Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Kevin Gates didnāt have the easiest upbringing. Living in a poverty stricken environment, he resorted to selling drugs and gang life landing him in and out of jail since we was a child. Gates scored a 31 on his ACT at the age of 16, and he states heās always been a smart individual. Being in jail didnāt stop him from receiving an education, earning his masterās degree in psychology while incarcerated.
āIām an avid reader,ā Gates explains. āIām re-reading The Master Key System because I was excited when I first got the book, and I ran through it fast. Iām really re-reading it, so Iām really reprocessing it right now.ā
Gates has never been one to hide his feelings; growing up in Louisiana he is an avid reader of vampire novels. Combine that with his love for the āidea of being in loveā and you get his song āTwilight,ā a track about two of his favorite topics to read aboutālove and vampires, which features the following:
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āEvery night, I kiss your picture on the nightstand / Loveās a battlefield, itās not a one-night stand / But I would go to war with God for you, baby.ā Kevin doesnāt allow his surroundings to influence his music or himself, and will tell you in a second, he would give it all up for love. In essence, Gates is a product of his environment, but his surroundings donāt define him. Allow Kevin himself to let you in on a scene from his movie, better known as his life.
Kevin Gates On His Reading Habits & Getting A Masters Degree In Jail
HipHopDX: You received your masters degree in jail. How do you value working on yourself as a person?
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Kevin Gates: I donāt really value working on myself as a person. What steered me into getting my masters was I was interested in human behavior, so I guess I was self-improving myself without knowing I was improving myself.
DX: You scored a 31 on your ACT. What are you reading right now?
Kevin Gates: Iām an avid reader. Iām re-reading The Master Key System because I was excited when I first got the book, and I ran through it fast. Iām really re-reading it, so Iām really reprocessing it right now. But itās by an author named Charles F. Haanel. My two favorite authors are Nicholas Sparks for the simplicity [and being] realistic. He wrote The Notebook and Dear John. Those books were in turn made into movies, and I like Anne Riceāthe vampire novels that she writes. The book Queen of the Damned was in turn made into a movie, but my favorite book that she wrote is Memnoch the Devil.
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DX: So you like vampire novels?
Kevin Gates: I like vampire novels, and I like romance novelsā¦simplistic romance novels about being in love. I donāt just like vampire novels, but I like both of them interchangeably.
DX: Do you think reading factors into your music?
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Kevin Gates: No maāam, I donāt really think so. I just always had this great love for being in love. It doesnāt exist really in the realm of reality, so I read it in different novels. I look for depictions of love in different novels, because it gets lonely doing what I do or being what I am.
DX: The more fame that you get, you said you get lonelier because you feel people donāt know the real you. Is that correct?
Kevin Gates: No, Iām not going to say that, but I have depthsā¦I have different depths to me. You know, Iām not one to mention them, so we can have a conversation about various subjects, and I can expound on all of them. Does that define who I am as an individual? I donāt believe it does. So as you grow and youāre in a position of power, you have a great responsibility that comes with that great position of power. And in doing so, you have to be very careful of what you say and the things that you may say around people, because they could be taken offensively. Iām never out to hurt anyone. Iām never out to be derogative towards anyone by any means. Some people donāt really have the openness that I have, and when I say openness Iām talking about being open-minded and not being close-minded towards certain subject matters. Iām one of the more open-minded individuals that I know. And when you deal with individuals that arenāt really ready to be receptive towards that type of understanding and that way of thinking, you kind of find yourselfā¦ well thereās not too many people that you can really converse with on a intellectual level, so you alienate yourself.
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Why Kevin Gates Says His Life Is Like A Movie
DX: Youāve mentioned that you suffer from depression, and music is a form of therapy. What would you say triggers your depression and sends you into the studio?
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Kevin Gates: Yes maāam, itās therapeutic. I vent. I use it as a releaseāthat and tattoos. Well, it doesnāt trigger any depression I just have unresolved grief. Itās things in my life that Iāve had trouble with letting goāwondering, āHow come it had to be like this? Why couldnāt it have been like this?ā If itās not like that, I understand that, go in the studio and speak about those things that may have been emotionally upsetting or emotionally troubling to me.
DX: You rap very openly about drugs, jail and the streets but you donāt talk about it in interviews. Is there a reason behind that?
Kevin Gates: Because it would take away from the suspense of the movie. My life is a movie. I donāt want to take away fromā¦ I would be cheating the listenerāwell Iām going to say the viewerābecause when you listen to my music, you get a mental depiction in your brain. I donāt want to take away from the viewer the Kevin Gates By Any Means movement or whatever project I may have coming out soon. It may be a subject matter that I havenāt spoken on yet. I just want to keep the viewers in suspense. I donāt want to cheat the viewers. I donāt want to let them in on the movie before they get the plot, the climax, the rising action, the falling action or the resolution. I donāt call them fans. I call them extended family, so I want to allow my extended family to grow with me and to witness the evolution of Kevin Gates. And if I was to just disclose that information right now in the interview, then itās really nothing to look forward to. I mean one person told me in an interviewā¦ I told her in an interview, āI donāt really like to speak on religion, because I just donāt want to be offensive to anyone.ā And she was like, āWell Kevin, you are my religion.ā Itās a lot of people that feel like that. And I just donāt want to ruin the movement for them. I donāt feel it will be fair.
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DX: Where did this open-mindedness and persona stem? Were you always like this growing up?
Kevin Gates: Yes, I believe it stems from birth, the alignment of the planet and the universe. When the stork dropped me off at the front door, they put a chip in my brain that made me open-minded.
DX: How is your relationship with Young Money?
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Kevin Gates: My relationship with Young Money is the same it is with anyone, itās beautiful. You know, I stay in my own lane. I mind my own business, and Iām never going to say anything derogative about anybody, so it can only be love. Yeah, for the time being.
DX: How does Bread Winners Association interact with Young Money?
Kevin Gates: They manage the artist, and the artist Kevin Gates is signed to BWA. BWA has a partnership with Atlantic.
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Kevin Gates Calls Rappers Who Glorify The Streets Sheltered
DX: What would you say is the difference between the streets in reality and glorifying the streets in music is?
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Kevin Gates: Individuals that glorify the streets would lead me to believe that that was an individual that was wowed by it and impressed by it. And that would lead me to believe that if you were wowed by something, you only see the glory of it. You only see the glamour. That means you donāt see the struggle, you donāt see the consequences that comes behind being in the streets, and when I talk about the streets itās a very sad experience. Although Iāve had some great times, I think about all the people that I lost. I have a lot of loved ones that are in prison. I have a lot of loved ones that I will never see again. A lot of my best friends are either dead or in jail. I know them for the rest of my life, but Iāll never see them again, because Iām a convicted felon. So I canāt go to a prisonāa penal systemāand visit someone that I love. Do I think itās fair? No, but at the same time, it is what it is. Itās beyond my control. So an individual that glorifies this and that in the streets, hey I look at it like maybe you lived a sheltered lifestyle, and this lifestyle is amazing to you. But this lifestyle has brought me nothing but grief, emotional discomfort, psychological discomfort and mental strain. I say if I could go back in time and change everything, I wouldnāt change anything because it made me the person I am today. But I oftentimes wish I wouldāve took a different route.
DX: So if you took a different route do you think you would still be in music?
Kevin Gates: Well, no. To be loved and to be in love, I would trade that any day for music. If anybody was to come to me and tell me, āKevin, I donāt have a lot but Iām happy, and Iām in love. Weāre in love with each other, weāre happy and weāre on fire.ā I would gladly switch positions with them any day.
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DX: Youāve had some independent commercial success with both By Any Means and Stranger Than Fiction. Youāve been cutting out the middleman for a while. How do you feel your Internet presence plays a part in that?
Kevin Gates: I donāt know, and if I were to answer that question I wouldnāt know, because thatās not my focus. My focus isnāt on selling albums. My focus is on making great music, because anything that I want in lifeāanything that I want or desireāis probably already desiring me. I donāt do this for any materialistic benefit or anything of that nature. Like I say, music is all I have. Itās my only release, and Iāll be doing that until itās no longer my release. So for right now, thatās my release. Itās my only form of release, and itās my only form of therapy. So I donāt pay attention to the Internet. I donāt pay attention to social media and anything like that unless Iām asking my extended family what do they think about music. [Iāll ask them] what they think about a particular song, and I get the constructive criticism about it. I love constructive criticism, ācause youāre showing me what areas I need to improve in. But as far as paying attention to what songs sell the most, I donāt do that, because at the end of the day, I like to think my own thoughts and feel my own feelings. I will not be influenced by the things around me. The things around me donāt dictate who I am as an individual.
DX: Do your kids listen to your music?
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Kevin Gates: My little girl loves it, but I donāt really think that she likeā¦ She didnāt open her eyes until she heard me talk. She heard my voice the whole time she was in the womb, and that was what she identified with. So certain songs come on like āMYB,ā and she just light up like a Christmas tree. But I donāt believe itās what Iām saying. I believe itās the sound of my voice. I have a very distinct voice, and most women tell me my voice is very comforting. I donāt feel that way, but hey if it works for them, so be it.
DX: Are you working on anything right now, like your upcoming debut album?
Kevin Gates: Yes maāam, Iām working on music. No maāam Iām just working on music because everything I drop is an album, did someone have to say hey this is an album for everybody to be like when are we going to get an album? Every body of work I dropped was an album to me. I have a few artists Iām going to umbrella under the BWA umbrella, but I just donāt want to ruin the movement, because I donāt feel itās fair to the listeners.
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RELATED:Kevin Gates Describes Overcoming Depression & Incarceration On āStranger Than Fictionā
