As the prison door slammed shut all hip-hop artist Robert Gruenbauer could do was sit and think.
“It sucks the soul and the life and the creative energy right out of you,” he says. “It’s not the place to be and it’s not a place that you’re going to have a good time.”
Gruenbauer, who goes by the name Robbie G, had just started serving a three-month sentence for drug trafficking at Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, ON.
“The first few days are the worst,” Gruenbauer says. “Jail is not a fun place to be. When I was in there some dude lost his eye and another guy lost his finger.”
While incarcerated at Ontario’s largest provincial prison, the Guelph, ON, native decided he would focus on his music and his life.
“I spent a lot of time in there writing and getting my thoughts together,” Gruenbauer says. “A lot of people talk about jail as being a revolving door and it doesn’t have to be that way. When you get out you don’t have go back in.”
Since being released from prison in 2008, Gruenbauer has not only turned his life around but he has gone on to work with some of Canada’s most respected hip-hop artists.
On Nov. 12, Gruenbauer will be releasing his latest album Ripple Effect.
“I came up with this concept to release this four- CD series, which is going to be covering each of the elements,” Gruenbauer says about his upcoming album. “This one is obviously going to be the water element. My next one coming out is called Stay Grounded, which is the earth element.”
He explains that Ripple Effect will cover themes such as ebb and flow and positivity.
“I feel like there is this ebb and flow to life and when go against the flow bad things start happening. But when you start recognizing the flow of things and you get in that zone and you get focused in,” he says. “When you create resistance in your life and put up a wall in that’s when you run into problems. I am trying to encourage people to break those walls down and get with that flow.”
Gruenbauer’s pathway into hip-hop music began while he was attending Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus, ON.
“I was writing poetry at the time and my poetry teacher came up to me and asked me if I would write poems or raps for this AIDs relief fundraiser in Africa,” he says. “She wanted me to write some material on it and it would be played on the announcements. So I got together with one of my buddies and we hooked up a karaoke machine and recorded it on to little tapes.”
From there he kept on writing and honing his craft. While Gruenbauer was in high school he began selling drugs to earn some extra cash.
In 2008, his drug dealing activities came to an end when he was caught and sent to Maplehurst Correctional Complex.
“It was definitely good for me in the end but I feel like if I didn’t go there, there is a lot more I could be doing with my life and career right now,” Gruenbauer says about his time in jail.
However, Gruenbauer also acknowledges that had he not been sent to prison he would have continued to sell drugs.
“One hundred per cent,” he says. “That’s why prison is there. That’s reason that those institutions are in place, but a lot of the time the system doesn’t work.”
After being released from jail, Gruenbauer began to focus heavily on his music. He has since gone on to collaborate with Juno Award winning artists Moka Only, Mad Child and Elaine Lil’bit Shepherd.
“It is an honour and a blessing for sure,” he says. “I knew that I really wanted to do this and that hip-hop was my passion but even if you asked me three or five years ago if I thought I’d be working with some of the artists that I am working with now like Mad Child and Moka Only, I would have to say I wouldn’t believe you.”
Late last month Gruenbauer released the music video for his single “Right Now” to YouTube, which was filmed in Vancouver and Guelph and features Elaine Lil’Bit Shepherd. He says it is important for him to learn from the artists he works with.
“My whole focus is to learn from people who are doing it better than me and really watch them closely and see exactly what it is they’re doing,” he says. “I am always watching their performances and how they’re interacting with the crowd, watching how they interact with the crowd after the performance as well.”
Gruenbauer has also collaborated with contemporary classical pop singer Aria Tesolin and female rapper Allisan Lachesis. He says he won’t work with artists who lack a positive worth ethic or are dishonest.
“There are a lot of wrong people out there and you have to have the smarts and the wits to figure out who’s there to help you and who’s there to screw you,” he says. “There are a lot of people that promise weird things that don’t end up happening. You gotta make sure that the people around you aren’t trying to leach off you.”
Although Gruenbauer has remained trouble-free since being released from prison, he is still feeling the ripple effects from being locked up at Maplehurst.
“I can’t travel into the United States,” he says. “I am still waiting a couple of years before I can get my pardon and cross over. It definitely has affected me. I’ve had numerous opportunities where I could have been booked in New York and other places and I haven’t been able to.”
While he can’t travel to the United States, that hasn’t stopped him from performing throughout Canada. Later this year he plans to embark on a mini-tour across southern Ontario.
“I am planning on hitting up Guelph, Kitchener, Cambridge, Sarnia, Hamilton, Oshawa, Toronto and maybe even Ottawa and Montreal,” he says. “That’s the plan for the next little while leading up into Christmas.”
The Wellington County native also has big plans for next year, which includes a tour with Vancouver hip-hop artist, Moka Only.
“We’re going to probably do about 15 dates from the east coast heading towards Southern Ontario,” he says. “Then we’re going to take a couple weeks off and then do another run from southern Ontario to the west coast to Vancouver.”
Gruenbauer has no issue with those who want to casually smoke marijuana, but he offers a warning to those who want to selling drugs for a living.
“If you’re trying to get into the drug game and selling it to make a profit it is a risky business,” he says. “You’re either going to end up dead or in jail. That’s pretty much your only two outcomes.”
For more information on Robert Gruenbauer (Robbie G) visit youtube.com/RobbieGhiphop or follow @RobbieGMusic on Twitter.
