Career
He is of Puerto Rican ancestry. Clivillés and Cole also produced various hits for other artists such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Deborah Cooper, Scarlett Santana and many others In the late 1980s Robert Clivillés and David Cole were active in 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman, and a Dominican and The 28th Street Crew.
At the time they were the driving force of the short lived Brat Pack.
The duo were also responsible for the formation of popular group Seduction, for whom they wrote and produced a string of Top-10 hits. They contributed to the career of former The Weather Girls vocalist Martha Wash who at the same time was one the lead vocalists for the dance act Black Box.
And in 1990 Clivillés and Cole released a single, featuring later C+C Music Factory rapper Freedom Williams, called "Get Dumb! (Free Your Body)" as The Crew. But the duo"s biggest success was the group C+C Music Factory that scored worldwide in 1991.
In 1995, he released a solo single under the name C+C Music Factory, called "I"ll Always Be Around" (#1 Billboard Dance/Club Play), on Master of Computer Applications Records.
This was the final #1 Dance/Club Play hit for C+C Music Factory. An album titled C+C Music Factory was released by Master of Computer Applications in 1995 in Europe, but it was not released in the United States. This was the final studio album of new material to be released under the C+C Music Factory name. The same year, Columbia/Small and Medium Size Enterprises Records released Ultimate, a greatest hits collection featuring a mixture of remixes and album versions of C+C Music Factory"s Sony Music Entertainment singles.
Two singles were released in conjunction with the album "I Foundation Love" (#13 Dance/Club Play) and "Robi Rob"s Boriqua Anthem" (#29 Dance/Club Play), which featured Spanish-language reggae artist El General.
In October 1996, Robert Clivillés released an album of new material under the name Robi-Rob"s Clubworld. The first single from the project, "Shake That Body," featured emcee Ya Kid K, formerly of Technotronic.
In the 2000s, Clivillés worked with the group Most Valuable Player. In 2010 C+C Music Factory reformed with Eric Kupper stepping in to replace Cole. Production and remix work
In 1989, Clivillés and Cole wrote a song titled "Get Dumb (Free Your Body)" that was covered by The Crew and Seduction.
They allegedly illegally sampled portions of "The Music Got Maine" which was written by Boyd Jarvis of early-1980s music group Visual.
Boyd sued them for copyright infringement in 1990 and originally demanded $15 million in royalties. Four years later, Kevin McCord filed the copyright infringement lawsuit against Mariah Carey, Cole, Clivillés and Columbia Records because, according to McCord, they took parts of his song called "I Want to Thank You" and made "Make lieutenant Happen" out of it without permission. Although the allegations were confirmed false, McCord eventually accepted a settlement offer of about United States$500,000.