It’s frankly embarrassing, and the degree to which MGK has played it up has done the complete opposite of his aspirations, in that no one can take him even remotely seriously anymore.Īll of that is to say, of course mainstream sellout is bad, but where Tickets To My Downfall was more just generic, this is exactly as flounderingly pitiful and cringeworthy as one would expect from someone in MGK’s position, a grown man trying to nakedly flog his own ineptitude and embodying everything wrong about pop-punk today. As a rapper, his biggest successes came from his clearest pop concessions, something which can parlay easily enough into cosplaying as a pop-punk artist and trying to feign some form of influential status within that. Calling this album mainstream sellout was probably supposed to be his clapback against the haters who’ll deny his credentials (even though they have every right to), but at the end of the day, he’s just telling it as it is. He’s the archetype for everything wrong with this current wave of pop-punk ( something that we’ve previously expanded on here), and the fact he’s still trying to play up that he’s a real rockstar is actually kind of laughable when you take it all in. It’s clearly working given that his career has never been more fruitful, much to the chagrin of anyone with good taste or who can realise how transparent of an act this all is.

You’ve got to give him credit for his unparalleled confidence though imagine having the balls to come swanning into a scene where no one wants you, spawning the most heinous wave of pop-punk imaginable, and still proceed to beef with respected genre veterans for no reason other than keeping your embers of clout flickering.

Clearly Machine Gun Kelly is trying to prolong his emo phase more than a lot of rappers ultimately will, something which, against all odds, has united rock music’s tribes to agree on how much of a thorough annoyance he really is. See what happens when you give these people an inch? They start thinking it’s a good idea to make more music, and thus try and legitimise career choices that don’t deserve that leeway in the slightest.

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