It must be said: Louisiana's Kevin Gates is one of the most exciting rappers out, a wounded, noble hustler, equally at home with detail-rich street narratives, for-the-ladies jams, and radio-ready crossover shots. His guttural baritone is as instantly recognizable as Ja Rule's bark or Method Man's heart-of-gold growl, but what sets him apart is a Scarface-like commitment to gangster storytelling and a fantastic crew of producers, elevating each mixtape track to possible hit status. Not to throw the T-word around willy-nilly, but Gates possesses nearly Tupac-esque levels of self-mythologizing, understatedly serene flow, and gritty realism, which is not praise to be thrown around lightly. by Kyle Fleck