Music

Watch Goodie Mob perform reunion single, "Fight to Win"

by Tyler Munro

Before their slow demise and eventual break-up, Goodie Mob were kings of hip-hop’s soulful, southern sound. Last night they debuted their first new song since reuniting on The Voice while wearing robot suits and glow-in-the-dark mouthpieces. So I guess you could say “Fight to Win” isn’t exactly what fans were expecting, even if it could be seen as an extension of the group’s later-era experiments.

The first single off the group’s long-awaited Age Against The Machine, “Fight to Win” doesn’t come off as being by a group reunited, but instead as another of Cee-lo Green’s wild experiments which just happens to have usurped the name of one of his best projects. It’s impossible to be sure how reflective the single is of the upcoming album, but at this point it’s all there is. And, on its own merit, the track can be reduced to a reflection of an absolute change in direction from Goodie Mob’s traditional sound. With its maddening tempo, glossy, over-done production and lack of actual rapping, “Fight to Win” erases Goodie Mob’s old division of wealth and puts its most famous member front and centre, reducing the rest of its members to glorified hype men.

I’ll hold off full judgement of the reunion until the album actually drops, but for now it’s looking more and more likely that I’ll cling tighter than ever to my copies of Soul Food and Still Standing. But hey, at least Adam Levine seemed to be enjoying it.

Age Against The Machine has no release date yet, but you can watch Big Gipp, Khujo, T-Mo and, yes, the Voice‘s Cee-lo, performing the track up above.