NEW YORK Cee Los expletive-laden song has been criticized for being in poor taste, but the musician says its actually a work of art.
"What Ive tried to accomplish, like, is making art products ... so I still believe that the song can be classified as art because its an original piece and the edge and alternative is there, and the integrity is intact," he said in an interview last week.
The song, about a gold-digging ex, is titled "Expletive You" and he drops 16 f-bombs in just 3 1/2 minutes over a sweet-sounding, retro groove. The current video is a colorful stream of the songs lyrics and its been viewed more than 3.7 million times in the last 11 days on the singers YouTube page. An official video will be released this week and the song will appear on Cee Los album "The Lady Killer," out on Dec. 7.
Though the jam has gotten rave reviews, its also had its share of criticism. Dan Isett, the director of public policy for the Parents Television Council, said in a statement that the song "is just the latest example of an entertainment industry bent on racing to the bottom of the barrel."
But Cee Lo said he was trying to elevate music with the song, and its something that the music industry does not do enough.
"The system does not, you know, advocate art so to speak, but it does package and promote products and product placement and theres a definitive difference between the two, art and product," he said. "I have yet to sit down and try to write something for the sake of radio. I just never done it, not consciously."
Still, there will be a radio-friendly version of the viral hit: The mildly titled "Forget You" will hit airwaves soon, though Cee Lo says that wasnt the initial plan.
"It wasnt like we were looking for it to be a radio hit of some sort. It was only until a short time after that we considered doing a clean version just in case," he said.
Cee Lo is best-known as one-half of the Grammy-winning duo Gnarls Barkley, who had the instant classic "Crazy." He first appeared on the music scene in 1995 with the Southern hip-hop group Goodie Mob.
Cee Lo calls the success of his latest song "a miracle of some sort." Although he may have lofty views of its artistic merit, hes also aware that its just a dose of naughtiness too.
"I get to be bad a little bit so thats what was fun about it. Its quite a bit of mischief in that song, so we werent taking ourselves too seriously," he said.
In October, Cee Lo will host Fuse TVs "Lay It Down," an interview and performance-based show he calls "more intimate and off the record."
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