Come tomorrow, Kevin Gates and Lil Wayne will be linked, with both parties set to deliver brand new albums. Though Wayne's Tha Carter V has hijacked the narrative, Gates' Luca Brasi 3 will no doubt find a warm welcome from loyal fans across the board. In honor of the upcoming drop, Gates has sat down for an intimate conversation with Sway Calloway, formatted in a similar fashion to Eminem's Kamikaze interview. The full interview has yet to drop, but Gates has shared a snippet of the session. Coincidentally, it deals with a similar topic raised in Em's interview: blackballing.
In this instance, Gates speaks of a pivotal moment that took place during his come-up. A conversation with Lil Wayne, one of the era's biggest names. Gates explains that Wayne was interested in signing him to Young Money, and proceeded to employ some tactics he may very well have picked up from Birdman. "When Wayne sat across that table with Mack Maine," says Gates, "and Wayne says 'man if you not over here, you ain't gon' eat. If you not over here, you know what I'ma do to you if you not over here." After Gates inquired further, Wayne elaborated on his intentions: "I'ma eat you."
Reading between the lines, it's easy to infer that Wayne's threats centered around industry blackballing. Naturally, such a one-sided dynamic left Gates shook. "That was the scariest moment of my life," admits Gates. "I'm making a transition from being in these streets. I hate to even namedrop, I hate to speak on this shit. But that was the scariest moment of my life when you a young artist, you trying to learn the game, you don't really know the game, and you got an artist at the top telling you that if you don't sign over here all or nothin', you ain' going to sign nowhere."
Clearly, Nicki Minaj isn't the only Young Money artist with an affinity for stopping bags. "I ain't gon' lie," says Gates. "It affected me." Luckily, things played out in an alternate fashion, and Gates was able to draw motivation from Weezy's hard-lined negotiation tactics. Keep an eye out for the full interview, "coming soon."