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.
— Kevin Gates
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.
I used to really love Fiend, but he stopped. He just stopped. Every time he had a project, every project - 'There's One In Every Family,' 'Street Life' - I had to have them. And he just stopped. And that was disappointing, 'cause that was my favorite rapper at one time.
I never go into a situation with any type of expectations.
I put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don't have any flaws.
I like Peter Tosh, Bob Marley of course. All of Capleton, Sizzla, Frisco Kid, Buju Banton.
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.
Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.
I did study religion for a little while. I studied the Torah and the Holy Koran, Helios Biblos, which is considered by most people to be the Holy Bible. I just wanted to know, even with Buddhism and the Dalai Llama.
One of my most popular songs, 'Satellites,' I paid $300 for that beat on SoundClick.
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've always been a loner.
I could care less about the particular. I like to make music.
I like being with my family. That's my party.
I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I'm just a cold-blooded investigator.
I really don't pay attention to the outside world when I'm incarcerated, because being in prison is like being in a different world. So I don't pay attention to what's going on outside of jail, because it's all beyond my control.
I've had mixtapes that have been better than albums I've heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.
When you're in prison, you want to know that you were thought about.
I don't really like talking. I like to execute. I'm not a talking person. I'm an action person.
I don't want no handouts. I want to get it out the mud.
Glory be and praise to God. I didn't do any of this. God did. I don't have a recipe or a blueprint. I prayed for it, and my prayers are continuing to be answered.
I'm not afraid to make mistakes.
What I see, what I went through, what a friend of mine may have went through, whatever - I rap about it.
I suffer from deep depression, so my only release is music.
I don't just listen to rap.
'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'm super serious about music. That's, like, the only thing I'm serious about.
It's a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.
I was doing sold-out shows before I got radio play.
I don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
I used to live with my grandmother. I used to wonder why the other kids in school went home with their mothers and fathers. I wanted to be the guy that got married. I wanted to be the guy with the children and the white picket fence. I never had that.
I'm never on Twitter. I'm never on Instagram. And that's not by choice: it's just that those things never really interested me. I might post a picture here and there, but that ain't really been my focus.
The only frustrating thing about jail is that I can't make music.
I'm an introvert somewhat. There could be a room full of people, I'll go stand in the corner.
Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I don't sleep much. I don't sleep much - I work, I work, I work.
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.
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 have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.
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.
Rap was more of a release for me, a journal.
I'm a bookworm. I know with my physical appearance that I don't look like the typical reader. I'm in Barnes & Noble all the time, and you can look at people that look like they are supposed to be in there. I am in there, pants sagging, hat backwards.
If you look at the movie 'Belly,' I identify with Sincere the most. I am a gangster. I love my lady to death. I'm not in the game for the wrong reasons. I'm not in the game for the glory. I'm in the game to survive so the people that I love could be straight. I'm a highly intelligent individual.
I'm glad I can't vote.
The more I grow in popularity, the lonelier it gets. Because you don't really know me. You just know this part of me. You fell in love with that. But it's way more intricate than what meets the surface.
I could give a flying flip about doing promo because, no disrespect, nobody put me in the position that I'm in.
Marriage is the most wonderful thing ever.
I always wanted a family.
I adapt and I adjust to whatever environment I'm in.
I'm not no Internet person.
