Jakob Rabitsch (Yakob)
Jakob Rabitsch, known professionally as Yakob, is a Vienna-born producer, songwriter and composer based in Los Angeles. He has contributed to eight Grammy nominations, including one win. These include SZA's SOS, winner of Best Progressive R&B Album at the 66th Grammy Awards, and 6LACK's "Pretty Little Fears" featuring J. Cole, nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance.
His songs have been streamed more than a billion times on Spotify, with credits including SZA, 6LACK, Sienna Spiro, Giveon and Kali Uchis, and a range that stretches from Slayyyter to Fujii Kaze to Bebe Rexha.
Yakob is known for finding artists early and shaping their sound from the ground up. He has worked with VMA Best New Artist Sienna Spiro since her first single, "Need Me," going on to produce "Butterfly Effect" on her debut EP and to co-produce "Dream Police" with Omer Fedi, first performed on COLORS. He then co-wrote and produced "You Stole the Show," her first Billboard Hot 100 entry, and co-wrote and co-produced "This Is My House" and "We're Not in Love" on her debut album Visitor, the UK's fastest-selling debut of 2026 and a US Top 10 album. He has worked with Sekou since his debut single "Better Man," followed by "Too Young" and "Let Go of Me Slowly," and with Elmiene on "Anyways," "Diane," and "Comets + Gold" featuring Fujii Kaze, which he co-wrote and co-produced. His UK work also includes "Nocturnal" on FLO's Grammy-nominated debut album Access All Areas.
Photo by Gabi Lamb
His range reaches well beyond R&B. He co-wrote and produced "Old Technology" from Slayyyter's Worst Girl in America, which topped Billboard's Dance Albums chart and earned Pitchfork's Best New Music, and co-wrote/co-produced Bebe Rexha's country single "Drink And A Little Love."
Yakob co-produced "Love Language" on SZA's SOS, which won the Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. "Love Language" itself was nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance. He also co-wrote and co-produced "The Beach" and "World We Created" on Giveon's Grammy-nominated Take Time.
His longest creative partnership is with 6LACK. He was a writer, instrumentalist and producer on 6LACK's platinum debut Free 6LACK, nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album, and went on to executive produce East Atlanta Love Letter alongside Trevor "Singawd" Slade. The gold-certified album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and Yakob produced or co-produced seven of its fourteen tracks, including the Grammy-nominated, 2× platinum "Pretty Little Fears" with J. Cole, co-produced with T-Minus, and the gold-certified title track featuring Future. He returned for 6LACK's Grammy-nominated Since I Have a Lover.
He co-wrote and co-produced "Young, Rich & In Love" and "Tu Corazón Es Mío…" on Kali Uchis's Orquídeas, a Billboard 200 Top 10 album nominated for the Latin Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. He co-wrote and produced Alessia Cara's single "(Isn't It) Obvious," featuring a guitar solo by John Mayer, along with "Feels Right" from her album Love & Hyperbole. He executive produced SOHN's album Trust (4AD), co-writing and co-producing it alongside SOHN. His other work includes EXO's "Hear Me Out," which reached No. 1 on iTunes in more than 37 countries, and records for Lauv, BANKS, Blxst, Snoh Aalegra, Nao and UMI.
Before his record career took off, Yakob was a staff composer and later Creative Director at Butter Music + Sound, scoring campaigns for Cartier, Dom Pérignon, Hyatt, Hyundai, Toyota and Amazon. He has also written music for the Austrian TV productions Tatort and Dancing Stars.
Raised in a musical family, he trained in classical piano, attended Vienna's Musikgymnasium, and found his voice in jazz as a teenager, a grounding that still shapes his blend of classic soul and contemporary sound. He studied at Berklee College of Music on scholarship, graduating summa cum laude, and interned for film composer James Newton Howard after moving to Los Angeles.