Kevin Gates says he firmly believes he could have stopped his father’s death from AIDS-related complications. The 39-year-old rapper spoke on the subject during a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, where the host questioned him about his father’s illness.
“I read your father passed of AIDS. Was he gay? Was he an IV drug user?” Sharpe asked around the 14:30 mark. “Did you ever find out how he contracted it?”
Gates responded with a single word — “needle” — implying his father contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, which leads to AIDS, through shared syringes.
“Did you find out later he died from AIDS?” Sharpe followed up.
“He never lied to me about nothing,” Gates said. “He was so beautiful. If you could’ve seen my dad, he was beautiful. It’s crazy you asked me that. Nobody ever asks me this.”
Gates was still in his early teens when his father passed away due to complications from AIDS. The Baton Rouge rapper told Sharpe that he stayed with his dad “up until he passed.”
“I was with him. I was with for a long time,” he said. “He taught me a lot of beautiful lessons. If I could go back in time — it’s sad what I’m about to say — but I could’ve cured him.”
According to Gates, his father’s death sparked his deep interest in “holistic medicine,” leading him to believe he could have “cured” his dad if he had the knowledge back then that he has now.
“I ain’t Dr. Sebi or no shit like that,” he said, referencing the controversial self-taught healer who claimed to cure various illnesses through an alkaline diet. “I ain’t trying to act like that, but I could have cured him. He’s the one who made me take health so serious.”
Gates has been fairly open about his health and wellness journey over the years, which has included intermittent fasting, sobriety, daily yoga, and bodyweight workouts. He previously broke down his routine in a 2019 video for Men’s Health.
“Today, we’re gonna work out in a gym, but I also love hiking,” he said in the outlet’s Train Like series. “I use hiking as recovery, because when you’re hiking up the mountain, you touch the stabilizer muscles — the muscles that you normally wouldn’t touch when you’re doing gym workouts. There’s nothing like being in a natural environment.”
