In the book, ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, one of the qualities of successful people is that they ‘Begin with the End’. These are the kind of people of visualize what they want by knowing what is important to them and keeping their eye on the prize. Accordingly, this means a thought becomes a blueprint. That blueprint inevitably becomes a plan of action to achieve the ultimate end result. Conceivably this might be the reason why Kevin Gates decided not to sign with Young Money because he says that the label was too ‘mainstream’ for him at this juncture in his rap career. Eventually he signs with Atlantic Records, but isn’t this a major record deal? Not so fast. Major record labels often require their artist to start from the bottom. This is just what he wanted; to start from the bottom. Kevin Gates wanted to give his fans a chance to grow with him. It’s simple, and it’s a considerable element of a winner, as the book proclaims. Of course, an admirable twist to this story is that Kevin Gates is an avid book reader; which perhaps is a testament to his broad lyricism.
- On February 5, 1986, Kevin Gilyard, AKA Kevin Gates was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- When he was an infant his mother married his stepfather and never knew his biological father until he was in the 8th grade.
- Since his stepfather treated him differently he spent most of his time at his Grandparents house which is where he built his studio.
- Kevin Gates grew up in the hard streets of the ‘Bloody Sticks’ which surrounded him with gangs, guns, and drugs.
- He passed out his own mixtapes in school and around his neighborhood mostly because he loved music and to redirect his anger elsewhere.
- He began to take rapping seriously around 2007 and fostered a relationship with Lil Boosie and Webbie who are also natives of his home state.
- In 2007 he released the mixtape called Pick of Da Litter and soon after in 2008 he released All or Nuthin.
- In 2008 he was incarcerated but spent the next 3 years releasing mixtapes.
- In 2009 he released the mixtape All In and in 2010 also released Behind Enemy Lines.
- After his Grandfather died, he fell back into a life of crime and was convicted of drug and firearm charges.
- Kevin was released in 2011 and he focused his attention on rapping.
- In 2011 Kevin Gates released I Don’t Know What to Call It Vol. 1.
- His single ‘Love You’ has been viewed over a million times on YouTube.
- Between the time of releasing two mixtapes in 2012 (Make Em Believe and In the Mean Time) he garnered the attention of Lil Wayne.
- His single ‘Satellite’ has also reached more than a million YouTube views.
- The Luca Brasi Story was released in early 2013 around the time that he was signed to Atlantic Records under Young Money Entertainment’s management.
- Spin Magazine called The Luca Brasi Story “easily the best rap-related thing”.
- The Luca Brasi Story has been downloaded over 130,000 times on DatPiff.
- Kevin Gates has also been featured on mixtapes of Pusha T, Gudda Gudda, Juicy J, and Wiz Khalifa.
- His mixtape, Stranger Than Fiction released in 2013 debuted at number 37 on the Billboard 200 which sold 8,400 copies in its first week.
- His song ‘Wylin’ was ranked at number 40 by Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Songs of 2013 list.
- In March of 2014, he released the mixtape By Any Means and it debuted at Number 17 on the Billboard 200 and sold 17,000 copies.
- Kevin Gates was featured in XXL magazine as part of the Freshmen Class of 2014
On Shade45, when asked why he didn’t sign with Young Money this is what Kevin Gates told Sway in the Morning:
“Because I was sittin around with individuals that started their own label, they started their own brands and a lot of times you know you could be guilty by association in situations. And I don’t mean that in a bad way but that’s a real mainstream label. And I like to touch the people. You know I could get 10,000 cd’s of my own money and go pass them out in the street. I like the hand-to-hand… You know ‘Good evening, how you doing, I’m Kevin Gates I’m tryin to be your favorite rapper, if you don’t like it throw it away’. You know, I’m aggressive. You know and so if I want to exhibit that type of aggression, to my hustle, cause I’ve always been hands on, with everything that I did, why not start from the ground up and get it out the mud? And we looked at it like you know what, if we want to successfully run a label, let’s get with a label and find out the inner workings and the mechanics of a label. I’m in college right now. That’s how I looked at it. I’m not signed to a label; I’m learning how to run a label successfully. The right way”.
Post by: Rosie J. – music marketer
