Machine Gun Kelly has been a mainstay in the rap game for over a decade, and MGK showed flexibility to dabble in other genres like rock and even country with his single “Lonely Road” featuring Jelly Roll.
The Cleveland native joined Logan Paul's Impulsive podcast earlier this week, where he discussed a myriad of topics, including how he feels white people have given him “the most s–t” when it comes to stigmatizing his place in hip-hop as a white rapper.
“I won't deny that there's a subconscious stigma around it — being white in hip-hop,” he said around the 37-minute mark. “For me, it's so funny, because the roads are so hard on me. It's honestly from other white people who give me the most s–t.”
MGK continued while seemingly saluting his rap battle nemesis Eminem: “The crazy thing is that only one has done it. There was only one who did it and crossed that threshold of acceptance.”
Kells returned in July with his John Denver-sampled collaboration “Lonely Road,” which is at No. 74 on this week's Billboard Hot 100 after a No. 33 debut.
After trying to perfect “Lonely Road” into his standards for two years, MGK admitted he was worried about facing backlash from people who thought he was trying to follow in Post Malone's footsteps in the hip-hop to country pipeline. Posty released theirs F-1 Tris album earlier in August, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 250,000 album sales.
“For the last couple of years, while I was doing 'Lonely Road,' Post did that, and so the whole time I'm thinking, 'F—people are going to think I'm just going along with this.' I had to sit there humbly while, for years, editing this song knowing that I'm going to have to fight against something here,” he said.
MGK was nervous about playing the demo on what became “Lonely Road” for Jelly Roll, but eventually let him hear it for the first time while they were driving around together looking for a post-Grammy Awards party in LA earlier this year.
“He drives himself. I say, “you drove yourself to the Grammys.” He's like, 'I'm so white trash I can't get it out of me,'” Machine Gun Kelly recalled. “I get the AUX cable and the same thing that dominated when he told me to black out my tattoos or Tickets for My Downfall is the name — in those moments when the universe tells you something, it told me to play the 'Lonely Road' demo. I hit play and he said, “What the fk?” I was like, “Dude, he's just calling you.” It was like, “I'm on it.”
Watch the full interview below.
