Tampa’s rap scene is the Bay’s best kept secret. Amidst all of the arts and culture Tampa Bay has to offer, its growing hip-hop community can easily go unnoticed. However, key players in Tampa’s music scene like lyricist and producer, 
Robert “Gatsby” Ferdinand aim to bring more light to Florida’s budding rap scene with a sound that rivals the southern stereotype.
Gatsby was first introduced to music through his father’s love for soul, but he would later go on to be classically trained as a violinist during his years in middle school. His current sound can be best described as a cluster of his musical history. “I get a lot of inspiration from alternative rock music and a little bit of jazz,” Gatsby said. Prior to dabbling in hip-hop, at the age of 15 Gatsby formed an alternative rock group titled Poetically Inclined. The eventual disbanding of the group led Gatsby to try his hand at rapping.
Inspired by Kanye West’s Late Registration, Gatsby began rhyming at the age of 16. In 2010, the Tampa native took things a step further and started West Egg, a rap collective comprised of local emcees. By November of 2012, Gatsby released his first major project The Blue Tape which gained him notoriety throughout the Tampa Bay area. Although Gatsby’s sophomore album, The Red Tape is what he describes as an “aesthetically pleasing album” and gave him even further leverage throughout Tampa Bay his latest effort, Starship Jericho, is what he hopes his listeners will appreciate most.
“[Starship Jericho] is more of an introspection,” Gatsby said. “I have been a lot more personal on a lot of the songs.”
Gatsby drew from his personal life to serve as the inspiration for his third installment. During the making of Starship Jericho, Gatsby’s mother underwent her third round of chemotherapy, a topic he discusses more in detail on track nine, “Problems Money Can Buy.”
Throughout the 11-track body of work, Gatsby delves deep as he touches on topics like race, religion, suicide, and money. The single “Problems Money Can Buy” discusses our inherit obsession with wealth and what it can provide as well as the costly consequences of losing it. “The album has things that people will gravitate to for anthems,” Gatsby said. The bass driven track “Man of the City” is a prime example of this and serves as a follow up to “Testify”, a major highlight of The Red Tape.
“I want people to latch on to different things and be able to relate them to their own life,” he said.
With a renewed sense of his image and artistry, Gatsby chose to step outside of the box in order to create Starship Jericho. In contrast to his previous projects, Starship Jerchio consists of only one guest appearance from Shawn Chrys, a California artist who has collaborated with Timbaland, and features an eclectic blend of instrumental backdrops produced by WRATHMATICS, A$AP Ty Beats and longtime collaborator Santos. “I want songs to take lives of their own,” Gatsby said. “So, I made a much more diverse album.”
Starship Jericho is slated to make its debut November 9. It will be available for download online at gatsby813.com.
Kai Miller can be reached at Kai. miller@theminaretonline.com.