The Voice, The Pens: CeeLo Green & Battle Rap’s Blue Collars

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Grown Man Bars: Remember the Rhyme, Respect the Era

with Chad and Big Absoloot - Gen X Talking Hip Hop

15 episodes

2 days ago

Grown Man Bars is where two Gen X MCs turned opinionated Uncs break down rap culture with no filter. Chad, your resident rap nerd, with Big Absoloot, your OG's OG dive into Golden Era storytelling, lyricism, GOAT debates, classic producers, and the moments that shaped hip hop. From Slick Rick to Scarface, Nas to J. Cole, DJ Premier to RZA. Old rap and new hip hop. If you came up on mixtapes, Tims, and bars that mattered, this is your spot for real hip hop talk. We'll bring you up-to-date on the new hip hop trends, the ones our gen cares about, and hit you with hip hop from the best era ever.

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The Voice, The Pens: CeeLo Green & Battle Rap’s Blue Collars

Grown Man Bars: Remember the Rhyme, Respect the Era

34 minutes 48 seconds

1 week ago

The Voice, The Pens: CeeLo Green & Battle Rap’s Blue Collars

Welcome back to Uncle Willie's Barbershop — where Gen-X hip hop heads still rewind with a pencil and argue like it’s ’96. Today, Chad (resident rap nerd) and Big Absoloot break down CeeLo Green — from Dungeon Family roots to Goodie Mob, solo “Soul Machine” brilliance, and global takeover with Gnarls Barkley. Why did his voice and versatility (yeah, take a shot every time we say it) make him one-of-one?

Then we get into the underrated battle rappers who never needed a record to be dangerous: AV (Shark City haymakers), Chilla Jones (the pen), DNA (longevity & adjustments), and the Bar God Danny Myers (do-it-all chameleon). Chad also nerds out with a Lyrical Lockdown on Tech N9ne’s “Worldwide Choppers” — triple cadence shifts, breath control, internal rhyme stacks — why that verse is controlled chaos done right. BA brings The Absoloot Truth on Queen Latifah: crown, U.N.I.T.Y., and a career that turned royalty into mogul. We close with Book It or Cook It: Neptunes vs Timbaland in the 2000s, Reasonable Doubt vs Ready to Die, producer-led debuts shaping eras, and whether post-2005 rap is “different but not better.”

Tap Follow, Save this episode to your library, and Share with the one friend who swears ’94 washes every year. Who you got?

Chapters
0:00 Welcome + Message to a friend
3:10 CeeLo Green — The Soul Machine (Dungeon Family → Gnarls)
17:45 CeeLo’s voice = a weapon (hooks, sermons, and switches)
28:30 Goodie Mob without CeeLo — why it felt one-note
36:20 Underrated Battle Rappers: AV, Chilla, DNA, Danny Myers
57:10 URL/KOTD eras, punchers, and pen talk
1:07:40 Lyrical Lockdown: Tech N9ne “Worldwide Choppers”
1:18:25 The Absoloot Truth: Queen Latifah’s reign
1:28:10 Book It or Cook It (Neptunes vs Timbaland, RD > RTD?)
1:41:50 Wrap-up + Call to Action

What’s CeeLo’s single most underrated moment — verse, hook, or performance?