By Any Means

Kevin Gates holds nothing back on By Any Means, a mixtape released just as the Louisiana rapper was becoming a national star. Backed by dense, thunderous trap beats and horror-movie piano lines, Gates tackles subject matter that most MCs would leave untouched. "Posed To Be In Love" paints a disturbing portrait of a man being left by his girlfriend, while "Wish I Had It" zooms out, the rapper juggling flows as he narrates a tour of an impoverished "different city within the city."