Gabriel Jacoby’s Debut EP, ‘gutta child’ is a Wide-Ranging Homage to Tampa, the South, and Post-Y2K Soul Resurgence
Evan Dale | November 25, 2025
Gabriel Jacoby is making the kind of music that exists well beyond his years. Hell, he’s making music well beyond what most artists his age – or any age – have ever been able to craft with such raw authenticity. The 25-year-old is impossibly well-rounded in his nonchalant traverse across a mosaic of musical spaces. Funk and Soul and a molasses-sticky adherence to Southern sounds, however, lie at the center of it all. There, in his sweet spot, he pulses outward to momentarily – at times for a whole track, at times for just for a few moments – grasp a colorful bouquet of other stylistic nuances, and fold them seamlessly into his orbit. With his debut EP, gutta child, the Tampa-rooted multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and vocalist paints a landscape of his hometown that draws water from the wide swatch of Southern culture that has seeped deep into his artistry.
He can sing, of course. His falsetto is a rasp-ridden croon that – with the help of his relatable poeticism – bleeds of emotional vulnerability. But throughout Gutta Child, he shines lights on other knacks as well. He opens the EP with the well-titled hello, infusing a bluesy, spoken soul kind of cadence that immediately locates the project somewhere in the humid South – somewhere, too, in a long lineage of Southern artists that have never been – and will never be – able to cut themselves from the influence the Blues have swelled into so many stylistic spheres. As the track develops a quicker and more meditative rapped pace, it’s just another nod back towards the Blues, and simultaneously the soulful throughlines that exploded from the South into the mainstream during the early 2000’s.
Bathed in post-Y2K culture, submerged deeper by the pops of brass and hard-hitting bass that permeate every moment of gutta child’s introductory cut, Gabriel Jacoby pushes forward, further detailing his range. When his falsetto first makes an appearance on the project’s titular track, the comps to a late D’Angelo become unavoidable. Raspy undertoned high notes? Check. Romantically inclined discourse? Present. Early aughts nostalgia? You got it. Jazz-infused instrumentals? Yup.
But what Jacoby is doing is more than replicating one of the most acclaimed artists of this century – which itself would be worthy of praise. He’s doing more, too, than folding in the noticeable influences of other steadfast Southern names from the early 2000’s. The opening of same sign feels like Nelly could hop onto the beat. Justin Timberlake – don’t forget he’s a Memphis kid – should remix bootleg, which also folds in the sounds of fellow Tampa artist, Tom. G. The entirety of the project could have been produced to host Andre 3000 and Big Boi instead of Gabriel Jacoby. And yet, Gabriel Jacoby lives up to the immensity that his production and his vocal prowess ask of an overarching effort. And he does it while navigating the unpredictable twists and turns of all the stylistic shifts he wanted to pay homage to throughout his short, but incredibly sweet debut.
dirty south baby is a Tampa anthem – a Southern anthem at large. Custom fit with a harmonica, Jacoby head-noddingly dances across the beat, stretching and contracting his register and delivery to tightrope the rapped and the sung. Somewhere in the seamless transition to baby, Jacoby transitions back to the centermost point of his artistic identity. Soul and funk and modern nostaligia emanate from the sultry track, just as they do from the next one, the one.
But if there’s anywhere Gabriel Jacoby really grasps at his listener’s heartstrings – whether they’re here for Tampa, for the South, or for the Soul – it’s in gutta child’s closer, be careful. The kid sounds like a young Anthony Hamilton, moving methodically through the song’s delicately arranged analogue instrumentals to craft a an emotionally inspiring classic.
