Before Kevin Gates started outwardly embracing his roots and turned into the second coming of Gandhi, he had two phones and talked about drug dealing quite a bit. Selfishly, as someone who grew up on the latter version of the rapper, I always appreciate it when he goes back to talking about some toxic s**t in his music. In “Birds Calling,” I get my wish.

In 2024, I promise to be blunt, so here I go: This song isn’t my favorite. There’s something about its quality that I don’t like. I also feel like Kevin Gates’ vocals sound distorted, and the beat sounds like some glorified Nintendo music. While I rock with the way he opens his first verse, he sounds all over the place after that. I will say this, though: I appreciate Gates’ lyrics. They mix some gutter trap s**t with some empowering s**t. I also think the hook is solid.

Kevin Gates needs to leave those birds alone. They be pecking these days.

Quincy

Quincy is the creator of Ratings Game Music. He loves writing about music, taking long walks on beaches, and spaghetti that fights him back.