He's not only a musician but a film maker and producer. In true Kiwi style, he's a man of many talents and a jack of all trades. With over 20 music video's to his name and countless singles, The Robba is a self sufficient, well oiled, musical machine, who pumps out a new single, complete with music video, 6 times a year. All production recording, programming, rapping, guitar playing, songwriting, video shooting and editing done by The Robba, for the people. The Robba came to rise in 2004 when his group Jonny and the Robba won the 2004 Coke launch pad competition, playing to a packed audience at the Edge Fest and releasing the single and video for Damn girl. Soon after he went solo as The Robba and recently his single 'The Rain Finally Came' held the Number 1 Spot on Kiwi Fm for 2 weeks in a row. It's safe to say The Robba doesn't fit into a box, he's non commercial and non conformist. A visit to one of his live shows will testify to that. With all the swag of hip hop and all the attitude of punk music. The Robba doesn't subscribe to music genres or fashion, the sound of his songs are determined by the lyrics and feeling he wants to share. His music goes from happy to dark, soft to heavy, joking to serious, slow to fast, just like life. As The Robba puts it "Sometimes when I'm making songs I'll feel like having a dance, other times I wana rock or I wanna rap. Other times I mellow out with an acoustic guitar and a singable melody. So my songs are a mix of genres, a blend of hard rock, hip hop and dance. "Sometimes a song will be just one genre but others are a fusion of genres." The eclectic diversity of his influences are very apparent in his music but he sites Eminem, Bjork and Angels and Airwaves as his main muses. I asked The Robba how he as an artist related to rap music and hip hop culture and he had this to say. "I love the free styling side of hip hop, creating rhyming words on the spot without knowing what's going to come out. Also the patterns rapping creates can be quite random and sound great without needing a repeating pattern. Also I like the way you can mix hip hop with any genre and make it work, so it's a good home base for my style. I also identify with the motivation to succeed that is often found in hip hop lyrics, but not so much the raps about how many materialistic things a rich rapper possesses." The Robba is currently working on his debut album and from the looks of the amount of works he has he'll be spoiled for choice. He has so far evaded the main stream fan fare of commercial radio but regularly features on the bnet stations, Kiwi fm and other alternative style programming. His videos show up on C4 homegrown and feature regularly on Alt TV. He's the kind of artist that flies under the radar of the commercial machine and that is one of his many charms. The Robba's songs are diverse, his style unique and his persona interesting in every way. Once you've discovered The Robba, he will definitely stir an emotion within you and if you happen to appreciate his work, you've become one of the select people in the know who are happy to keep him their secret. Check out the many video clips of The Robba at www.youtube.com/therobba or check out his website www.therobba.com or if you're a myspacer you can find him on www.myspace.com/therobba.