One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

Give Goodie Mob credit for acknowledging the elephant in the room. The title of the Atlanta rappers' fourth album, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, refers to the recent departure of what many saw as the group's most distinctive, creative voice, Cee-Lo. His raspy growl and backwoods preacher aesthetic are certainly missed, but anyone who assumed T-Mo, Big Gipp, and Khujo would be rudderless without him was wrong. Their basic heaven-and-earth dichotomy remains intact: A simple beat clacks behind a churchy organ on the soulful "God I Wanna Live," making clear that Cee-Lo wasn't the only Goodie with the Big Man on the brain. They follow it with "Shawty Wanna Be a Gangsta," a cinematic cautionary tale that struts to a funky guitar line. Quality dips in the middle ("Grindin'" is pretty lame crunk, and the up-with-us cut "We Back" brims with false enthusiasm) before picking back up on Monkey's tail end. But Goodie Mob have always been plagued by inconsistency: One monkey didn't stop this show, but Cee-Lo's exit isn't addition by subtraction, either.