Percy Keith Comes Out Swinging (Article)

Not even a month out of prison, and Percy Keith has already chosen his target for aggression relief. It probably doesn’t surprise anybody that there is friction between the former BWA member and Kevin Gates, however what is immensely surprising is the level of dopeness attributed to the recent slew of disses brought on by Percy Keith.
We’ve all heard the Kevin Gates disses of yesteryear, from AlleyCat TheRapper who accused Gates of stealing his song, to Geaux Yella who felt slighted by being froze out and forgotten; from the Young Troll beef where Kevin took shots at Troll during his infamous “IDGAF” record on The Luca Brasi Story followed by an onslaught of response diss records from Troll, all the way to Travis a.k.a. Tha Voice of Dead Game Records and the overcast of shade brought on by that seemingly endless feud. This merely scratches the surface of all the issues going on with Kevin Gates involving other members of the rap/hip-hop community, so with all of these people lining up to take a shot at the Bread Winners Association’s most acclaimed artist, what makes Percy Keith’s diss record any different?
The answer is familiarity and talent. Now of course, Tha Voice had a sense of familiarity with Gates as well, being that for the beginning of Kevin’s career Travis was his CEO and also the jump-starter of Kevin’s success, which is why their beef was so engaging, however the conflict seemed to leave us with more questions than answers. Did Dead Game Records forge Gates’ signature on that contract? Is Kevin Gates still paying Travis royalties for the success he enjoys courtesy of the legwork put in by Dead Game Records? Is the beef betwixt the two hip-hop hardheads simply a ruse designed to generate interest and boost sales? So many questions surrounding that conflict that may never be publicly answered. This is not to say that the conflict wasn’t entertaining, because it was, however it seems to me that a beef between cohorts is more engaging than a spat between employer/employee. Also it’s a notable point to make that while the Travis/Kevin beef was engaging, Travis is no rapper. He is a business man and CEO that chose to address the mic in order to get the business clear. This played out much like the Mayweather/McGregor fight. It was entertaining, and while you can’t help but respect Travis’ mind, one couldn’t help but figure that in the lyrical arena, Kevin Gates would end up prosperous. Meanwhile, Percy Keith is a lyricist with an ax to grind, as is obvious by the showing of his fangs in his newest series of diss records.
That being said, lets take a look at the field of view of the Percy Keith/Kevin Gates feud. Within a week of Percy’s release from prison, we caught a glimpse of Percy at Base Camp Studios via social media. It wasn’t long before the song “Ain’t No Boss” made its way online swiftly followed by “Listen Close.” In “Ain’t No Boss,” we got the chance to hear Percy Keith flex his lyrical prowess while sending a handful of shots towards Gates. Within the song, Percy proceeds to point out that Gates lets a woman (Dreka) do his thinking for him, as if to infer that Kevin Gates simply does not have a mind of his own and is completely controlled by his wife, Dreka. He then proceeds to mention that Gates is in fact NOT from South Baton Rouge, and then hints at a situation in which Kevin was scared to catch a body. It doesn’t seem that the entirety of the song in meant for Gates, however shots were indeed fired!
You would think that would be enough, but Percy Keith almost immediately dropped a second song entitled “Listen Close,” where Percy seems to be more aggressive in his addressing of his issues with Kevin Gates. If you weren’t 100% positive about the subject matter of the song, the line, “tried to hit you on both your phones” should be some indication as it appears to be a clever mention to Kevin Gates’ “2 Phones” single. From there, Percy continues to berate Gates, stating that Gates is in fact jealous of Percy and that Gates is indeed made insecure by the presence of Percy Keith. He also mentions Gates’ immaturity and the fact that he seems to carry on a plethora of identities, but was willing to look past Kevin’s issues due to the fact that they’re related. He even calls the contract that Gates’ provided to Percy “a setup.”
One thing is certain however, Kevin Gates thrives on controversy. He is not the type to simply take a diss record lying down. We are in fact talking about a platinum selling artist who literally takes time out of his day to block anybody on social media who has anything to say that may be even remotely considered as negative. Two weeks after the Percy Keith diss records dropped, Gates released a response record entitled “Therapy Shit.” In usual Kevin Gates form, he begins the song talking about being in prison and then quickly switches to the braggadocio flow that we’ve all come to know and appreciate. While at first it seems like yet another song without a centralized point, at 1:42 of the nearly 3 minute record, Gates proceeds to get a little more personal about the situation at hand, making mention to Percy Keith’s court case that landed him in prison. From there, Gates talks about how he bought his crew jewelry and makes mention to renting a black Maserati for “one of (his) artists,” and even says he put Percy in a grey Camero. It appears in the response that Gates is trying to take some version of the high road while simultaneously spilling lyrical tea all over the place. Such is evident by him stating that he came to Percy’s defense when Percy was accused of “messing with children” and that the result was that Gates himself was accused of signing sex offenders. Meanwhile he still states that Percy Keith is still his favorite rapper and would blow up any minute. Gates even goes so far as to ask where he hated on Percy and insists that this animosity between them is just Percy’s defense mechanism due to the fact that he really misses Kevin Gates. To conclude the song, Gates makes the statement, “Ain’t nobody ever love you like me.” The record seems to be Kevin’s way of throwing shade while simultaneously stating that it’s all love and the sole reason for their issues is because of misplaced feelings.
Now to the masterpiece in the conflict between Kevin Gates and Percy Keith. It wasn’t long after Gates’ response record that Percy Keith dropped a third diss record aimed at Gates entitled “Dementia,” but this one seems to really be the silver bullet to the beast. Percy starts the record immediately addressing the vehicle comments made by Gates, saying that money wasn’t spent on the Maserati or Camero, and that they were both in fact borrowed. Then Percy threw a low blow, making mention of the “I’m bout dick too” speech that Gates made at a concert, which can be found on YouTube. He even goes so far as to say that Gates was involved in sex with homosexual men while in prison. From there, he tells Gates that he can’t even come to this side of town and that Percy is the only reason Gates is still alive to this day. At that point, Percy brings mention to the feud between Gates and Geaux Yella, stating that Gates is only signing rappers that he does not want to prosper. Percy continues to bring up Kevin’s lack of loyalty, mentioning the former photographer of Gates that goes by the name of Cooley. At that point, Percy Keith continues by destroying Kevin Gates’ business acumen by stating that he never received a cent from Gates regarding one of the more popular singles the two of them dropped on The Luca Brasi Story. Percy then proceeds to tell the world that Gates is still paying Travis of Dead Game Records, even though Gates would have you believe he is a boss and owes nobody for his success. “Pick a side” is the advice to Gates given by Percy Keith after stating that Kevin Gates continues to go back and forth on whether he is really from Baton Rouge or New Orleans. Being a Baton Rouge native and witnessing the murder of Alton Sterling and also living through the great flood, my personal favorite two lines come when Percy Keith proceeds to call Kevin Gates and “Uncle Tom” and tells him that black lives matter, and then asks Gates, “how the fuck your city flood, you tell a n**** build an ark?!” Punchline after punchline, story after story, Percy Keith doesn’t take a break for 3 minutes, continuously disfiguring the image Kevin Gates has worked so hard to build up for himself.
If we are making comparisons here, Percy Keith in this situation is like Pusha T versus Kevin Gates as Drake. Percy has the talent, the animosity, and the real life stories all lined up to take aim and sink the Kevin Gates ship. Even fans of Kevin Gates are calling his response record to Percy “weak,” which only serves to pour salt in the wound when Percy Keith dropped his third, and in my opinion, most vicious diss record against Gates. How will this all work out? Will Kevin Gates directly address Percy Keith in a second response record, or will he dance around the subject the same way he did with Travis? Will Gates just take the L and blow the beef off entirely? What could Percy Keith possibly have left to say about Kevin Gates should he need to drop another response record? Only time will tell, but at the moment, this sure has served to be an incredibly interesting turn of events to say the least.