AR-Ab has been a stalwart of the Philadelphia rap scene for years, but a brief mention in Drake's "Back to Back" made the mainstream take notice of the hardcore rhymer. With some more eyes on him these days, it only seems right for the Philly rapper to team up with a rising star like Kevin Gates for a new single. The resulting collaboration is "How I Do It," which will likely end up on AR-Ab's upcoming mixtape Who Harder Than Me 4.

The collaborative record was created while the two were down at the 2016 South By Southwest Festival. AR-Ab told All Hip Hop that he wanted to work with Kevin Gates because he became a big fan of the Baton Rouge rapper's music after getting out of prison.

"When I came home from prison, I was talking to my manager and my manager had a plug with him, basically he was what I was listening to," AR-Ab explained. "They got us on the phone together and he was going around speaking to the local youth, like at detention centers and that's what I’m doing so we stayed on the phone DMing and texting each other. I didn’t even know he was going to be down at SXSW and we ended up doing this track."

As for Kevin Gates, 2016 has arguably been the best year of his career. The "I Don't Get Tired" MC's new album Islah debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album has continued to be a strong performer and even managed to sell more copies on iTunes than Rihanna's ANTI.

See 40 Hip-Hop Albums Turning 20 in 2016

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