Kevin Gates
Kevin Gilyard, known as Kevin Gates, built a devoted Baton Rouge and mixtape-circuit following through the early 2010s with a singular, melodically unstable rap-singing style that treats anxiety, infidelity, and street violence with equal candor. His 2016 debut album Islah and its singles "2 Phones" and "Really Really" pushed that confessional Louisiana style to platinum-selling mainstream success. Gates has said directly that he passed his style down to the next wave of Baton Rouge rappers, YoungBoy Never Broke Again among them.
the sound in question
2015
2 PhonesKevin Gates
we haven’t charted Kevin Gates yet
this stretch of the river isn’t mapped. we trace the watershed one artist at a time — and we’re always heading further upstream.