The Eye usually features up-and-coming artists taking to a minimal studio space for a one-shot, black-and-white performance of discography highlights, with just a single microphone and camera capturing the rendition. That’s mostly true for the latest installment, but this time, performing is somebody we’ve already known well for years now: Kevin Gates.
The Louisiana rapper has been at it for well over a decade, with his first brush with mainstream success coming in 2013 via the Stranger Than Fiction mixtape, his first release to land on the Billboard 200. A few years after that, in 2016, he dropped his debut album, Islah, which managed a peak all the way up at No. 2. The 2019 follow-up I’m Him also fared well, topping out at No. 4. Most recently, his third album, June’s Khaza (which we named one of our most-anticipated rap albums of the summer), was the rapper’s third straight top-10 LP. (A couple mixtapes, 2017’s By Any Means 2 and 2018’s Luca Brasi 3, also both peaked at No. 4.)
So, Gates comes into his new performance for The Eye with a wealth of experience and success by his side. With the instrumental backing him, Gates goes hard for two minutes, sometimes spitting quick-paced verses and sometimes delivering some tender singing.
On the vulnerable track, a single from Khaza, he sings of a woman he loves, for better or worse. Lyrics include, “No one loves you like I will / Feel like Yung Bleu ’cause you mines still / Baby, tell me what the fuck they know ’bout our love / Our love is a fire inside and it’s burnin’ forever.”
Watch Gates perform “Bad For Me” for The Eye above.
Kevin Gates is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.