There’s nothing pretty about domestic violence. In the video for Kevin Gates controversial track, “Posed To Be In Love,” the rapper certainly doesn’t hide the raw facts of abuse. Cut off his latest mixtape, By Any Means, the emotionally charged track raises a few eyebrows with opening lines like “I thought it was legal to beat your hoe.”

“A lot of people misconstrue what I say when I say ‘I thought it was legal to beat your hoe,'” the XXL Freshman star explains in an Instagram video. “I was never talking about exhibiting any physicality, I was talking about mentally and emotionally.”

The Baton Rouge native, who openly discusses his battles with depression, isn’t scared to expose his own dangerous levels within his psyche. “Music’s the most therapeutic thing for me. Because I suffer with depression, and it’s my only form of releasing it. Such as you do with your recorder, I record my thoughts. I vent, he said in an interview with Noisey. “But I love being in love. It’s good while it’s good. But it’s bad while it’s bad.”

With Love and Hip Hop Atlanta star Erica Pinkett playing the leading lady, the Luca Brasi rapper is much like a fly on the wall watching this toxic relationship spiral out of control. The video comes ahead of his By Any Means tour alongside Taylor Gang’s Chevy Woods. The tour kicks off July 15 in Houston, Texas and wraps in Birmingham, Alabama August 30.

Watch “Posed To Be In Love” on the following page.