(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Cee Lo Green says music helped him accept his wonderfully strange personality.

As a teenager Cee Lo was into hip-hop music, and cites Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and De La Soul as particular sources of inspiration. The star was a huge fan of trio De La Souls music because it was so unlike anything he had ever heard before, and showed him he didnt need to be pigeon-holed into liking just one genre.

I was a hard-edged youth, but De La Souls music gave me an opportunity to embrace my softer side. [Debut album] 3 Feet High And Rising was the first time I ever heard black artists produce something so wonderfully strange, he explained. Im wonderfully strange myself, and it was something I could laugh along with.

Cee Lo also listened to a lot of Beastie Boys records, which gave him a new appreciation for the way music breaks down barriers. The members of Beastie Boys showed a young Cee Lo that skin colour is irrelevant when it comes to great music.

Some of my childhood best friends were white boys, and one thing I learned about white boys is theyre not scared of us, he explained to Q. The Beastie Boys proved it by going back behind enemy lines and making black music white acting like fun-loving white boys. (C) Cover Media