Fie Scoobie doesn’t care if you don’t know where he's from. He just wants you to know that you're about to find out.
“It’s always Gainesville over everybody,” Scoobie said.
With his glistening golden grillz and signature catchphrase, “I’m from Gainesville, b*tch,” Scoobie is a Gainesville icon. If he’s in the area, there’s a chance those nearby already know and a higher possibility they've already pulled out their phones to ask for a picture.
“It doesn’t matter where I’m at,” he said, flashing a smile. “They stop me.”
Valentina Galvan, a 20-year-old UF student, has lived in Gainesville since she was 9 years old. She made sure to get a photo with Scoobie when she met him at How Bazar downtown.
“Meeting Fie Scobie? I’ve never felt so patriotic in my life,” Galvan said.
Galvan struggled with her Gainesville upbringing. The giant that is UF made the rest of the town boring, she said.
The pride Scoobie instilled in the city helped her change her mindset.
“For most people, it’s just kind of like, ‘Why would I rep Gainesville?’” she said. “Fie Scoobie just kind of reminds you, ‘This is our city.’”
Underneath the glamour of being a local celebrity is Gerald Jones, a 42-year-old Gainesville native who worked for his success in his rap career over the past 25 years.
“They say people are born in it, some people sworn in,” Scoobie said. “I think I'm one that was born in it.”
Scoobie grew up hearing his cousins spit rhymes, he said. One day, they invited him to join in. To them, Scoobie had “the gift.”
For the next few years, he rapped whenever he could, banging on lunch tables from Joseph Williams Elementary to Gainesville High School to make beats.
However, time took its toll. Unable to make a living on rap alone, Scoobie used his entrepreneurial spirit to start his business, Shine ‘N Glow Cleaning. While rap was still a large part of who he was, it took the back seat.
“I’m like, ‘Man, I gotta make money,’ because I'm not making money from my music right now,” he said. “I laid down on the song [to] handle my business.”
He still pursued music on the side, rapping and releasing songs on platforms like SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube.
In 2017, he dropped “I’m From Gainesville.”
The sleeper hit rested for eight years. In early April, it woke up.
Gainesville rapper Fie Scoobie performs a show at The Ox on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
“We brought the song to the radio,” he said. “I think I went viral that day.”
Scoobie watched his streams steadily climb after his radio debut April 2.
Scoobie dropped the music video for “I’m From Gainesville” April 7. That same day, the Gators basketball team won the NCAA Championship.
While he watched the game with his wife, his cameraman kept an eye on the view count, he said.
“When the Gators won, it was like, boom,” Scoobie said. “Then I get a call. It was like, ‘Bro, everybody's playing your song downtown.’”
As students and fans descended upon the streets of Gainesville that night, Scoobie was alongside them, blasting his song through his speakers.
The music video has amassed over 400,000 views across multiple platforms.
Shortly after his initial success, he began to post videos to Instagram Reels and TikTok.
In what has become his signature, Scoobie foregrounds local staples, like restaurants, businesses and the Gainesville Regional Airport. He shouts them out, often appearing with employees or owners.
His reason for doing this? He's from Gainesville, b*tch.
“I'm representing for them, but I'm also representing for the City of Gainesville,” Scoobie said. “I'm just trying to put them on the map.”
Trenton Degerald, a 21-year-old Santa Fe College psychology senior, has lived in Gainesville since he was 19. Originally from Fort White, Florida, Degerald sees Scoobie’s catchphrase as an umbrella term for belonging.
“Anyone can be from Gainesville, even if you come later on,” he said. “I’m not technically from Gainesville, but I feel integrated enough into the culture that ‘I’m from Gainesville, b*tch.’”
Degerald saw Scoobie perform when he photographed a show at The Ox. He hopes the rapper’s increasing popularity will push people to support local artists.
“There’s really cool people out there that are just trying to do what they love,” he said. “It’s really good to go out and support them.”
Scoobie said he’s proud his music has been embraced by the students and residents who call Gainesville home. He hopes he can leave a rap legacy in a city that has given him so much, he said.
“We got Tom Petty, we got Bo Diddley,” Scoobie said. “I'm the first [rapper] to come.”
Scoobie makes a bold declaration in his several songs about the city that he is from both west and East Gainesville, the two distinct sides of the city.
Andrew Lassiter, a 39-year-old Gainesville resident, noticed the distinction. He believes that there is much to be done to break down the barrier in Gainesville, he said.
“I see a really stark racial divide east and west in this city,“ Lassiter said.
Lassiter has called the city home for 15 years, and while he believes there needs to be “top down” action from city leaders, the conversation Scoobie is starting is a great place to start, he said.
“A Black man saying that in this town, I think that’s important,” he said.
Having lived on both sides of town, Scoobie uses his music to put an emphasis on community, he said, encouraging a Gainesville that brings everyone together.
“You don't have to be blood to be family,” he said. “We all come up together in the same environment, and we all try to push peace and happiness and love, then we all could get on the same page.”
Contact Sydney Johnson at sjohnson@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @sydajohnson15.
Sydney Johnson is a third-year Journalism Major at the University of Florida from Pompano Beach, Florida. In her time at UF, she has photographed for WUFT News and reported for The Independent Alligator. In her free time she enjoys crossword puzzles, running, and logging movies on letterboxd.
