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The March 12, 2026 cover of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Credit: Photo by Juan Nieto \/ Design by Jack Spatafora<\/p>\nThe March 12, 2026 cover of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Credit: Photo by Juan Nieto \/ Design by Jack Spatafora<\/p>\n
Just over 2,500 miles separate Tampa\u2019s Robles Park from Hollywood, California. But those worlds collided in a big way last December thanks to Gabriel Jacoby<\/a>. In a livestream from Justin Bieber\u2019s Twitch studio, the 27-year-old songwriter riffed and jammed with the pop star\u2019s band while thousands of viewers dropped comments left and right. Bieber himself took photos and videos on his own phone, chiming in here and there, vibing and smiling nearly every time he appeared on camera.<\/p>\n That kind of joy and awe about Jacoby\u2019s jaw-dropping talent should be no surprise to anyone who\u2019s been listening.<\/p>\n A month before the stream, Jacoby dropped Gutta Child<\/a> (stylized all-lowercase, like every cut on the record), a debut that\u2019s the culmination of a life that\u2019s already seen more than its share of hard times. Clocking in at just 20 minutes, the outing sounds unlike anything else in the world. Over eight tracks, the King and Wharton High School product delivers a funky, distinctively Southern, blend of blues, pop and R&B that channels Prince, Nina Simone, Anthony Hamilton, Anderson.Paak, N.E.R.D, and even D\u2019Angelo while remaining wholly unique. Critics have been falling over it since.<\/p>\n gutta child by Gabriel Jacoby<\/a><\/p>\n Billboard<\/a> called the title track<\/a> \u201can instant contender for one of the year\u2019s grooviest R&B songs.\u201d NPR\u2019s Sheldon Pearce said there was \u201csome kind of voodoo taking place\u201d<\/a> on \u201cThe One.\u201d The notoriously pretentious Pitchfork<\/a> lauded how Jacoby\u2014who lived in Tampa between the ages of nine and 20\u2014yoked together \u201cbackwoods blues, bayou funk, and earthy R&B with Dungeon Family bombast\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Jacoby\u2014a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who played piano exclusively until he was 12 or 13, before picking up drums and the guitar\u2014doesn\u2019t get too caught up in the hype.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, man, I feel like he\u2019s more like my friend than a known artist,\u201d he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the livestream. It\u2019s been dope to connect and collaborate, he said, and added that he and Bieber are working on stuff that will come out sooner or later.<\/p>\n He said that Gutta Child, a record that tracks his growth from a young man to who he is today, had to be damn near perfect. \u201cI needed to show people who I was and what it really meant to me to be Gabriel Jacoby,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While he calls Los Angeles home now, Jacoby\u2019s affinity and connection to Tampa is all over Gutta Child where he is trying to pay TECO bills, searching for the ghost of a friend near the Martin Luther King Jr. mural in Robles and getting freaked out by palmetto bugs floating in the toilet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would just play over there if we were around that part of town,\u201d Jacoby said about Robles Park, a neighborhood where residents have since been relocated ahead of redevelopment<\/a>.<\/p>\n His family bounced around town, between neighborhoods off Fletcher Avenue, Temple Terrace, and the Del Rio area known to some as \u201cNuccio.\u201d Despite coming up in what some see as the roughest parts of Hillsborough County, Jacoby\u2019s record doesn\u2019t necessarily frame life in a sad or tragic lens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you grew up with people who are in the same situation, you realize that it\u2019s not like life is out to get you just because you grew up in poverty,\u201d he said. Sure, he\u2019s lost friends but others he\u2019s kept in touch with have become successful, a testament to their drive and talent.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always someone who\u2019s going through something worse, and so you\u2019ve got to find joy and happiness and whatever you have while you have it,\u201d Jacoby added.<\/p>\n That jubilation is all over Gutta Child, and comes to life in the videos.<\/p>\n \u201cBootleg,\u201d featuring legendary Tampa rapper Tom G., shows crank dancers, including some from Jook City Heroes<\/a>, in front of the Silver Dollar Food store on N 40th Street and the recently-renamed Pix & Mix Fried Chicken in Seminole Heights.<\/p>\n Curtis Mattear<\/a>, who appears in the Juan Nieto-directed video, hears the pain in Jacoby\u2019s delivery on the record, but said that dancing the way dancers do in the clip is a way to release energy and bad vibes.<\/p>\n \u201cCranking is a big movement in Tampa. When drill took off everyone started to talk about Chicago and pushed a different narrative, but Tampa\u2019s been cranking with Tom G.\u2019s \u2018City Boy Wit\u2019 It,\u2019 and Tae Bae,\u201d Mattear, 36, added.<\/p>\n The singer even surprised the local crew with his own moves. Jacoby\u2014who was born in Anderson, South Carolina\u2014agreed, and told CL that he started dancing like that pretty much the moment he moved to Tampa.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just like something every kid knew how to do in school. And, I mean, every kid\u2019s parent knew how to do,\u201d Jacoby added. \u201cIt\u2019s just, like, second nature coming from Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n Shining light on the city, Jacoby said, was paramount, despite him not being born here because every location, even in the U.S., has a thing that makes it what it is.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really feel like the world has seen enough of that from Tampa,\u201d he said, promising to showcase even more of the depth and expression\u2014including cranking and jooking\u2014from the place that raised him.<\/p>\n Another graf in Jacoby\u2019s love letter to Tampa is the clip for \u201cThe One,\u201d a straight up celebration of life filmed inside the United Skates on N Armenia Avenue in West Tampa. He told CL that his first touch with the skate dancing in the video happened on a date. That\u2019s when he saw more experienced rollers doing tricks.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, damn, I got to do that,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI just kind of fell in love with it. And so for two years, I was going every week until I got good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n Edward Johnson<\/a> is the featured skater in \u201cThe One,\u201d and vividly remembers Jacoby\u2019s positive and creative energy when they first met around 2021. A shared love of expression through movement made for a natural connection.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vibe at the rink is always full and free. It\u2019s a different kind of energy when you go to the skating rink. It\u2019s more of a family feel,\u201d Johnson, 24, told CL. \u201cIt\u2019s just like a community that\u2019s built within its own. It\u2019s unity. There\u2019s so much power in that alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacoby\u2019s record, he said, brings a smile to his face.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something you play at a family reunion. You dance with your queen to this, late night with some wine,\u201d Johnson added. \u201cWe need more happy music.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, there\u2019s a lot to be happy about if you\u2019re Jacoby, who is the eldest of seven kids.<\/p>\n \u201cDirty South Baby\u201d<\/a> is transparent about his darker days. A non-Gutta Child track, \u201cBrother and Sister\u201d <\/a>from 2024, plays like an ode to his siblings. On it, he sings: \u201cAin\u2019t got to give me nothing. I just don\u2019t want to see you suffer\u2026 Beautiful baby brother, make sure you love our mother.\u201d<\/p>\n The song includes heart-wrenching samples of voice messages where young kids pray for their brother, express their love and hope out loud that he comes home soon.<\/p>\n The DJ in \u201cThe One\u201d is Gregory Greenway, AKA DJ Nilla Greene. He met \u201cGabe\u201d through Jacoby\u2019s mom, a photographer and artist who remains connected to her craft. She told Greenway, 41, that her eldest son was getting into music, so he gave Jacoby a MIDI controller. Jacoby was probably 17 at the time, and working at Bent String Studios now located in Lutz.<\/p>\n \u201cFive years later, I see him posting music and putting out songs. And I was like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s pretty cool, man,\u201d Greenway told CL.<\/p>\n Jacoby told CL that Greenway DJ\u2019d his first show ever, back in 2016 at The Orpheum\u2019s second Ybor City location.<\/p>\n Greenway\u2014who has a residency at Red Thread in St. Pete\u2014hears the Prince influence pretty explicitly in Jacoby\u2019s music, but more than anything, he hears a rebel.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hearing fearlessness,\u201d Greenway added. \u201cNot just being yourself, being unique.\u201d<\/p>\n As the world discovers Jacoby\u2019s one-of-a-kind sound, fans and observers in the Bay area have a chance to see it for themselves. next Thursday when the homegrown songwriter opens for L.A. R&B singer Khamari at .<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just me and my guitar,\u201d Jacoby said when he checked in between dates in Vermont and Connecticut. \u201cOnce I do my own tour later in the year, I have a band that I\u2019ll bring with me on stage, because I feel like my music demands that.\u201d<\/p>\n Jacoby\u2019s next record, he added, will be kind of like Gutta Child 2 because there\u2019s a lot more he needs to say. There\u2019ll be hope and love baked into the album, but there\u2019ll be a heaviness to help listeners who came up like him feel even more heard.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not all roses and daisies,\u201d he told CL. \u201cGutta Child is for people who grew up in the gutter who need something to smile about. This is for everybody outside of the gutter who don\u2019t realize what it is. This is gonna be like a wake up call, like, \u2018This is really what the world looks like, and this is how we can fix it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jacoby added that while his music is meant to help people fix parts of their lives, he had to do healing of his own, mentally and emotionally, to get to this point.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you went through what I went through, it damn near makes it easy to not want to move. You don\u2019t want to do anything, because you feel like the world is trying to break you down,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to just kind of fight through that. And then it was like, right after, where the light kind of showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n All of it might seem like a heavy load for a 27-year-old to carry, but Jacoby said that his mother always encouraged him to fulfill his purpose to be a musician. His rise, he thinks, isn\u2019t a surprise to mom\u2014but more of a relief. \u201cShe knows how much I\u2019ve been through, just as a man and even when I was a child,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBe Careful,\u201d the tender closing track on Gutta Child, feels like a message from Jacoby today to his younger self.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gon\u2019 be OK,\u201d he sings. \u201cI\u2019ve done all I can and said all that I need to say.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a theme Jacoby reiterated when asked what he would say to the kid in Tampa who sees his come up, and wonders how they might do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cI would tell them you don\u2019t even have to be like me. Just be you. Just know that life, everything\u2019s going to be OK as long as you want it to be OK. It might not be perfect all the time, but just have fun, keep a good attitude, do your best and take care of those around you,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if you feel like you\u2019re just a kid\u2014take care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Mar. 12 \u2013 18, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773327668_152_hqdefault.jpg\")
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DJ Nilla Green Credit: Courtesy \/ DJ Nilla Green<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/khamarifacebook.webp.jpeg\")
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