430 kevin gates download series#

Mixtapes with titles like All In and I Don't Know What to Call It, Vol. 2.Д«orn and raised in Baton Rouge, Kevin Jerome Gilyard made his mixtape debut in 2007 with Pick of da Litter. In 2021, he delivered a sequel to that album with the mixtape Only the Generals, Pt. Gates was back on the Billboard 200 that same year with his Only the Generals Gon Understand EP.

430 kevin gates download series#

From 2016 to 2018, he routinely hit the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 with volumes in his mixtape series Murder for Hire, By Any Means, and Luca Brasi, and reached number four with his sophomore full-length, 2019's I'm Him. The gruff but lyrical MC narrowly missed the top of the chart in 2016, landing at number two with his proper debut album, the platinum-certified Islah. While вЂњDonвЂ™t KnowвЂќ will not push Gates into the world of radio pop, it does serve as indicator of how and where the Baton Rouge rapper will progress over the coming months and years.Transferring the reflective style of rappers like Drake to the genre of gangsta rap, Louisiana-based MC Kevin Gates spent five-plus years on the mixtape circuit before climbing into the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 with his 2013 release Stranger Than Fiction. That being said, the song has the ability to draw in a wider audience, dispensing of all that damnВ storytelling that can bog down a good pop song. Compared to Stranger Than Fiction, вЂњDonвЂ™t KnowвЂќ is a fairly straight-forward affair, lacking in both the production ingenuity and emotional affectivity the album offered.

The beat is pretty standard 808 Mafia and/or Zaytoven and/or Southside fare, acting as a more than capable backing for GatesвЂ™ boasts and strangled singing. He delves into his deeply troubled past, although itвЂ™s largely in passing and the storytelling is milquetoast compared to what he shows on tracks like вЂњNeon LightsвЂќ and вЂњ430 AMвЂќ. He shows braggadocio (вЂњdonвЂ™t know no bitch I canвЂ™t hitвЂќ) and street solvency. вЂњDonвЂ™t KnowвЂќ isnвЂ™t the song that will send Gates on either of the aforementioned routes, but it does represent his variegated skill set.

The next several years will decide whether Gates will take the Future route, evolving into an impressive radio monster that still retains a good deal of artistic integrity, or the Gangsta Gibbs route, a rapper with popular, yet a somewhat stultified career. At this point in his career, Gates might actually have more in common with Curren$y or Freddie Gibbs circa 2008. In that sense, Gates is an anomaly in todayвЂ™s national rap landscape, a financially soluble artist with a groundswell of support that still does not have thatВ song or thatВ album attributed to his name. Despite all that success, Gates did not have (to my knowledge) a single national radio hit and still has not released a major label album. He also appeared on songs with Migos, Starlito, Ty Dolla $, Pusha T, pushing his name into cities across the West and East Coast. In 2013, Gates released a mixtape ( The Luca Brasi Story) and a self-released album ( Stranger Than Fiction), both critically acclaimed efforts. Kevin Gates is an interesting figure, someone who has both captivated the rap listening internet and built a vast, homegrown fan-base in his native Baton Rouge.