Southern Plug Magazine: Leaders of the New School ft Remy Ma Volume 2 Issue 1 C | Page 45

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 album chart with his 2013 release
Stranger Than Fiction. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Gates
made his mixtape debut in 2007 with Pick of da Litter.
Mixtapes with titles like All In and I Don't Know What to Call
It, Vol. 1 appeared over the next few years. After he dropped
the popular The Luca Brasi Story mixtape -- one of the first
releases on Bread Winners' Association, a label he co-founded
with wife and booking manager Dreka Gates -- things changed
quickly. It led to appearances on high-profile mixtapes from
Pusha T and Gudda Gudda, and Gates subsequently signed a
contract with major-label Atlantic. Stranger Than Fiction, the
first of several releases to bear the logos of Bread Winners'
Association and Atlantic, was released that same year. It
featured guest spots from Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J, and Starlito,
and debuted at number 37 on the Billboard 200 chart. Plies, 2
Chainz, and Doe B helped deliver his 2014 mixtape, By Any
Means. The next year saw the single "Kno One" preview Islah.
Gates' proper debut album, it was issued in January 2016,
debuted at number two, and was certified gold before the
rapper returned with an EP-length mixtape, Murder for Hire II,
that May. The single "What If," whose main hook referenced
Joan Osborne's 1995 hit "What If God Was One of Us,"
appeared in March 2017. The track appeared on By Any Means
2, which appeared in September.