Kevin Gates and Boosie Badazz Are Still Fighting Over Baton Rouge

Kevin Gates and Boosie Badazz both came out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rapping the same streets, absorbing the same violence, and building their careers on the same documentary instinct: say exactly what happened, name exactly where, and let the weight of specificity do the emotional work. Two rappers, one city, two decades of work, and a chain that only one of them can wear. The fact that they are still, in 2025, in a public argument about who gets to be called "Mr. Louisiana" tells you everything about how seriously both men take the question of who actually holds Baton Rouge down.

Boosie's trajectory runs directly through Pimp C. He signed with Pimp C's Trill Entertainment in 2001, and the co-sign was not just a business arrangement. It was a transfer of credibility from UGK's generation to Baton Rouge's next wave. He was paired with fellow Trill artist Webbie for the summer 2003 release "Ghetto Stories" and again for 2004's "Gangsta Musik." Those records established the template: raw Southern production, confessional detail, no distance between the rapper and the reality he's describing. By the time "Bad Azz" dropped on October 24, 2006, produced by BJ and Mouse on Tha Track and recorded at Trill Studios in Baton Rouge, Boosie had built something that felt genuinely local and genuinely consequential at the same time. "Wipe Me Down," the 2007 regional anthem with Webbie and Foxx, proved the sound could travel. In 2009, Boosie was sentenced to four years in prison on drug and gun charges, and in 2010 he was indicted on first-degree murder charges and sentenced to ten years on multiple counts of drug possession with intent to distribute. He recorded "Incarcerated" from inside. The dedication to output under those conditions built a loyalty that a chart position cannot manufacture.

Gates came up in that same Baton Rouge atmosphere. In 2007, he released his first mixtape, "Pick of Da Litter," in collaboration with Webbie and Boosie Badazz. That early alignment mattered. It placed Gates inside the Trill Entertainment orbit before he had any independent profile, giving him both a platform and a set of expectations about what Baton Rouge rap was supposed to sound like. Where Boosie's mode was communal, the neighborhood as subject, the block as protagonist, Gates pushed toward something more interior. His bars were confessional in a way that felt almost uncomfortable, like he was giving you access to thoughts most rappers would edit out. The 2013 mixtape "The Luca Brasi Story," released through his own Bread Winners' Association label, was the moment the wider rap world started paying attention. "Stranger Than Fiction" followed and debuted at number 37 on the Billboard 200. The result was a fanbase that treated his mixtape run with the kind of devotion usually reserved for albums.

Gates' debut studio album "Islah" was released on January 29, 2016, by Bread Winners' Association and Atlantic Records. In interviews, Gates said he named the album after his daughter. That framing, the album as a gift, as proof of arrival, was characteristic. Gates has always understood his output as personal testimony first and commercial product second. The album features no guest rappers, a deliberate choice that put every bar on Gates alone. "Kno One" dropped as the first single in July 2015. "Really Really," produced by Alex Goose, CookClassics, and Jake Troth, followed in October 2015 as the lead album single. "2 Phones," produced by Mad Max and released as the third single on November 5, 2015, peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Gates' first top 20 song. The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200. That commercial validation came from the same place the mixtape loyalty did: Gates rapping like the tape recorder is the only witness and the only judge.

The tension between Gates and Boosie is a dispute about inheritance. For years, Boosie has referred to himself as "Mr. Louisiana" and even sports a chain with the title. Gates, in his 2025 track "F*k Em," moved directly on that claim, positioning himself as the rightful holder of the title. Earlier, Boosie said in an interview with VladTV that he, Gates, NBA YoungBoy, and Fredo Bang participated in a group FaceTime to address any rumored tensions. That call happened. The "F*k Em" record also happened. Both things can be true simultaneously, and in Louisiana rap, they usually are. The street and the conversation about the street run on parallel tracks.

What makes Gates and Boosie worth putting in the same sentence is the shared conviction that the rapper's job is to document without softening, to be specific enough that the people who were there recognize it and honest enough that the people who weren't understand it anyway. Boosie built that out of the Trill Entertainment tradition, with Pimp C's fingerprints on the architecture. Gates built it out of a mixtape grind so relentless that by the time "Islah" debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, the audience already knew every corner of his interior life. The chain is a prop. The argument underneath it, about who put in the work and who the city actually belongs to, is the most Baton Rouge thing either of them has ever done, and neither one of them is close to done making the case.