Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 3, 1975, Russel Hobbs was a well-spoken, considerate and respectful child. However, trouble seemed to linger around him. Originally, Russel attended The Xavier school For Young Achievers, but was forcibly removed when he mauled several other students as a result of demonic possession. After being expelled, the possession and the anxiety sent young Russel into a coma. He would not wake for another four years, at which time a man called Father Merrin exorcised the demon inhabiting Russel's body.[citation needed]

Unable to return to the Xavier School, Russel was sent to a school in Brooklyn, in which many students were practiced in the numerous fields of hip hop. Much of his hip hop prowess comes from a bizarre but violent incident involving a drive-by shooting that killed all of his friends from the fictional Brooklyn High School in New York City. Following the shooting, the spirits of all of Russel's friends took residence in Russel's body and have possessed him at unpredictable moments ever since. The most prominent of these spirits was Russel's best friend, Del, who was based on and voiced by Del tha Funkee Homosapien. Del appears as a blue, rapping ghost in such videos as "Clint Eastwood" and "Rock the House." Russel believes the reason for his frequent spiritual inhabitations is because he "vibrates at that frequency."

During the tours after the release of Gorillaz' debut album, Russel was the first and only band member to notice that Noodle was acting strangely due to the fact that she was having strange dreams involving her mysterious past. While in Osaka, he bought her a jet pack from Tokyo Hands to get her spirits up. He also attempted to purchase a watch that doubled as a lethal laser, but the store seemed to be sold out.

During the band hiatus, Russel went through a terrible trauma in late 2003. Del's soul was ripped out of Russel by the Grim Reaper in late 2003 and Russel, a mere shell of his former self, took a year to recover. Shortly after the exorcism Russel took refuge in Ike Turner's basement where he began making an album called: "The Seventh Heaven Hip Hop and Harmony Album." It was canceled due to paranormal activities around the songs themselves. He was the last to return to Kong Studios. When he did return, the band was startled at the fact that his already large proportions had doubled or even tripled.

After the El Mañana conspiracy, 2-D and Russel were frantic about their guitarist Noodle's supposed death. It was a hoax, however, and the band has once again gone separate ways. It would not last too long, as it was promised by Murdoc in the autobiography Rise of the Ogre that their biggest project to date is apparently being planned. Russel was, according to Murdoc, "all good, too. He's still stitching together his taxidermy army of undead animals and practicing his drums, but I think he's getting into production. It's a great role for him because his knowledge of music's just too big for him to be stuck behind a drum kit."

On October 31, 2007, in an official mail-out, Murdoc said that, "Russel is exploring his inner demons somewhere in Brooklyn.”

Russel has not made many photo appearances since the initiation of Phase 3 and the announcement of Plastic Beach. However, what these photos do show is that Russel appears to have grown to literally giant proportions, and has lost the hats he usually wore during Phase 2, but has otherwise not changed very much. Jamie Hewlett explained in the Making of Plastic Beach DVD that his gigantic size was a result of eating massive amounts of polluted material while swimming to Plastic Beach, causing him to swell up into his giant state. A Phase 3 character ident was released before the release of Plastic Beach, depicting Russel stomping across a pier in rage and diving into the ocean, headed towards Plastic Beach[1]. It appears, from his remarkable absence in videos and pictures, that Murdoc did not intend to invite Russel back to Gorillaz for Plastic Beach.

On March 9, 2010, he was voted one of the sexiest cartoon musicians of all-time by Nerve.com