodiment of that pride: a living reminder of when fans realized there was more to rap than East-coast-vs.-West-coast beefs, and the Dirty South took its rightful place in the hip-hop pantheon.

"We've got so much love for this city," Cee-Lo gushed as he left the stage. And we love you right back, sir.