Big Robb: The Bio

Robert Smith (Bigg Robb) was born in 1967, the "summer of love," in the humid, sizzling, 12th of July heat of Cincinnati, Ohio.

In the eighties Robert became a long-running Cincinnati deejay ("Sugar Daddy From Cincinnati," playing commercial R&B, rap and hiphop), a position from which he secured interviews with Bootsy Collins (of Funkadelic) and Roger Troutman (of Zapp). In an interview with Blues Critic's Dylann DeAnna in 2007, Bigg Robb described the importance of these two masters of eighties' funk on his life:

"Bootsy Collins came to the radio station and did an interview with me at 6 in the morning and people swarmed to the radio station for this interview with Bootsy. And Bootsy came looking like you've always seen him look. Star glasses, spikes, the clothes and, dude, I was stunned! That was the moment. The defining point and I knew I wanted to be an entertainer. Whatever Bootsy does that's what I wanted to do. Be an entertainer! Then I saw Roger and once I saw Roger perform I was, like, "It's a wrap! I'm going to be up in this music thang!".

Collins and Troutman had recording studios in the Cincinnati-Dayton, Ohio area in the eighties and nineties, and Troutman in particular became Bigg Robb's mentor--Robb working as valet, personal assistant and eventually studio mate. (Roger Troutman was shot to death by his brother Larry in a Cain & Abel-style murder/suicide on April 25, 1999).

By the time Roger Troutman died, Bigg Robb had a rap album and other hiphop studio work under his belt. Robb had joined Zapp, playing mainline synth-funk, and on a tour date in Greenwood, Mississippi he met Mel Waiters, whom he admits he had never heard of.

Robb's remix of the Southern Soul master's "Hole In The Wall" (a perennial Top 10 Daddy B. Nice's Southern Soul Singles 90's-00's) marked Bigg Robb's entry into the world of chitlin' circuit, Southern Soul-styled music.

However, the Southern Soul influence wasn't apparent right away. Robb's first albums (both those under the name Bigg Robb and those under the name Da Problem Solvas) were very much in the northern-funk style of George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.

But there were pronounced affinities to Southern Soul music as well. "Grown Folks music," which became the title of Robb's first CD, was one such connection, because it played to the Southern Soul fans' exhaustion with and aversion for hiphop-dominated, contemporary R&B culture.

Another theme in common with the traditional Southern R&B fans (and one which became the title of his second LP) was Robb's fascination with "big" in general and "big women" in particular (usually spelled "bigg" in Bigg Robb's world).

Bigg Robb's first signature single was "The Big Woman Song," memorialized in the The Big Woman CD in 2003.

Both CD's were were largely funk-rapping concoctions, with Robb playing "master of ceremonies" to a musical format that varied greatly in quality from song to song. Witty, flamboyant, and a charismatic speaker, Robb was nevertheless not a "lead singer."

As a matter of fact, the occasions on which Robb's talents really shone were collaborations with lead singers: "I Miss You" w/ Mama Big, "Guajira" with Don Cisco and "Big Robb's House Party" with Karen Brown.

So Robb took the "next" step, putting together a band called Da Problem Solvas (not to be confused with the Problem Solvaz, a Sourthern rap quartet), with its three principals being Robb, longtime collaborator/co-writer Bart "Sure 2 B Thomas and lead singer Big Woo, whom they picked up from a Toledo, Ohio-based band.

Da Problem Solvas' Every Woman Deserves To Be Satisfied arrived in 2004, and it marked another milestone for the hard-working, "driven" performer/producer.

And yet, there was a relative hiatus of a couple of years (a Christmas album, a Hurrican Katrina album, and other-artist projects) before Bigg Robb returned to form with a vengeance on 8 Tracks N 45's in 2006.

This eighteen-track, funk-slash-Southern Soul, "Beatles White Album"-styled near-masterpiece of a CD featured a roster of artists executing a big-tent, three-ring-circus musical agenda that dwarfed anything seen before on the chitlin' circuit. Robb brought in talent from the Gap Band, the Ohio Players and seemingly anywhere else he could get his hands on it.

Bigg Robb repeated the formula in 2007's Blues, Soul and Old School , crossing the line into "compilation" album territory by even presenting full-fledged guest-artist songs such as Pat Cooley's popular Southern Soul hit, "Older Woman, Younger Man."

The jewel of the album, however, was Robb's collaboration with Carl Marshall on Marshall's already-established Southern Soul hit, "Good Lovin' Will Make You Cry."

In awarding Bigg Robb the first annual "Daddy" Award (2007) for Southern Soul Producer of the Year (and #3-ranked Southern Soul Song of the year), Daddy B. Nice wrote :

"For the first time ever, the technical edge and clarity of hiphop and funk were fused seamlessly and naturally with Southern Soul, serving notice that a new and masterful Southern Soul producer had come of age."

Blues, Soul & Old School became one of the best-selling CD's in Southern Soul rhythm and blues history, and was still selling well as of this writing, July 2008.

Bigg Robb, who tours widely and frequently, remains based in Ohio.

Bigg Robb Discography:

2002 Grown Folks Muzic (Over 25 Sound)

2003 The Bigg Woman CD (Over 25 Sound)

2004 Every Woman Deserves To Be Satisfied (Da Problem Solvas) (Over 25 Sound)

2004 Merry Christmas From The Bigg Man (Over 25 Sound)

2005 Southern Soul Cares (Over 25 Sound/Robb Music)

2006 8 Tracks N 45's (Robb Music)

2007 Blues, Soul and Old School (Over 25 Sound)

2007 Best Of Da Problem Solvas (Robb Music)

To automatically link to the exact chart positions of Bigg Robb's hit singles and awards, go to Bigg Robb in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.

To sample music or shop comparison prices on Bigg Robb CD's, go to Daddy B. Nice's CD Store.

To see Daddy B. Nice's new drawing of Bigg Robb and recommended tracks, go to Bigg Robb.



--Daddy B. Nice