American soul duo consisting of producer Danger Mouse and soul singer Cee Lo Green are the two ingredients of alternative hip-hop group Gnarls Barkley. What does Gnarls Barkley even mean? Or who is Gnarls Barkley? Well the couple have been quite vague as to who or what Gnarls Barkley is. Originating from fictional celebrities (whom their friends made up) and basketball star Charles Barkley, the pair settled on Gnarls Barkley. Vocalist Cee Lo Green describes it as “shapeless and formless” and “subject to interpretation” so really Gnarls Barkley can be anything you want it to be!

Although the pair can be described as a soul duo or an alternative hip-hop duo, I think they are quite hard to define. With elements of hip-hop, R&B, soul and rock, Gnarls Barkley are definitely a strange yet interesting pair. As well as elements from a wide range of genres, the duo use samples from various composers from the US, Italy and the UK. Reaching so many different genres makes Gnarls Barkley’s music very diverse yet always interesting.

The duo have so far released two studio albums entitled ‘The Odd Couple’ & ‘St. Elsewhere’ (the latter being the favourite). Along with their studio albums the “odd couple” have also released six singles including their biggest track to date, ‘Crazy’ which Rolling Stones claims to be the best song of the last decade beating Jay-Z and Beyonce for the top spot. Their biggest album ‘St. Elsewhere’ was originally meant to be called ‘Who Cares?’ because of the low sales they thought they would have. Ironically the album went gold in Germany and platinum in the UK, the US and Canada.

For a while now Gnarls Barkley seem to have gone their own way but what have they been up to in the meantime?

Cee Lo Green:

Actual name Thomas DeCarlo Callaway has now gone down the soul route having released a solo album entitled ‘The Lady Killer’ which has received major success reaching number 2 on the Billboard charts with number 1 single ‘Forget You’. As well as a number 1 single and number 2 album under his belt, Cee Lo Green has received a Brit Award for Best Male and a Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for ‘Forget You’.

Danger Mouse:

Over the years Danger Mouse has worked with several notable artists such as Paul Simonon, Jack White, Norah Jones and many more. As well as producing for many artists such as Joker’s Daughter, The Black Keys and Broken Bells, Danger Mouse has been working hard with U2 on their latest album. Since 2005 Danger Mouse has been nominated for a massive 11 Grammy awards and won a Grammy for Best Producer in 2011.

Although both Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green have been working seprately, Gnarls Barkley have not disbanded and are set to make a new album to be released in 2012.