Robert "Bigg Robb" Smith began his journey in the music industry as a teenage disc jockey at a small radio station in
Cincinnati, Ohio, in the late '70s.
Bigg Robb is a high-spirited, self-sustaining artist who embraces Midwest funk, modern blues, contemporary gospel, and especially Southern soul. Having started as a young radio DJ and an associate of Zapp -- whose Roger Troutman provided crucial early support -- Bigg Robb drew from years of experience in the music industry to launch a solo career at the dawn of the 2000s. Dating back to Cheddar Cheddar (2000), Robb has released albums and has overseen collaborative compilations at a rate of roughly one each year. He closed out his second full decade of music-making with Good Muzic (2019).
Robert "Bigg Robb" Smith began his journey in the music industry as a teenage disc jockey at a small radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the late '70s. Through the early '80s he stayed in radio, focusing on soul and funk artists such as Bootsy Collins, Midnight Star, Zapp, and other greats of the era, often interviewing them on his shows. Eventually he fell in with a circle of soul and funk stars, hanging out in recording studios with them and ultimately coming under the mentorship of Roger Troutman, who enlisted Smith as his driver, then as a member of his band Zapp, all the while encouraging Smith to record his own original music. Starting in the late '80s, Smith worked as a recording engineer on Troutman-affiliated studio sessions for albums such as Zapp V, Shirley Murdock's Let There Be Love!, and Roger's Bridging the Gap.
After Troutman's death in 1999, Smith took on the Bigg Robb moniker and set out on a prolific solo career with the 2000 album Cheddar Cheddar. Bigg Robb's catalog soon grew at a prolific rate as he offered up an assortment of solo and collaborative projects on his Over 25 Sound label, a haven for his own releases and those of his peers. He went on to release numerous albums and capped off his first decade with Jerri Curl Muzic, featuring appearances from Shirley Murdock, Bar-Kays, and Kurtis Blow, as well as an update of Floaters' "Float On." From Soul Prescription in 2010 through Good Muzic in 2019, Robb's pace remained steady the next decade, supplemented with natural diversions into gospel and holiday material.
by Andy Kellman
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