The Ceremony

Let it not be understated that the bleeding-heart Baton Rouge MC contains multitudes. Since emerging from Louisiana’s mid-2000s street-rap scene, Gates has never shied away from revealing the many facets of his complicated psyche: A self-proclaimed depressive introvert who earned a master’s degree in psychology in prison, he’s a stone-cold killer, pensive philosopher, hopeless romantic, and freaky lothario—sometimes all at once. In the decade since he blew up with 2013’s *The Luca Brasi Story*, Gates’ style of warbly, diaristic-pain rap has become more commercially viable than maybe ever, but *The Ceremony*, his first studio release since 2022’s *Khaza*, makes the case that the 37-year-old veteran is willing to take it where other rappers dare not follow. (Exhibit A: “Ceremony,” on which he follows up a meditation on manifestation and energy flow with an update on his semen retention practice.) One minute, he’s grappling with suicidal ideation; the next, he’s claiming to have borrowed a pair of God’s house shoes. And then he’s ready to party, as on “Yonce Freestyle,” where he delivers the inspired hook (“Beyoncé concert, I’m beyond turnt”) in the style of a Hot Boy circa ’98, with cameos from B.G. and the hood’s hottest princess herself, Sexyy Red.

On his fourth studio album, the Louisiana rapper chills out, finds some inner peace, and sticks to the middle of the road.