Kevin Gates is Dominating the Charts & No One’s Noticing

[Shizlansky]

Kevin Gates > Future, Meek, Troy and all them new niggas ppl be talking about

 

[Peezy_Jenkins]

ehh not heavy on his music but congrats

 

[silverfoxx]

I been telling y'all on the IC that this dude is blowing up big. His management is elite right now.

 

[Shizlansky]

I been telling y'all on the IC that this dude is blowing up big. His management is elite right now.

And his music is elite too.

 

[numbaz...80's baby]

I don't get the Kevin Gates hate on here. I don't get it at all. I know one thing, whoever is "hot on the IC" usually sells about 3k copies. Maybe Gates has to rap about spaceships and encyclopedias or some shit for IC love.

Make a song called 'flippin chickens'

I been telling y'all on the IC that this dude is blowing up big. His management is elite right now.

Dude was getting $30k a show b4 his album came out.

 

[rip.dilla]

Popped the new tape in the deck yesterday, it's cool and all but... I'm a bit confused

With his name being an Anglo-Saxon one, there was an Islamic recitation on one of the songs .. he Muslim?

 

[Idiopathic Joker]

Dudes wack but whatever

 

[Chi Snow]

Who?

 

[rip.dilla]

Who?

Mike Jones...

 

[EyeofAsaru]

Kevin gates is cool

He can get obnoxious after awhile ...it's only but so much of that ratchet shit eye can take...

 

[Tsotsi Cape Town]

I been telling y'all on the IC that this dude is blowing up big. His management is elite right now.

Gotta give credit where credit is due, foxx put me onto Kevin Gates by how you were hyping him up although his XXL freshman shit made me take a little notice, good looking out and promotion homie

 

[K_Fisher]

about 7 hours ago by Nathan S.

True story. Yesterday I saw that Drake's Views album was once again the number one album in the country and I started and stopped an article on it about five times. It was obviously important news, but did the world need another "Drake is really popular" article to understand that Drake is really popular? What did I have to add to the conversation that wouldn't just be a rehash of what I'd already written and what so many others had already posted?

But there's another story unfolding on the charts that no one is talking about - or almost no one. A couple months ago I wrote about the jaw-dropping news that Kevin Gates' Islah album had almost outsold Adele and Rihanna, and today the good people over at The Smoking Section also noticed that if you dig a little deeper on the charts, past Drake and Beyoncé and Rihanna, you'll see that Gates' recent Murder for Hire 2 album is currently at number twelve, and with Islah still putting numbers on the board, that gives Gates two simultaneous Top 20 albums.

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Billboard Album Charts (Sales + Equivalent Streams)

1. Drake – Views – 152,069

3. Beyoncé – Lemonade – 79,310

7. Rihanna – ANTI – 42,269

8. Flume – Skin – 31,489

12. Kevin Gates – Murder For Hire II – 27,093

16. Prince – The Very Best of Prince – 22,366

17. G-Eazy – When It’s Dark Out – 22,165

19. Kevin Gates – Islah – 21,340

21. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo – 18,840

23. Bryson Tiller – Trapsoul – 17,068

Without a fraction of the hype or attention Gates is quietly proving that he's not just a social media giant, he's a rapper capable of consistently moving the kind of album numbers that make him just as popular, or more popular, than many of his more acclaimed peers. And while he certainly has a major label machine behind him, he's doing it without the big co-signs and usual headlining spots we usually associate with popularity.

Gates obviously has something far more powerful than any proximity to a famous rapper, he has a hardcore fan base dedicated to supporting his releases not just with their ears but with their wallets as well. You may love his music, you may not, but like Bryson Tiller, the simple numbers say that if you're ignoring Gates' impact on new music, you're doing so at your own peril.

By Nathan S, the managing editor of DJBooth and a hip-hop writer. His beard is awesome. This is his Twitter. Image via Instagram.

Tags: Kevin Gates Most Popular News

about 7 hours ago by Nathan S.

79 COMMENTS

Good spot my dude but is "dominate" really the word to use when his highest effort in that list not in Top 10?

 

[blacktux]

In 5 years islah going to be a sworn classic.

 

[S2J]

I got 2....phones, i for the plug, i for the load AYE!

If you rock out to this shit you are a BAMA. Period

 

[aladdin1978]

Dudes wack but whatever

Exactly... Vanilla ice dominated the charts in 1990 also. I don't buy into the Kevin gates shit. I tried to listen to his shit - I just heard basic, current day shit.

 

[_Goldie_]

Dominating? Nah bruh lol I fuck with acouple of his tracks tho

 

[mike06]

so what's the TOTAL number of sales for both albums to date?

 

[KamPushMe]

That cousin fucking square anit better than future b

 

[S2J]

Im a strong Future detractor. He represents everything wrong with the game and the culture

Future>>>>>> Kevin Gates

At least future has some guilty pleasure nh songs and beats. Kevin Gates is corny af. Hes a step away from Flo Rida

 

[Dupac]

this is kinda sad to me....., there was a rapper here in bmore from my neighborhood that gates was really cool with and he chilled with him everytime he came to our city... he was killed last summer...ironically after a gates show where he told gates to deny some other niggaz he was beefing with from coming in his show...

i'm not a huge gates fan personally, but he seemed like a cool dude from what i heard...and with him blowing like he is this year, i have to think shorty from round my way woulda got much more exposure as well cuz all things were definitely leading to that....