About — Rob The Universe

Rob The Universe

Hip-hop music exploring the relationship between the mind and the universe through a science fiction lens.

Rob Chrisman is Rob The Universe. He loops acoustic guitar and adds digital elements to craft boom bap style beats to rap over. He uses that framework to explore big questions about existence, death, aliens, alternate dimensions, consciousnesses, and time. On his best day he’ll thin the boundary between this reality and the next. On his worst day he’ll kick a hole in it.

Prove it

I have questions

scaled album.png — The LEviathan

*The Leviathan* is the first full length project from Rob The Universe. Rob wrote, performed, recorded, and produced the album in its entirety. *The Leviathan* combines guitar driven boom bap instrumentals with intricately woven rap narratives. It is equal parts mind-bending science fiction and psychedelic epiphanies about the nature of existence. The result is a thirteen song dive into the subconscious that takes the listener through cycles of ego-death and rebirth.
The physical manifestation of The Leviathan is a 58 page book including full lyrics, thoughtful art inspired by each song, behind-the-scenes insight, and a hidden twist ending.

WHAT...

Rob has been playing music in some form or another for most of his life. Though he’s been rapping since 2005, he honed his skills between 2009 and 2017 while living in Busan, South Korea. There he played for international audiences up and down the Korean peninsula as part of the two-Rob group, Robscenity.

After repatriating to Portland, Oregon in 2017, Rob took a renewed interest in consciousness and the non-dual nature of reality. This began to drastically influence the music he was making and ultimately caused him to don the moniker Rob The Universe.

Rob The Universe believes that he is, at his core, the universe. He believes that you are also the universe at your core. He sees the universe as one thing always striving to create something new. In order to experience these new things, the universe erases the memory of being the universe from very small pieces of itself. One of these pieces is Rob The Universe. Another is you.

Rob The Universe released his debut EP, YES in 2018. YES is intended to be an answer to the question “Should the universe exist?” Whether it hits that mark is up for interpretation, but it’s a pretty solid rap album regardless.

Listen to Rob talk about altered states of consciousness and the creative process on Liquid Sound with Gino Brann.

Book Rob to be on your podcast, radio show, or talk thing. He’ll wax philosophically about creativity and reality. There’s about a 50 percent chance he’ll make himself sound like a dingus but it’s likely he’ll make you sound cool*.

Do it!

*No guarantees that Rob The Universe won’t also make you sound like a dingus

THE GATHERING

The first single from The Leviathan, entitled The Gathering, is a narrative that explores what happens after death. The music video was made by Tim Kane Media and includes animation from Ramin Nazer.

“The story goes like this… Three friends were on a sailing trip. Due to a freak accident, the boat sank and they all died. In their final moments of life, a strange calm came over them and they discussed what would happen after death.”

Live stream performance as part of PDX Couch Tours 8.11.2020

RTU LIVE

Rob The Universe blends fingerstyle guitar, live looping, energetic drum breaks, and aggressively psychedelic intricate rhyme schemes. The goal is to reach inside of the audience’s mind and rummage around until the stuck parts are unstuck.

Book Rob The Universe to play a live set that threatens to rip a portal in your living room when you think about it a month later.

IT'S A GOOD IDEA