You don’t need any more extended tributes to Gates. After all, year-End lists are approaching and for the third straight year, he’s been writing and sending hits. At the moment, he has four ostensibly free mixtapes in the Top 100 of the iTunes Rap charts. In the last two weeks, he’s leaked “John Gotti,” a […]

Torii MacAdams does the Shmoney dance with dual iPads Walt Whitman wrote “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” Kevin Gates, too, contains multitudes, though admittedly many of his internal legion just want to punch you in the nose. The world’s foremost jailhouse behavioral therapist is […]

Jimmy Ness is the enemy at the gate. Young Scooter’s struggle bars ensure the “Drugs” [Remix] won’t be making an appearance on anyone’s song of the year list, but only the heartless won’t appreciate Rich Homie Quan’s sincere croons dedicated to brain altering chemicals. Originally written off as a Future clone, the 24 year old […]

Torii MacAdams is tired of rappers comparing “Medusa” to all things sedimentary in their rhymes In Greek mythology, Gaia, the Earth’s mother, is the primordial deity who birthed the Titans, along with daughter Rhea, who begat the Olympian Gods. The Titans and Olympian Gods were combative shit-stirrers, mothered by the terra itself, considerable forces destined […]

Jimmy Ness is never three mixtapes behind Kevin Gates is so good at rapping that the XXL Freshman ’14 cover could have been a close-up of his face. Few MCs combine lucid crime recollections, vulnerable introspection and speaker knockers quite like the Baton Rouge renegade. While the Passionweiss squad works on converting the site into […]

Blessed with gratuitous shout outs from Mr. Thanksgiving, XXL drops its Freshman Mixtape, which might be the best freshman mixtape yet — partially due to new two new tracks apiece from Isaiah Rashad and Kevin Gates. Lil Bibby has a pair on here too. Basically, everyone but Chance who was told by James Blake that […]

I’ve spent a significant part of the last few years taking the death of gangster rap for granted. The narrative that I’ve run with tracks the rise in popularity of artists like (duh) Kanye West, the explicitly fake Rick Ross, and Drake, and the concurrent fall of Young Jeezy, the disappearance of 50 Cent, the […]

“They call me Chris Paul. Lob City.” Very important statement on the state of Los Angeles professional sports being made here. Related: Lakers Vs. Clippers & The Trading Places Era. And to think that only 18 months ago, Chief Keef thought he was Kobe. Unrelated: I don’t know if Kevin Gates has ever watched a […]

Jimmy Ness is eating sashimi in Wales. Heavily inked, emotionally scarred and fresh out of the slammer, Kevin Gates returns with 16 bi-polar bangers. By Any Means is less personal than last year’s Stranger Than Fiction and The Luca Brasi Story, but the Louisiana’s rappers remains one of the best young gangsta rappers this side […]

Fresh out the cell block, Gates returns with the Terminator Lestat in the year 3000 destruction: half-robot, half-Vampire. Kevin Gates and Boosie as True Detective, Season 2. I’m putting this out there world. You don’t even wanna’ know what will happen when these two touch down to give Thibodeaux hell. By Any Means is still […]