Robert Del Naja
Encyclopedia
Robert Del Naja also known as 3D, is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

. Initially gaining notoriety as a graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 artist and member of the Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 collective known as "The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch (sound system)
The Wild Bunch was a sound system based in the St Paul's district of Bristol, England from 1983 to 1986. The group was renowned for playing sets that drew large crowds from the club scene and had performed shows as far away as London. They performed in soundclashes against other Bristol sound...

", Del Naja went on to become a founding member of the band Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...

 where he is active to this day.

Music

Del Naja is one of the founding members of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 trip-hop collective Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...

, who have released 5 studio albums and 2 compilation albums as of 2010, and has often featured as a vocalist on their releases. In addition to his work with Massive Attack, he provided vocals to "Invasion" on UNKLE
UNKLE
Unkle are a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers.-First incarnation :Lavelle and Goldsworthy were joined...

's album Never, Never, Land
Never, Never, Land
Never, Never, Land is the second album by the British electronic music act UNKLE, released on . On an expanded edition entitled Never, Never, Land Revisited was released. The original album debuted at #71 in Australia...

, and "Twilight" on War Stories
War Stories (album)
War Stories is the third album from Unkle. The album was released in Japan on 20 June 2007 Europe and the UK on 9 July 2007, followed by a 24 July release date in North America. War Stories debuted at #58 in Australia. The album was promoted by three singles: "Burn My Shadow", "Hold My Hand" and...

.

Art work

Del Naja was a young graffiti artist before becoming a vocalist; his first ever live gig was as a DJ accompanying artwork he had produced in a gallery in Bristol. He has produced work in various media, and has published a book of his art. His work has been featured in magazines and on record sleeves. The graffiti artist Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...

 cites his work as an influence.

He took part in the largest ever British graffiti art battle alongside Wolverhampton artist Goldie
Goldie
Clifford Joseph Price, better known as Goldie is an English electronic music artist, disc jockey, visual artist and actor. He is well known for his innovations in the jungle and drum and bass music genres, having previously gained exposure for his work as a graffiti artist...

.

Del Naja has two Massive Attack tattoos; one of the Blue Lines "flame" on his left arm, and a larger one similar to the beetle on the cover of Mezzanine.

Del Naja also created the cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...

 for Unkle
UNKLE
Unkle are a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers.-First incarnation :Lavelle and Goldsworthy were joined...

's four consecutive albums: War Stories
War Stories (album)
War Stories is the third album from Unkle. The album was released in Japan on 20 June 2007 Europe and the UK on 9 July 2007, followed by a 24 July release date in North America. War Stories debuted at #58 in Australia. The album was promoted by three singles: "Burn My Shadow", "Hold My Hand" and...

, More Stories
More Stories (album)
More Stories is a selection of UNKLE works and remixes created during the War Stories era. The album was released in Japan on 16 January 2008, followed by a 31 January release date in Australia....

, End Titles... Stories for Film
End Titles... Stories for Film
End Titles... Stories for Film is the fourth studio album from British electronic music act Unkle, inspired by feature films created since Unkle's previous 2007 album War Stories, released on...

and End Titles... Redux, including the dedicated merchandise. He later designed the cover of Massive Attack's fifth album Heligoland.

Musical scene and artistic peers

Robert Del Naja's music, be it in the Wild Bunch or in Massive Attack has always been associated with the Bristol Sound, and perhaps even typifies it. He has also worked with other Bristol based artists such as Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...

 and Roni Size
Roni Size
Roni Size is a British record producer and DJ, who came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a drum and bass collective...

.

Robert has said of the Bristol Scene "We all grew up listening to punk music and funk stuff and those attitudes sort of snuck into our music. That sort of brought people from different circles together and maybe it wasn't as 'cultural melting pot' as it all sounds but because Bristol is quite a small place, it becomes a lot more focused then."

Del Naja is a key member of the wider Bristol Urban Culture scene.

Political stance

Del Naja has no qualms about criticizing government policy. He was strongly opposed to the 2003 United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 war against Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, and with fellow musician Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...

 personally paid for full page adverts in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 magazine.

In 2005 Del Naja organised and performed at a charity concert in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 for Tsunami Relief with Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow
Geoff Barrow
Geoffrey Paul Barrow is the producer, disc jockey, and instrumentalist for Portishead.Portishead—formed in 1991—was named after the small town near Bristol where Barrow grew up...

 of Portishead. The two night event featured Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...

, Portishead, Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

, The Coral
The Coral
The Coral are an English band formed in 1996 in Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula in England. The band first emerged during the early 2000s and found success with their debut album The Coral and follow up Magic and Medicine...

 and Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...

and raised over £100,000.
Del Naja favours a boycott of Israel and his band will not perform in Israel.

External links

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