Yea Big

Raised on bluegrass, rock, and Motown in Kankakee, IL, Stefen Robinson always had an interest in a variety of music, both as a listener and a performer. He started playing cello in fourth grade, and soon moved on to clarinet and saxophone. In high school he picked up guitar and bass, and by his freshman year of college he had added the mandolin to his pile of instruments. He began studying digital media at school, which led him to beatmaking, a skill he continued after graduation when, freshly moved to Chicago and working at a dog daycare center, he hooked up with local avant-garde electronica figures and in early 2006 released the album The Wind That Blows the Robot's Arms on Jib Door under the name Yea Big. Thanks to help from Chicago's hip-hop message boards, around this same time Robinson got in touch with an MC named Kid Static. The two of them found that their musical tastes aligned and soon started working on a project together, resulting in the self-titled full-length Yea Big + Kid Static, which came out in October 2007.