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Kevin Gates Shares His Thoughts From Prison For the First Time Since October

The Baton Rouge rapper also shares a new video for "What If."

Kevin Gates' 2016 run was one of the most fruitful in recent rap history. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana native was already a fixture on social media for his candid and polarizing Instagram posts, which covered whatever was on his mind at the time, like staying focused despite a lack of attention or randomly buying his wife chocolate strawberries. Simultaneously, Gates was experiencing the most success of his career with his major label debut Islah going platinum, the first time a street rapper had done so this decade. But 2016 was a year of major setbacks for Gates as well. In October, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail for kicking a female fan in Florida in August of 2015. In April of this year, Gates was denied bail and immediately sentenced to 30 more months in prison, due to a felony gun charge that he had a warrant out for in 2013.

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Last night on Instagram, the rapper shared his first words since going behind bars, with a letter in which he urged fans not to worry about him. "A great person is measured by all of the great tests they can undergo and still remain true to who they are," the "I Don't Get Tired" rapper wrote. Gates also released a video for "What If," a song released in April that finds him wondering if God is an ordinary person just like everyone else. Watch the video above.

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