Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXXII--Cee Lo Green: Fuck You

For the life of me, I cannot remember my introduction to this week's tune, though I do remember it was one of those songs that I heard once and immediately had to hear again...and again, and again, and again....

Cee Lo Green was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and did not have the easiest of childhoods--his father died when he was two, and his mother was a firefighter who was paralyzed in a car crash and died two years later when Green was just eighteen.  By that time, though, his career had started with the hip hop group Goodie Mob with whom he released three albums.  He then began his solo career, releasing two albums before joining up with DJ Danger Mouse to form Gnarls Barkley and release the killer song, "Crazy."  Shortly thereafter Green returned to his solo career which has been his focus since, and has resulted in much commercial and critical success.  Over the course of the last twenty-six years, he has released four albums with the Goodie Mob, two with Gnarls Barkley, and five solo albums (with a sixth to be released next month), and has seen three of those records hit the top ten.  He has twice had singles hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.  He has won five Grammy Awards and one Brit Award, and spent three seasons as a coach on one of the worse shows on television, The Voice.  Green has also had some controversy in the past few years and was investigated for sexual battery (he pleaded to a lesser charge), and also made some severely misguided tweets concerning rape which seem to have stalled his career a bit (his last album was the only one of his career that failed to chart). 

"Fuck You" was released in 2010 on the album The Lady Killer.  It would eventually reach #2 (with a bullet!) here in the United States, and hit number one in the United Kingdom.  It was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and would win a Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. 

Imagine if you will, a song that has the pop sensibilities of classic Motown and makes use of one of my favorite words in the English language, and you would have one hell of a single.  Green has written a ditty which is ostensibly about telling a former flame who has left him for greener pastures (cash money) and her new boyfriend to blow it out their ass.  "Fuck You" (you can't believe how odd it is to type those words in reference to a song) also contains one of my all-time favorite moments in a song, when Green sings, "Ain't that some shit" and the backing vocalists follow right up with an "Ain't that some shit" of their own.  Green makes some great pop culture references, has a voice to die for, and manages to turn a song that could have sounded bitter into a joyful rebuke to a lost love.  It's also one of the few times you can say fuck you at the top of your lungs and not have to feel guilty about it later....

Rap Sheet:  "I see you driving 'round town with the girl I love/And I'm like 'fuck you'/I guess the change in my pocket wasn't enough/I'm like 'fuck her and fuck you too'..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee