It looks like Machine Gun Kelly is done with hip hop for the foreseeable future. Last year, he released his fifth studio LP Tickets to My Downfall, his first full-blown foray into the pop punk genre — that project contained 15 cuts with additional appearances from Halsey, Trippie Redd, blackbear, and Iann Dior. Tickets to My Downfall also brought MGK his first number one album placement in the Billboard 200 — thanks to 126,000 first-week album equivalent units sold during its first week of release — and a Platinum certification.
Since the year began, MGK has continues to experiment with singles like “DAYWALKER!” with Corpse Husband and “love race” with Sleeping with Sirens frontman Kellin Quinn. Today (August 12), the Cleveland star adds to that with “papercuts,” a Dark Waves and Travis Barker-produced offering that sees him addressing his heightened fame thanks to both Tickets to My Downfall and current girlfriend Megan Fox:
“Hey, hey, keep my mouth shut and wave, hey, hey, I’m dancin’ on my grave, everybody’s so nice lately, polarized feelings, I don’t wear them on my face lately, internalized everything the headlines say lately, demonized just because I was an angel face baby…”
Directed by Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett, the accompanying clip for “papercuts” begins with a “bald” MGK in a few different scenes — one with him and his remarkable looking motorcycle being pulled over by the police, another with him playing a guitar while surrounded by walls lined with paper, and a third showing him talking a walk around what appears to be Hollywood. Things stay relatively wacky throughout — there’s a shot with MGK — hair returned — on stilts with an oversized guitar, and another with a crowd of costumed and face-painted characters raving to the music.
Check out “papercuts” and look for MGK’s forthcoming album — titled Born With Horns — to arrive soon.