When rapper-turned-pop-punker Machine Gun Kelly‘s new album Mainstream Sellout went #1, many of us were worried that this would mean that Kelly’s listless, cliche-drenched version of punk would be around forever. But thankfully, that’s not the case, as Kelly has now made it clear that he intends to return to rap music on his next album.
In a new interview with Audacy’s Kevan Kenny, Kelly makes it clear he’s interested in moving on from rock music and no longer subjecting us to all of his pink bullshit (via Loudwire):
“I’m going to make a rap album for myself. 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 [sonically aligned with the last two albums] is going to be exciting unless it’s missed.
“So I’m going to do this tour and I’m gonna step into where I left [off with 2019’s] 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.”
Thank God. We can only hope that Machine Gun Kelly never returns to haunt guitar-based music any longer. By the way, notice how he describes himself as a ‘music archaeologist?’ For someone who is constantly portraying himself as the new shit, he’s pretty out-loud about how he basically takes old genres of music, digs them up, and rehashes them.
Anyway, back to writing about Corey Taylor and Dave Mustaine!