A "hip-hop hard man" from Brooklyn, New York, Russel draws upon spooky spirit mates to help guide his beats. The spirits that live within Russel's hulking frame pop out every so often to provide some undead rapping. Russel himself is well adjusted, with an enviable wardrobe. Very polite, educated and is a great musician. Without Russel, Gorillaz couldn't survive: he's the safety net, the linebacker, and the true defender. People love his solid safety and solid credentials. Multiple trainer owner and has a vast appetite.
After multiple failed attempts to make a Gorillaz movie (due to drunk writers and directors and the band getting in trouble for multiple reasons), the band decided to break up and go their separate ways. 2-D got to work at his father's fairground, Noodle went back to Japan to learn more about her dark past and Murdoc got himself arrested in Tijuana, Mexico for giving fake checks to prostitutes at a local brothel. As for Russel, things went downhill for a long time for the drummer. The soul of his friend Del was ripped out of his body by The Grim Reaper on a nightmarish experience which led him to a huge breakdown. He secluded himself in Ike Turner's basement to write his own album but was plagued by hallucinations of demons flying out of the speakers. He never finished the album. Russel got a call from Noodle, now a teenager who was back at Kong Studios and finished writing the music for Demon Days, and needed Russel for the drums again.
After the El Mañana incident involving Noodle and the windmill island getting gunned down by helicopters, Russel and 2-D were panic-stricken when they thought Noodle was killed (although she wasn't). Russel never appeared at the Apollo Theater in New York City, for he was off on another life journey to deal with his demons. After 2-D left Kong, leaving Murdoc to do shady businesses with a band of mercenaries and pirates called The Black Clouds and with Noodle nowhere in sight, the band ended again. But not for long. Murdoc, having kidnapped 2-D and constructed a cyborg replica of Noodle was searching for Russel to make his new album, Plastic Beach (named after the pink island of garbage in the ocean) but he couldn't find him, so instead Murdoc used a drum machine to record the drum parts.
In 2010, Russel embarked on a journey to an unknown destination by diving off a dock and into the Pacific Ocean. Before he left, he wrote what appeared to be a suicide note, reading...
This is it. The time has come. The demons have chased me down and now forced my heavyweight hip hop hand. I need to get there. The expanse, the calm of the eternal briny deep. The Ocean... The ..Ocean..b.bacon. So this is it…. Throw myself into the sea. x
During his trek, Russel ate some radioactive, contaminated fish which resulted in a massive increase in Russel's body mass. He was last seen swimming near the wreckage of the M. Harriet where he was reunited with Noodle, his former bandmate, and long-time friend. Later, after reaching the island (being bombarded by Black Clouds), Russel tossed the whale guarding 2-D at one of the pirates' planes. He was present when Murdoc escaped Plastic Beach to Hawaii after the island was destroyed. It turned out Murdoc wasn't living in Hawaii at all, but in a shambled house in London with a Hawaii-themed room. Russel was seen reclining on the roof of the house at the end of the music video for DoYaThing. The house the band lived in was being foreclosed so the fate of the band was unknown.
Russel had little to no dialogue during Phase 3, with the two pieces of dialogue he had being a sentence for a text interview promoting the DoYaThing single and Gorillaz' partnership with Converse in 2012, and the letter he wrote at the beginning of the phase. Russel was not a part of the recording of Plastic Beach and was replaced by a drum machine on the album.
After being attacked by pirates on Plastic Beach, Russel put Noodle inside his mouth and swam away. Somewhere off the coast of Japan, Russel was mistaken for a whale and harpooned. He managed to wiggle free, but Noodle was swept into the blood-red waters in the process. Wounded and delirious, he struggled on through the ocean, eventually losing consciousness. Eventually, he drifted into the warm waters of the Yellow Sea and washed up on a North Korean beach.
He was carted to Pyongyang, where he was exhibited inside a giant glass cage. The regime's leader declared he had captured Pulgasari, the legendary North Korean Godzilla. Russel became the country's greatest attraction. In time, the North's meagre food rations caused Russel to shrink back to normal size. Realizing he was just a man, the Glorious Leader proclaimed that he had defeated Pulgasari, and Russel was released and sent back to England, where he wandered the streets of London until musician and Gorillaz collaborator Jeff Wootton let him crash on his futon.
A few days later, Jeff received a call from Murdoc. Without delay, Russel moved into Murdoc's new West London home and the band got back together.
In the music video for Saturnz Barz, the paranormal entities of the Spirit House are awoken as Russel tries to go to sleep after briefly attempting to look around in the house. At the end of the video, after they return to the car, Murdoc asks the band if they want breakfast, to which Russel says "Oh yeah. I got a real appetite". In the Strobelite video, Russel is asleep on the couch at the party. Originally, the Strobelite video was to feature character dialogue and a boxing match between Russel and his voice actor Remi Kabaka, but it did not make it to the final version of the video. In the Garage Palace visualizer, Russel fights zombies along with the rest of the band, firing a cannon with Murdoc behind him and 2-D driving the car that Murdoc and Russel stand on. In some parts of the Garage Palace video, Russel is a giant again, sleeping in the clouds as Noodle shoots off a flamethrower while she's standing on his stomach. However, for most of the video, he is in regular size.
In the "Sounds Like Gorillaz" ad for Pandora, Russel comes in last place in a driving race between the other three band members. In the ad for Gorillaz' The Lenz app, Russel sprays the color magenta on a building and other objects with the rest of the band before infiltrating a security room with them.
Russel makes an off-screen appearance for a phone call in 2-D and Murdoc's interview with Mistajam. In the interview, he talks about the collaborations on Humanz and talks about the reasons they have so many collaborations on their albums. At one point in the phone call, Murdoc says "Russel, you gotta tell him about a problem you had with Remi, our producer.", implying there was a conflict between Remi and Russel. Russel is very paranoid in the phone call and asks 2-D and Murdoc if they're copying him and accuses them of leaving him in Brooklyn. In the middle of the phone call, Russel becomes overwhelmed and abruptly ends the call.
Russel also created a mixtape in Phase 4 called 'Sounds of Chicago' that includes songs from all of his favourite artists and musicians from Chicago. He introduces the mixtape and says "Ayo, it's Big Russ, Chicago mix for y'all. What it do, it don't, and what it don't, it do."
Russel was included in every group interview with Gorillaz in Phase 4, but also had separate interviews exclusive to him or alongside 2-D as well.
At the end of phase 4, Russel started his own podcast called Things I Like in which he interviewed Gorillaz collaborators such as Posdnuos from De La Soul, Jenny Beth, Little Simz, Pauline Black, Peven Everett, Cheick Tidiane Seck, and Gorillaz' live drummer Gabriel Wallace.
In Phase 5, Russel appears to have lost some weight, as acknowledged by Remi Kabaka in an interview. Russel is often shown wearing hoodies and jackets in phase 5, with few instances of him wearing t-shirts (such as the Tranz and Humility music videos) as he usually does. In the music video for Humility, he trips 2-D while he's roller skating. Remi Kabaka, in live-action, makes a cameo appearance in the video, playing chess with Noodle. He is shown frequently in the Tranz video, happily drumming on a drum kit and performing the song with the rest of the band with a large smile on his face.
In the first Gorillaz x G-Shock Ad, Russel is the one who drives the vehicle that takes the band into outer space.
He is shown playing the ukulele and performing a song with the rest of the band in one of the pictures in The Now Now's album booklet. This is one of the only times Russel has been depicted in Gorillaz artwork as playing any instruments besides drums or percussion-based instruments at all, let alone a ukulele.
Like Phase 4, Russel has been in almost every single interview with the band in Phase 5, aside from interviews with individual members, with some interviews being simply with him and 2-D.
On the 21st of September 2019, Russel sent a postcard to the band from Mexico while working on his hot sauce business, "Hobbs Hot Sauce". He included a message telling the band that he’d be seeing them "REAL soon”. The postcard arrived at Studio 13 on the 4th of October.
In a statement to the press on the 29th of January, Russel detailed the band's next project, Song Machine, a multimedia series of songs/music videos released episodically through 2020. “Song Machine is a whole new way of doing what we do. Gorillaz breaking the mold ‘cos the mold got old. World is moving faster than a supercharged particle, so we’ve gotta stay ready to drop. We don’t even know who’s stepping through the studio next. Song Machine feeds on the unknown, runs on pure chaos. So whatever the hell’s coming, we’re primed and ready to produce like there’s no tomorrow. Y’know, just in case…” In the first Machine Bitez promoting Song Machine, he and Murdoc chat with 2-D about him bringing Slaves into the studio – when Murdoc asks about their backgrounds and 2-D admits to not knowing much, Russel asks if he knows their foregrounds, which 2-D quickly assures he knows very well.
Russel joined the rest of the band (minus Murdoc) through a portal to Lake Como for Désolé playing the drums using some carrots. He also served as the official spokesperson for the song's release, saying of collaborator Fatoumata Diawara, "She’s an African Queen. This lady made the song what it is, beautiful, like life. What can I say about ‘Désolé’? They say sorry is the hardest word, but that’s not true… Try saying antidisestablishmentarianism with a mouth full of gluten-free cronuts on a speed boat without licking your lips.”. According to Murdoc, the monsters that appear in Désolé are actually one of Russel's visions, which Murdoc believes Russel triggered by watching too much Stranger Things.
In the music video for Aries, Russel drives a golf cart in a race with the rest of the band, seemingly missing texts from a concerned Noodle while intensely focused on the race. Immediately after the events of Aries, Russel punches Murdoc in the face and gives him a nosebleed after seeing that he injected 2-D with a truth serum syringe during the race, with Noodle attempting to restrain him. He suspected that Murdoc believed 2-D was keeping a secret from him about the new portals showing up at Kong Studios. In PAC-MAN, Russel practices boxing with a punching bag while Murdoc builds a portal and 2-D & Noodle play Pac-Man. In Strange Timez, he goes to outer space and explores the moon with the rest of the band. Russel does not appear in the music video music video for The Pink Phantom (as he was on a vacation in Atlanta at the time of filming) and neither does Noodle. However, they do appear in the music video for The Valley Of The Pagans, in which they enter a portal while driving the Pagan and get transported back to Plastic Beach, where the events of the music video for The Lost Chord take place, in which Russel temporarily becomes a giant again shortly before shrinking down to his regular size.
As part of Gorillaz' takeover of Apple Music Radio to promote Song Machine Live, Russel DJ'd an hour-long radio set from the panic room of Kong Studios, sharing his memories of working with artists like Skepta and the late Tony Allen as well as interviewing De La Soul. A few days later, Russel fell off a ladder while helping on the construction of the set for the concert while Murdoc was hosting his own radio set with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.
In May of 2021, a demonic sinkhole opened beneath Kong Studios, leaving it inoperable and under renovation. During this time, Russel along with his bandmates went on a road trip in Murdoc's Winnebago, taking their instruments and recording equipment along with them. The band released a surprise EP titled Meanwhile in August of 2021.
In July 2022, the band began recording their next album in Silver Lake, Los Angeles while the London Sewage Department continued Kong’s restoration. During this time, Murdoc became increasingly interested in the occult and one day announced that Gorillaz should begin a cult. Though Russel initially dismissed this idea and told him to “shut up”, he and Noodle eventually became convinced that the cult could be of good for good people and decided to go along with Murdoc’s “prophecy”. Eventually, Russel was appointed as one of the high elders of the cult as the “Seeker of Truth” who would use his “intellect and googling skills to shed light on Murdoc’s prophecy (which was, at best, vague)”.
Russel fulfilled his duties of the cult by mostly spending time staring at the static on the television (he was looking to get better reception for his TV sets), stating he stared long enough, he would “find all the answers”. Sometime later he started prophesying the coming of the event that he called "The Rupture".
Sometime after completing the format of his theory, he started believing that The Forever Cult needed to go to the Hollywood sign or what he calls "The Promised Land". The others didn't agree to go, so he went by himself on New Year's Day. After staying for some time, he realized that nothing would happen, so he went back to the mansion.
After 2-D was away from the mansion for weeks, Noodle and Russel started theorizing about what happened to him. Noodle found a movie starring someone named “Lady Hollodown”. She realized that their current neighbour, Moon Flower, and Lady Hollodown looked very similar. She did an investigation on the film and all she could find was that it had a bad review. Russel added to the theory, saying that the reason why they look so similar is that The Forever Cult and Moon Flower were all related to the movie and do a ritual every 25 years so they can stay young and 2-D was their next victim. They convinced Murdoc to believe this. They planned to save 2-D in February of that year.
On the day they planned and in the Silent Running music video, they found that the theory was right. They dressed as members of the Forever Cult, but the real members caught onto them. Noodle and Russel fought the members, while Murdoc helped Moon Flower (who had a change of heart) save him. Murdoc's fragrance slipped out of his pocket and caused the ritual to pause and never continue. The cult members fade away as the police come. Murdoc runs away for safety while, 2-D, Noodle and Russel are "caught" by the police.
In the music video for Cracker Island, Russel is confused or drugged, so they put him in a gown and let him watch TV. Throughout the video, he watches closely a transmission of the Static Channel. In the end, he finally looks away, but now with pink pupils. He looks around at everyone, confused and asking what's going on.
After he found out nothing actually changed at the end of the transmission, Russel decided to head out to the wilderness, specifically to the California desert, with only the bare essentials in order to figure out what to do next as well as to relax a little, an experience that made him feel good for the first time in years.
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