Kevin Gates got candid during a chat with Mike Tyson, opening up about being molested as a child and how that awful experience has influenced his life.

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“It was an escape for me,” he when asked why he started writing music and rapping. “And I never said this in no interview or no podcast or anything like that. I grew up real, real violent and real aggressive. Not because I wanted to be, but I was molested as a child. So, I had this fear of being vulnerable. I took every kind of martial arts you could take. I even boxed; I did everything.

I wanted to be the toughest person on earth. But writing and making music was always an escape for me. I never had the nuts to come out and say that. This is my first time saying this today.”

Despite his successes, Gates has had a rough life and has spent several years in prison as an adult.