Do you know how official you have to be to get away with wearing a scarf on the South Side of Baton Rouge? I’m pretty sure Kevin Gates is the only one who has ever successfully pulled that off. The comparisons between Boosie and Gates are overblown, probably because the people making them have never […]

If you were wondering what the extra-musical high point of this video is, it’s at the 1:37 mark when the girl wears florescent lipstick with “Gates” written on her lower lip. Whatchu know about that, Hype Williams? Other things of note: neon lights are not normally a good place to find love (too unflattering of […]

I’m not even going to give Gates any more high praise; you already know where I stand. Gates starts this song by dismissing the Future comparisons, then he shrugs them off, then he becomes Jamaican mid-way, then he closes out the song by telling the engineer not to change a thing. KB, who I have […]

Luca Brasi might have gained Gates fans among the Intelligentsia coffee set, but “Satellite” was the anthem that orbited throughout Louisiana last year. A few misconceptions have been floating about the Baton Rouge rapper lately. For one, he was never signed to Young Money. He’s had a management deal with them. So there was no […]

One of the marks of a memorable rapper is when they write a line that should be a cliche, but somehow isn’t. Gates gets one off with “white and red whips like a Marlboro sign.”  This may be my favorite song from Luca Brasi, but it has seven or eight rivals. To it’s credit, it […]

One of Kevin Gates' first interviews ever.

Baton Rouge’s Luca Brasi creeps in silently on a Friday night to drop one of the year’s heavily anticipated mixtapes. Between this and Indigoism, it’s like Holiday Gift Man has been stealthily dropping presents down the chimney (wrapped in a Live Mixtapes banner). I’ve been jamming it for the last hour and off a cursory […]

You might have caught Gates stealing the show on Pusha’s “Trust You.” Let’s immediately dead the idea that he’s ripping off Future. Gates has been doing this since Pluto was a planet and he has his own Jamaica meets South Side of Baton Rouge stomp. This is the video from “Weight” from his imminent Luca […]

The official video drops for the only “Love Sosa” freestyle worth watching. It’s also particularly applicable because Baton Rouge is the only place in America that might have a murder rate as high as Chiraq.You can see the decay of the Southside in the video or you can just read this story about how a […]

If you’re only going to listen to one “Love Sosa” freestyle, make it this one by KVN Gates. When I went down to Louisiana in the spring, Gates already owned the region in a way that hadn’t happened since Boosie and Wayne were at their peak. Over the last six months, he’s only been getting […]