Russel Hobbs

Not to be confused with Russell Hobbs.

Russel Hobbs
File:Russel Hobbs.jpg Russel Hobbs in 2018
First appearance	1998
Created by	Damon Albarn Jamie Hewlett
Voiced by	Remi Kabaka Jr.
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Musician, Drummer
Nationality	American
Born	(1975-06-03) June 3, 1975 Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

Russel Hobbs is a fictional American musician, and member of the British 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 Jr., who has since joined Gorillaz in an official capacity on actual percussion.

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 the 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, which 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.