Rob H Kelly

Irish Hip-Hop Artist Rob Kelly has made a name for himself in Ireland & In The United States, gaining international record deals. He began his career as a live studio guest on Wes D’Arcy’s 2FM Show The Big Smoke where he would freestyle live on air on the late night weekly show in 2002. Rob soon established himself as a formidable MC and entered a spate of mc battles and won two in a row in 2003 including the national championships sponsored by Universal Records.

Rob began concentrating on recording around this time and hooked up with fellow Irishman, producer Mike Donnelly. Rob sent some of his material to legendary mix-tape DJ extraordinaire DJ Vlad who immediately placed Rob on his Unsigned Heat @ www.djvlad.com making him the first and ever non-American to achieve this award

In 2004 Rob released his debut mix-tape The Kellection which was a collaborative effort between him and another top mix-tape DJ DJ Pudgee-P. It consisted of a collection of material recorded by Mike & Rob as well as radio appearances and freestyles. The tape was a huge success and its lead song “birds, birds, birds” and the lead single and video “Allrite” produced by on stage DJ and World ITF 2003 scratching champion DJ Flip were well received nationwide.

In 2005 Rob was signed to appear on US Pay Per View TV Show 16 Bars. The show was due to be held in 2005 in the Hammerstein Ballroom but due to complications with the network the show was postponed Rob was the only non American on the roster that included top mix tape stars and already established stars. Rob didn’t let this distract him and he continued to work on his next mix-tape/warm up album that he was to release on his own label Acquisition Records. He scored a massive distribution deal for “Bragging Rights” with UK Record giants Pickwick, continued his work with Donnelly as well as enlisting the help of top US Producers Mr Green (Matisyahu, Killah Priest, Ed OG) Soundsmith Productions (Fabolous, Young Jeezy, Dipset, G-Unit) Domingo (Big Pun, Fat Joe, Tony Yayo) and UK producer Show N Prove (Baby Blue, Bigz)

In 2006 Rob received more accolades when he won Rapmullet.com “The Come Up” & The Unsigned Heat Spotlight on morehiphop.com again he was the only non American act to win the awards.Soon after that his Internet profile was boosted when he became Myspace.com feature artist and it wasn’t long before his page exploded with hits from all over the world.

Rob’s career took another interesting turn in 2006 when Sniper.(A producer who has worked With S0-Solid Crew, Freeway and many more) who is also the Co-Owner of swaggerwireless with Bee-High (Jay-Z’s cousin & Roc-A-Fella exec) contacted Rob during the Jay-Z World Tour and hooked up a collaboration with Memphis Bleek when he was in Dublin.The track called “Bubbin” is set to feature on a Green Lantern Project inspired by the world tour. Rob immediately signed with Swagger for Digital Distribution.

Rob released his warm up album “Bragging Rights” at the end of 2006 to critical acclaim, the CD features Baby Blue, Frankie Krutches & S.A.S and was described by critics as “An 18-track tour-de-force of raw, hardcore rap with sharp, witty humour and double entendres over blazing production by big name beat makers” THE SUNDAY WORLD,“acerbic verbal ammo” THE IRISH TIMES,“Razor Sharp” THE STAR,“making a statement and pushing good music on an international scale” RAPMULLET.COM,“A Milestone in terms of Irish Hip-Hop” METRO

Rob is now working on his official debut release and has already been named by THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE as one of the Top 30 “Coolest People In the Country”.

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