Gnarls Barkley‘s “Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)” is about to make you time travel to the soundtrack of a Bboy Battle Beat!
From Cee Lo Green (@ceelogreen) and Danger Mouse’s (@romealbum) 2nd collaborative album, “The Odd Couple”, this is one of the singles that didn’t rise out of the shadow of “Crazy”, the duo’s breakout hit and one of the top tracks of its decade, but it’s a Bboy smash nonetheless.
With a DOPE Battle Beat drum line and a thick organ presence compliments of producer Danger Mouse, Cee Lo simply kills the beat with lyrical excellence, whether singing, rapping, or simply narrating.
For the sake of the Breaks, let’s jam to the instrumental as well:
Another in a long list of excellent videos from Cee Lo Green in general and in his Gnarls Barkley form in particular, the video pays homage to the dance-heavy, energy-driven, positive Hip-Hop scene of the early days.
Straight back to the Old School is the feeling at the start, complete with leather jackets, acid-washed jeans, and Gumby fades on the “City Vibin” dance program with a 1980s Justin Timberlake as host.
As things move along, the time and setting go from the dance-off to a strange universe from the mind of Gnarls Barkley, where nothing is for certain except for the music and the Bboys and Bgirls.
A bit of background on Gnarls Barkley from Wikipedia:
Cee Lo first entered the scene as part of the Atlanta hip hop group Goodie Mob which had a large hand in the Dirty South movement of the 1990s. Cee Lo left the group after their third album in 1999 and started his solo career. That year he sang on “Do You Like the Way” along with Lauryn Hillon Santana‘s multi-platinum Supernatural album. Cee Lo has three solo albums as of November 2010.
Danger Mouse has produced albums for a number of hip hop and rock artists, including Gorillaz‘ Demon Days. He received international attention for his mash-up The Grey Album, which blended the a cappella edition of Jay-Z‘s The Black Album with samples from The Beatles‘ White Album.
The two men first met while Cee Lo was on a tour for which Danger Mouse happened to be the DJ. They became musical partners and worked together on the songs that would become the St. Elsewhere; prior to the release of that album they collaborated on the songs “What You Sittin’ On?” for Lex Records in 2004, and “Benzie Box” from the Danger Doom album The Mouse and the Mask in 2005.
