Kevin Gates

“Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac. That was, like, my top five, generally.”

“In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.”

“'Recreative' is a word that I invented because in urban culture, with colloquialism, we invent so many slangs. I don't like the way that 'recreational' sounds - I don't like to say I do a lot of 'recreational' reading. I like to say that I read 'recreatively.' I do a lot of 'recreative' reading.”

“I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn't express to an individual, I would express them in my music.”

“I always knew who I was, and I always ran from my true purpose... I know what my job is. And I always ran from it.”

“I could care less about the particular. I like to make music.”

“Marriage is the most wonderful thing ever.”

“Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can't make music.”

“I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that's scary. It is what it is, man, I don't be trippin'. I couldn't tell God when I wanted to be born.”

“I'm a felon. I get pulled over all the time.”

“I look at other people's lives, and some people feel like they're too old to play with toys. But I still go through the toy section at the store, 'cause there were toys that I wanted when I was little that I couldn't have. So I still get them.”

“Let me tell you something about Tunechi - about that boy. That boy comes to the studio every day and grind as if he doesn't have a dollar in his pocket.”

“Rap was more of a release for me, a journal.”

“I don't just listen to rap.”

“I was doing sold-out shows before I got radio play.”

“Sometimes I feel like being an intellectual. Sometimes I like to just be aggressive and all the way in my feelings. Sometimes I might be emotional, or sometimes I might drag on the track and be lazy. I just like to share the different states of existence of Kevin Gates with the rest of the world.”

“When you stand for something, you've got to stand for it all the way, not half way.”

“I have trouble with letting go. That's my problem.”

“I was born in Earl K. Long Hospital. I was born Feb. 5th, 1986. I have a lot of family members. My grandmother had five girls, and all of them had children. It was always a house full. A lot of cousins. A lot of family members.”