Robert Clivillés

Robert Clivillés (born July 30, 1964^[2]) is an American record producer, songwriter, arranger, music video director most noted for his work with C+C Music Factory, a group he founded with musical partner David Cole. He is of Puerto Rican ancestry.^[2][2][3][4]

Clivillés and Cole also produced various hits for other artists such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Deborah Cooper, Scarlett Santana and many others.

Musical career

In the late 1980s Robert Clivillés and David Cole were active in 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican and The 28th Street Crew.^[5][6] At the time they were the driving force of the short lived Brat Pack.^[7] The duo were also responsible for the formation of pop group Seduction, for whom they wrote and produced a string of Top-10 hits. They contributed to the career of former Weather Girls vocalist Martha Wash who at the same time was one the lead vocalist for the dance act Blackbox (band). And in 1990 Clivillés and Cole released a single, featuring later C+C Music Factory rapper Freedom Williams, called "Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)" as The Crew.^[8] But the duo's biggest success was the group C+C Music Factory that scored worldwide in 1991.^[9]

After the death of his partner David Cole in 1995,^[10] Robert Clivillés continued to keep the C+C's legacy alive through his own production work. In 1995, he released a solo single under the name C+C Music Factory, called "I'll Always Be Around" (#1 Billboard Dance/Club Play), on MCA Records. This was the final #1 Dance/Club Play hit for C+C Music Factory. An album titled C+C Music Factory was released by MCA in 1995 in Europe, but it was not released in the US. This was the final studio album of new material to be released under the C+C Music Factory name. The same year, Columbia/SME Records released Ultimate, a greatest hits collection featuring a mixture of remixes and album versions of C+C Music Factory's Sony Music Entertainment singles. Two singles were released in conjunction with the album "I Found Love" (#13 Dance/Club Play) and "Robi Rob's Boriqua Anthem" (#29 Dance/Club Play), which featured Spanish-language reggae artist El General.

In October 1996, Robert Clivillés released an album of new material under the name Robi-Rob's Clubworld. The first single from the project, "Shake That Body," featured emcee Ya Kid K, formerly of Technotronic. The second single, "Reach," was a collaboration with Hex Hector and featured vocals from longtime C+C vocalist Deborah Cooper, which was the final recording to have piano tracks recorded by the late David Cole, his C+C partner.^[11][12]

In the 2000s (decade), Clivillés worked with the group MVP.^[13]

In 2010 C+C Music Factory reformed with Eric Kupper stepping in to replace Cole.^[14][15]

Production and remix work

Controversy

In 1989, Clivillés and Cole wrote a song titled "Get Dumb (Free Your Body)" that was covered by The Crew and Seduction. They allegedly illegally sampled portions of "The Music Got Me" which was written by Boyd Jarvis of early-1980s music group Visual. Boyd sued them for copyright infringement in 1990 and originally demanded $15 million in royalties.^[16]

Four years later, Kevin McCord filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Mariah Carey, Cole, Clivillés and Columbia Records because, according to McCord, they took parts of his song called "I Want to Thank You" and made "Make It Happen" out of it without permission.^[17] Although the allegations were confirmed false, McCord eventually accepted a settlement offer of about US$500,000.^[17][18]

See also

• C+C Music Factory
• MVP

References

External links

• Robert Clivillés on Facebook
• Robert Clivilles Interview 2004