Rapper Kevin Gates gets 30 months In Prison For Chicago Gun Charge

The Louisiana rapper whose 2016 studio album reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 was sentenced to 30 months in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to a gun charge from a Chicago arrest.

Kevin Jerome Gilyard, 31, known by his stage name Kevin Gates, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with a 2013 arrest, according to court records.

Gilyard was arrested around 8:10 p.m. on Oct. 29, 2013 in the 7200 block of South Stony Island Avenue, according to police records.

Arrests warrants were issued against Gilyard at least twice in the case, once in 2013 when he failed to show up in court, and again in December 2016, according to court records.

He was back in custody at the end of March, according to court records, and had been held ever since.

In handing down the sentence, Bridgeview Branch Court Judge Neil Linehan gave Gilyard credit for 34 days already spent in jail in the case, according to court records.

Gilyard broke onto the music scene in 2013 with "The Luca Brasi Story" after a series of mixtapes that depicted the gritty side of his life.

The critically lauded effort also brought the rapper into the major label sphere. He signed to Atlantic Records, and released "Stranger Than Fiction" shortly thereafter, the release that began his stint as a Billboard chart fixture.

Gates’ style couples rap and R&B-style singing, while hewing to the bleak, autobiographical style that he has said came from the "pain" of his life. His only studio album, the platinum-selling "Isiah" released in January 2016, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200.