Cee-Lo Green wasn’t exactly looking to become a television star -- until the opportunity was handed to him.

When the cable network Fuse went to the Gnarls Barkley rapper-singer with the idea for a new music show, “Lay It Down,” he couldn’t turn away.

“It’s more than me wanting to do this, it’s someone wanted me to do it, which was very flattering and a compliment in the fact that I was asked to be a part of it,” Green said. “That was gratifying for me.”

In the interview- and performance-based show, set to premiere in October, Green will act as host -- and sometimes collaborator -- as he puts artists such as Lil Jon, Ludacris, T-Pain, N.E.R.D., Janelle Monáe and Public Enemy in the hot seat to break down their biggest hits and discuss the inspiration behind specific verses and beats. It's a setting reminiscent, says Green, of a "modernized midnight television special."

He said he hopes the show will provide fans an inside look at and artist's creative process and offer little-known details behind some of the hits. For instance, Public Enemy’s “Yo! Bum Rush the Show” was written in the back of a U-Haul truck by Flavor Flav.

“I think this was an opportunity for everyone to be intimate about their own process, approach or formula, but true art isn't exposed in its entirety. I believe it's an opportunity to express a bit and reveal a bit but still maintain some mystique,” Green said.

Sal LoCurto, senior vice president of programming at Fuse, said adding shows such as Green's to the network's programming block only further sets it apart from other music networks such as BET, VH1 and MTV --  all of which have turned their attention to reality television.

“We are the only music channel. [BET, VH1 and MTV are] past tense.  They’re not really music channels,” LoCurto said. “I always say it’s kinda like rooting for the Dodgers and expecting to see Sandy Koufax pitch. It’s a bygone era.”

Jason Hervey, executive producer of the show, said Green was targeted because of his vast career, be it from his days as a member of Goodie Mob to his solo career to being one half of Gnarls Barkley.

“He can connect to the artist and the subject really on any level, and there is such a knowledge and a passion for music and his fellow performer,” Harvey said. “I think there's an admiration, you know, and there's a point of view that really is unrivaled unless you've walked in the many different shoes within the musical career that he has."

With production on the first season of the show wrapped, Green is back to focusing on his upcoming solo album, “Lady Killer,” as well as a new Goodie Mob album -- his first with the group since 1999’s “World Party.”

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/GerrickKennedy

Photo credit: Arista Records

Headlining the Hollywood Bowl in July, Cee-Lo Green announced that he and Danger Mouse, his partner in the future-soul duo Gnarls Barkley, were "contractually obligated" to perform "Crazy," the worldwide smash from Gnarls' 2006 debut, "St. Elsewhere."

Green was presumably joking -- "Crazy" is such a powerful invention that it's hard to imagine that even its creators are tired of playing it.

There is, however, something slightly obligatory about the outfit's new six-track "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" EP, which features no fewer than four versions of the title cut.

The original, from this year's "The Odd Couple" album, is well worth hearing again: A post-Portishead space-blues jam, the song contains some of the frontman's finest, most deeply felt singing.

And hearing "Soul's" demo version (one of the EP's three alternate renditions) demonstrates how complete a vision Danger Mouse had for the song from the beginning; for a studio magician whose music embraces the unexpected, he evidently leaves little to chance.

Yet nothing much is revealed by an instrumental mix or by a live take taped for MTV, nor does a live version of "Neighbors," also from "Odd Couple," tell you anything you didn't already know about Gnarls Barkley.

The set's sole new track, "Mystery Man," flatters Danger Mouse's collection of vintage keyboards but not much else.

Hey, even geniuses phone it in once in a while.

-- Mikael Wood

Gnarls Barkley
"Who's Gonna Save My Soul"
Downtown/Atlantic
One and a half stars