First appearance 1998 Gender Male Nationality American | Voiced by Remi Kabaka Occupation Musician | |
Created by Damon Albarn
Jamie Hewlett | ||
Russel Hobbs is a fictional American musician, and member of the virtual band Gorillaz. He provides the drums and percussion for the band. Like all the other Gorillaz band members, he was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in 1998. Russel's spoken voice is supplied by Remi Kabaka.
Characterization
Like all of the other Gorillaz members, Russel was not based on a real person, but was instead conceptualised by Hewlett and Albarn as the personification of the hip hop aspect of Gorillaz music, to embody the spirit of collaboration with various rappers.
Russel Hobbs provides the percussion for Gorillaz, and he can invoke the souls of dead rappers from the fictional hip hop canon. On the debut Gorillaz album, Russel called upon and embodied the soul of "Del tha Ghost Rapper", a character voiced by and loosely based on American rapper Del the Funky Homosapien. This came about when Russel was a teenager, part of the hip hop scene. His friends were rappers, unfortunately this changed when a drive-by shooting happened, and he was the only survivor. After that event, all of his friends who were killed possessed his body, making his eyes completely white, and making him amazingly skilled at playing music.