user: Who needs radio to have a hit? Not Cee Lo
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY

R&B star Cee Lo Green has turned a two-word expletive into one of the summer's most explosive pop hits.

In just a week and a half, the Crazy singer's catchy F-word-titled diatribe about a recently departed gold digger has attracted more than 3.8 million YouTube views with a colorful lyrics-only video.

A formal video for the profanity-laced song was uploaded to ceelogreen.com Aug. 20 and became available at digital retailers Friday. A new video will be out this week. So will Forget You, a cleaned-up radio-friendly version that will also have a video. A CD single will be out Sept. 21.

The cheerfully retro song is from the Gnarls Barkley/Goodie Mob star's upcoming solo album, The Lady Killer, which arrives Dec. 7. While it specifically goes after an ex-lover ("I guess he's an Xbox and I'm more Atari, but the way you play your game ain't fair"), Green says the song works for anyone with something to get off his chest.

"We are all jilted in some form or fashion, and we've all been there a time or two," says Green, who adds that the song is not biographical but the result of studio banter with his producers and co-writers The Smeezingtons, a trio that includes singer Bruno Mars.

"People can take parts of the song and apply it to whatever experience or occasion where you would want to say (it) out loud. We had no idea this song would become this commercially celebrated. We weren't taking ourselves too seriously."

But the attention it got was serious and immediate online. Though the viral hit received no airplay initially, it's been talked about on thousands of blogs worldwide, tweeted by Ashton Kutcher and spawned a 50 Cent remix. Most critics have given it a thumbs-up, citing Green's typically charismatic delivery.

The Motown-influenced song's success is a sign of the times, with the Internet allowing it to bypass traditional radio censors and become a hit, says Ryan Dombal, a writer for music news website Pitchfork.com.

"Everyone who wrote about it said, 'Here's a great song,' " Dombal says. "The explicit nature kind of lends itself to people clicking on it even if they don't know who Cee Lo is. And if you weren't really paying attention, it could almost be a Sesame Street theme because it has this childlike, old-school '60s feel that your mind doesn't associate with cursing."

Green, 36, who in October begins hosting Lay It Down, a new interview and performance show on cable TV's Fuse, is no stranger to phenoms. Crazy, his Grammy-winning 2006 song with Gnarls Barkley, was a huge hit and last year toppedRolling Stone's list of 100 best songs of the decade.

"I don't know who else could have done this song but me," Green says. "I think people have come to expect the unexpected from me. It's always shockingly satisfying."

You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
Please write a summary below.
His explicit song went viral online.
After 9/11, U.S. left Latin America at the altar
The Colombians forgave him; Powell's office had, after all, been partially destroyed by a jetliner. But the Colombians were nervous. We've been waiting for this aid for years, they told me as I wandered the streets after the attacks. What if America sets off to catch the terrorists and forgets about us?

Turns out they were right to worry. As the United States turned its sights on Osama bin Laden and, later, the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Latin America fell low on our list of priorities. The consequences have been negative.

At the time of the attacks, I was based out of Mexico City for National Public Radio. I'd arrived in spring 2000 amidst much hullabaloo about an historic shift in U.S.-Latin American relations, especially with regard to Mexico. I believed it all. Most people did. Things looked so promising.

In July 2000, conservative businessman Vicente Fox Quesada was elected president of Mexico, ending 71 years of single-party rule. As a candidate, he'd already gained a popular following in the U.S., in part because he'd abandoned a longstanding Mexican political tradition: blaming the U.S. for all or most of Mexico's problems.

One of the first people to get on the horn to congratulate Fox was Texas governor and U.S. presidential candidate George W. Bush. Months later, of course, Bush became our president.

With both men in office, the two countries set up a top-shelf bilateral commission to tackle the big, nagging issues: curbing illegal immigration via a guest worker program for Mexicans to work in the U.S. legally, improving trade ties, cooperating more fully in the fight against drug traffickers. Heading the U.S. delegation was none other than National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Across the table, Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge CastaÃ±eda. They met twice, in April and June 2001.
Please write a summary below.


assistant: I was far away from my native New York when the planes struck on September 11,10 years ago. But I had front-row seats to how those attacks derailed relations between the United States and Latin