Machine Gun Kelly’s foray into rock music has been nothing short of eventful. He had two No. 1 albums in the genre, but he polarized many diehard rock fans. It didn’t do him many favors that he had a very public beef with Corey Taylor. The Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman blasted the rapper/rocker after a proposed song collaboration went south. MGK also covered System of a Down’s “Aerials” on The Howard Stern Show which was met with a very mixed reaction. “It blows my mind, even in the the genre that I’m in, when people act like this is like some new thing,” MGK told Stern. “It blows my mind. You can literally look back 10 years ago at rock festivals, and my name is right there on the flyer. Like, we’ve always been in the culture. I’m super confused where this, like, ‘Oh he’s new to the scene’. Like, f*ck you. We’ve been here so long, defying boxes and genres and odds.”
Still, earlier this week MGK got praise from legendary Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger who said: “In rock music you need energy and there have not been a lot of new rock singers around. Now there are a few. You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kid of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock ‘n’ roll.” So despite some criticism, MGK has been quite successful in his rock venture. It came as a bit of surprise when MGK told Kevan Kenney of Audacity that his next project will see him return to rap. “I’m going to make a rap album for myself,” he said. “For no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder… If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I’m going to, one, drive myself crazy and, two, not make a good product. I made ‘Tickets’ and ‘Mainstream Sellout’ because I wanted to make them. I need to now also make people miss that sound because ‘Tickets’ and ‘Mainstream Sellout’ are companion albums, I don’t think making a third that’s so [similar to those] is going to be exciting unless it’s missed.”
Kelly also said he’s “going to do this tour and I’m gonna step into where I left Hotel Diablo and expand on my storytelling as a rapper and find a new innovative sound for the hip-hop Machine Gun Kelly. That’s where my excitement is and where me as a music archaeologist wants to explore.” Earlier this year, MGK also helped shape the soundtrack for the WWE2K video game, and it was revealed he would be a playable character.
