Robert Clivillés

Musical career

In the late 1980s Robert Clivillés and David Cole were active in 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican and The 28th Street Crew. At the time they were the driving force of the short lived Brat Pack. The duo were also responsible for the formation of pop group Seduction, for whom they wrote and produced a string of Top-10 hits. They contributed to the career of former The Weather Girls vocalist Martha Wash who at the same time was one the lead vocalists for the dance act Black Box. And in 1990 Clivillés and Cole released a single, featuring later C+C Music Factory rapper Freedom Williams, called "Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)" as The Crew. But the duo's biggest success was the group C+C Music Factory that scored worldwide in 1991.

After the death of his partner David Cole in 1995, Robert Clivillés continued to keep the C+C's legacy alive through his own production work. In 1995, he released a solo single under the name C+C Music Factory, called "I'll Always Be Around" (#1 Billboard Dance/Club Play), on MCA Records. This was the final #1 Dance/Club Play hit for C+C Music Factory. An album titled C+C Music Factory was released by MCA in 1995 in Europe, but it was not released in the US. This was the final studio album of new material to be released under the C+C Music Factory name. The same year, Columbia/SME Records released Ultimate, a greatest hits collection featuring a mixture of remixes and album versions of C+C Music Factory's Sony Music Entertainment singles. Two singles were released in conjunction with the album "I Found Love" (#13 Dance/Club Play) and "Robi Rob's Boriqua Anthem" (#29 Dance/Club Play), which featured Spanish-language reggae artist El General.

In October 1996, Robert Clivillés released an album of new material under the name Robi-Rob's Clubworld. The first single from the project, "Shake That Body," featured emcee Ya Kid K, formerly of Technotronic. The second single, "Reach," was a collaboration with Hex Hector and featured vocals from longtime C+C vocalist Deborah Cooper, which was the final recording to have piano tracks recorded by the late David Cole, his C+C partner.

In the 2000s, Clivillés worked with the group MVP.

In 2010 C+C Music Factory reformed with Eric Kupper stepping in to replace Cole.

In May 2015 Clivillés made its debut at Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart with the song "Free", featured vocals from Kimberly Davis. The music video for "Set Me Free" makes references to Clivillés father's suicide.

Controversy

In 1989, Clivillés and Cole wrote a song titled "Get Dumb (Free Your Body)" that was covered by The Crew and Seduction. They allegedly illegally sampled portions of "The Music Got Me" which was written by Boyd Jarvis of early-1980s music group Visual. Boyd sued them for copyright infringement in 1990 and originally demanded $15 million in royalties.

Four years later, Kevin McCord filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Mariah Carey, Cole, Clivillés and Columbia Records because, according to McCord, they took parts of his song called "I Want to Thank You" and made "Make It Happen" out of it without permission. Although the allegations were confirmed false, McCord eventually accepted a settlement offer of about US$500,000.