A lot of people would detest the idea of going to prison. XXL Freshman, Kevin Gates begs to differ. The By Any Means rapper spoke to VladTV and revealed his reasoning as to why prison was the best thing that ever happened to him and the changes it brought about in his way of thinking.

"Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Gates who spend 31 months in jail. When asked why, the rapper claimed that he learned the value of self-respect. "Because you gonna learn respect for yourself and you're gonna learn respect for all the things around you," he said.

"That's like in the penitentiary, a lot of people hear me say, "Penitentiary rules in effect." I'm gonna respect me and I'm gonna respect every individual around me. Yeah everything counts. Yeah he might be smaller. This other individual might be weaker than me, but he may be able to beat me from the mind. And what I mean beat me from the temple, I could beat him up right now. But he the one that served me my food at the char-ha. So what's happens when he chop some glass up and put it in my drink and give it to me?"

Gates is currently headlining his first tour "By Any Means." 

Check out the interview below.

[VladTV ]

More From XXL