Musician Kevin Gates revealed that he was molested as a child while appearing on Mike Tyson’s podcast, Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson. The rapper appeared on the podcast on June 30.
Gates and Tyson were discussing how the rapper got into music, and Gates told the boxing champion that he used rap and violence as a way to deal with the trauma of being molested when he was a child.
“It was an escape for me. I grew up real, real violent, real aggressive, not because I wanted to, but I was molested when I was a child,” he said. “So, I had this fear of being vulnerable, so I took all, every kind of martial arts you could take. I even boxed. I did everything. I wanted to be the toughest person on earth. Writing and making music was always an escape for me. Like, I never had the, like, the nuts to come out and say that.”
Gates said he had never discussed the topic during an interview before.
“That’s my story, but it was really everything that I did, even when people say like, ‘Kevin Gates, he’s this killer,’ I’m not. I’m not. But the reason I speak about it now is because I just released a mixtape, like maybe a few months ago, and guys walk up to me in the gym. Like, bodybuilders, hugged me and crying like, ‘I went through the same shit you went through.’ … So, I guess I’m on the right path. … But at the end of the day, I started, we started killing and things of that nature because we had a fear of being vulnerable.”
Tyson told Gates that he had also been molested and learned to fight to protect himself from further assaults.
“I know that route, too,” said Tyson. “Why do you think I became the meanest mother****a on the planet? Cuz somebody did something to me, and I didn’t want it to happen again, so I became this guy,” Tyson said.
You can watch the entire interview below.
The musician received positive support on social media after his revelation on Tyson’s podcast. One Twitter user noted Gates’ reaction to a girl grabbing his shorts during a concert in 2015. Gates reacted by kicking her in the chest area, and the Twitter user said it now makes sense why he overreacted. At the time, Gates said that it was self-defense.
“I kicked them, I wanted them off me,” said Gates.
Gates was sentenced to six months in jail.
Kevin Gates mentioning he was molested as a child reveals to me now why he kicked that girl for trying to grab his private area. They gave that man six months in jail for his response to a trauma. As someone who has been through something similar, I don’t like random touching.
— 📚political.education in black✊🏾 (@RenyTure) July 1, 2021
So much power in Kevin Gates sharing publicly about being molested as a child. I’ve learned recently about how many men I know who were also molested as children and it’s much more common than we realize. There are so many men who dont even realize they were victims of assault…
— Maura Chanz (@maurachanz) July 2, 2021
Kevin Gates gets It stay woke KINGS. pic.twitter.com/ng7nCGXA38
— Gifted (@G0dGiven_) July 1, 2021
You’d be surprised at the amount of men whose been molested as kids and never told a soul in fear of their manhood being stripped of them or simply not having anyone they trusted enough to disclose that. I’m happy Kevin Gates and Mike Tyson felt comfortable enough to share that.
— Karle (@Karlekay) July 2, 2021
kevin gates jst said ‘i used to sabotage myself in fear or having to live up to the great responsibility God bestowed upon me’
felt.
— BIG DADDY INNERG SPEAAKIN: (@jokrschronicles) July 2, 2021
