Kevin Jerome Gilyard better known as his stage name “Kevin Gates” was born on February 5th 1986. Gates attended Baton Rouge Community College when has 17 for a brief period of time. He is of Moroccan and Puerto Rican decent. Gates career started in 2007 when he signed a local label deal with Dead Game Records. This was where his career blossomed and eventually led to his major success in music.

Something very unique about Gates is how productive he was while in prison. Gates spent 31 months in prison between 2008 and 2011. During these 31 months, Gates actually earned a master’s degree in psychology through a prison program. He was released early for good behavior. Gates was eventually sent back to prison for parole violations, while in this 4 month period he wrote the mixtape “By Any Means” which eventually became one of his top albums.

Gates is driven by his family. He married his longtime girlfriend Dreka Haynes in 2015 and they have been practicing Muslim since then. They had two children Islah and Khaza. Gates is so driven by his family that his best album is actually named “Islah” after his daughter. Something interesting about Gates’ music is that his music has a purpose. Most rappers go out there and just talk about doing illegal things. Gates on the otherhand raps about his childhood and how he had to go through struggles and provide for his family.

Some traits that Gates demonstrated includes creativity and dedication. Gates is always making new music and even though he was put into prison many times, he still was dedicated to providing us a blessing in the music industry. Gates inspires me because he never gave up. Usually if someone goes to prison, they give up on their life but he kept striving to make great music and even got a master’s degree. Some principles that I have learned are to never give up on what you love and even though life gets tough, that doesn’t mean it has to end.