Machine Gun Kelly (rapper)

1990–2009: Early life and career beginnings

Richard Colson Baker was born on April 22, 1990 in Houston to missionary parents. MGK and his family moved all around the globe and took up residence abroad from Egypt to Germany, as well as throughout the United States, in Chicago, Denver, and Cleveland. He settled in Denver, along with his father, after his mother had left home, and the pair moved in with MGK's aunt. Following his father suffering from depression and unemployment, MGK endured bullying from other children in the neighborhood. He started listening to rap in the sixth grade, when he attended Hamilton Middle School, a school with an ethnically diverse student body in Denver, Colorado. The first three rappers that got him into the genre of hip hop as a child were Ludacris, Eminem and DMX, with MGK gaining severe interest in the genre after listening to DMX's "We Right Here" from the album The Great Depression (2001). MGK's home life was seldom stable, as he would regularly fight with his father. When he attended Denver's Thomas Jefferson High School, his father moved to Kuwait to work for the army and left him behind to live in his aunt's basement. During the course of living in the basement, MGK began experimenting with drugs and recorded his first amateur demo tape, "Stamp of Approval".

Following his father's departure, MGK stopped attending school and began to make a name for himself by calling out elder classmates. In 2005, his father returned to take them both to Kuwait before the pair were forced back stateside to Cleveland, where MGK attended Shaker Heights High School. While attending Shaker Heights High, he convinced a local t-shirt shop owner to become his manager, as the shop owner would double as a MC manager. Given the stage name Machine Gun Kelly by his fans due to his rapid fire delivery, he released the mixtape Stamp of Approval (2006). The release of the mixtape allowed for his reputation and profile to grow, which allowed MGK to begin performing at local Cleveland venues.

In March 2009, while he was on the verge of getting evicted, MGK traveled to Harlem's Apollo Theater, where he had consecutive victories, making him the first ever rapper to win at the Apollo Theater. He records music in his home studio which he refers to as the "Rage Cage", and started to gain exposure when he was featured on MTV2's Sucker Free Freestyle, where he freestyled numerous verses from his "Chip off the Block" single. In February 2010, he released his second mixtape 100 Words and Running, where he derived his catchphrase, "Lace Up", which started as a mixtape interlude, before making it a prominent reference in his music. Despite his rising popularity, MGK found himself working at Chipotle to afford rent, as well as being kicked out by his father after graduating high school. MGK soon also became a father. After he was kicked out, MGK had to move in with Slim Gudz and Dubo in his manager's mother's basement, where he wrote and recorded the majority of his first album.

2009–12: Record deal and Lace Up

In May 2010, he made his national debut with the single "Alice in Wonderland", which was released on iTunes and accompanied a music video along with the song. It was released via Block Starz Music. The single earned MGK the "Best Midwest Artist" at the 2010 Underground Music Awards and his "Alice in Wonderland" clip won Best Music Video at the 2010 Ohio Hip-Hop Awards. He released his second mixtape in November 2010 titled Lace Up which featured the hometown anthem "Cleveland", which was then played at Cleveland Cavaliers home games and went on rotation on Z107.9 in Cleveland. The mixtape was recorded in three months in 2010 during a creative burst. Following the release of the mixtape, he became featured in the magazine XXL in 2011. He then appeared on the Juicy J track "Inhale", which also featured Steve-O from the television series Jackass, in the music video.

In March 2011, MGK participated in his first SXSW show in Austin, Texas, and at the show, he was approached by Sean Combs, who had offered MGK a recording contract with Bad Boy Records, which is associated with and has its content distributed by Interscope. Prior to the contract, he was featured on the XV song "Finally Home". After signing for Bad Boy, MGK released the music video for the song "Wild Boy", which featured Waka Flocka Flame and was produced by GB Hitz. The duo appeared on BET's 106 & Park to promote the single. In mid-2011, MGK signed a deal with Young and Reckless Clothing and then announced a studio release for his first EP, Half Naked & Famous, on Twitter. On February 2, 2012, he tweeted from his official Twitter page, hinting on a March release for the EP. He stated:

Once March hits... it's gonna be a wild ride for all of us. We're gonna watch something we've seen come from the bottom rise way up. LTFU.

Half Naked & Almost Famous released on March 20, 2012, and debuted at 46 on the Billboard 200 with 8,500 copies sold in its first week. As of August 2012, it sold 36,500 copies.

MGK announced via an orifficial statement that his debut album would be titled Lace Up, and would have an intended release on October 9, 2012. "Wild Boy" served as the lead single for the album and the song peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 98. It was soon certified gold by the RIAA. The song "Invincible" was released on iTunes on December 16, 2011, featuring co-writer and singer Ester Dean as the second single of the album. The song is featured in a commercial for the HTC ReZound as well as the official theme song of WrestleMania XXVIII. WWE also used the song to highlight John Cena in his match with at the event, with MGK also performing at WrestleMania prior to the main event. "Invincible" is also currently the theme for Thursday Night Football on the NFL network. WWE also used the song "All We Have" to again highlight Cena on his rematch with The Rock at next year's event. On December 14, 2011, MGK was named the Hottest Breakthrough MC of 2011 by MTV. On March 18, 2012, MGK won the MTVu Breaking Woodie award before being featured on the cover of XXL as part of their annual "Top 10 Freshmen list" along with fellow rappers Macklemore, French Montana, Hopsin, Danny Brown, Iggy Azalea, Roscoe Dash, Future, Don Trip and Kid Ink. On August 13, 2012, MGK self-released a mixtape titled EST 4 Life, which contained both old and recently recorded material.

Lace Up was released on October 9, 2012. The album featured guest appearances from Bun B, Cassie, DMX, Ester Dean, Lil Jon, Tech N9ne, Twista, Waka Flocka Flame, Young Jeezy and Dub-O. The album debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 57,000 copies. It slid down to #22 in its second week, giving it a total of 65,000 copies sold. As of September 2015, the album has sold 263,000 copies.

2012–13: Black Flag

In early 2012, MGK announced that he would be releasing a new mixtape. Pusha T and Meek Mill were the first artists to be featured on the mixtape, both appearing on the track "Pe$o". MGK also announced that Wiz Khalifa will be featured on the mixtape. On February 18, 2013, MGK announced the name of the mixtape as Black Flag and revealed the cover. He also released a music video for "Champions" which features Diddy and samples The Diplomats song "We are the Champions", as the music video release served as a promotional video for Black Flag. On June 26, MGK released Black Flag without prior announcement. The mixtape also featured guest appearances from French Montana, Kellin Quinn, Dub-O, Sean McGee and Tezo. On June 4, 2013, MGK posted a picture of a letter on his social media accounts which read:

This project is dedicated to love, because for my entire life it has been taken from me. Granted, when it was given, I pushed it right back. I couldn't handle it. This was until I experienced the loss of love for what I love doing most: music. That was the one thing worth fighting for, even more-so then[sic] the love of my father. I've found that love again. And I plan on never surrendering it. Find what you love and fight!! Black Flag.

2014–present: General Admission and other ventures

Following the release of Black Flag, rumors surfaced that MGK had begun working on his second studio album. In January 2014, he confirmed that he was in the early stages of working on the album, with 2015 being the scheduled year of release. On January 5, 2015, MGK released the song "Till I Die", which was accompanied with a music video on his VEVO account. Months later, a remix of "Till I Die" with hometown fellow hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony was confirmed and released on June 5, 2015. The song aired via WorldStarHipHop and featured French Montana, Yo Gotti and Ray Cash. On May 18, 2015, the music video for another song titled "A Little More" was released, with the single featuring vocals from Victoria Monet. MGK soon had an interview with MTV, describing the reason as to why he wrote "A Little More". Stating in the interview: "People always came up to me after the first album and a lot of my friends back home said 'we need something for the streets' and then I did Till I Die. Months later, when I look back at the video [for Till I Die] I [was] like 'Okay, he's in jail, he's shot, he's dead, he snitched' and just to the point where it's sad and I wrote the song to describe how I see the world as a much mature person." He also updated the status on his second studio album, noting that the album is finished, and stating that the album would contain "more lyricism and [would be more] stylistically [influenced by] hip-hop but musically, sonically [would contain] more live instrumentation."

Following MGK's previous affiliation with the company, he made a return to WWE Raw on the June 15, 2015, episode of the show. The show was hosted in MGK's home town of Cleveland and MGK appeared as a guest on the show, performing "Till I Die" and "A Little More". As he finished performing, he was attacked and power-bombed through the stage by WWE wrestler Kevin Owens in a storyline. The attack was due to MGK's previous connection with Owens' rival, John Cena. MGK soon announced a national tour to begin in the summer of 2015, touring throughout the United States from early July to the beginning of September, with 31 planned dates throughout the course of the two months.

On June 25, MGK released the title of his second album as General Admission, due to be released in late September 2015. On July 23, 2015, MGK released Fuck It, a 10-track mixtape containing songs that didn't make the final track list of General Admission. The mixtape was reportedly released by MGK independently following Bad Boy consistently delaying the release of General Admission. On September 10, 2015, MGK announced the release date and the album art of General Admission, stating that the album would be released on October 16 of that year. General Admission released on the described date, and debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200, powered by first week sales 56,000 album-equivalent units; it has sold 49,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales. The album also debuted at number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

On February 14, the NBA used the song "Make It Happen" during the halftime highlights package of the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. The following week, MGK appeared at Fastlane, which was hosted at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.

MGK released "Bad Things" in late 2016, a joint single with Camila Cabello, which has reached a peak of number four on the US Billboard Hot 100.

On January 15, 2017, MGK joined Rupert Wyatt's film Captive State alongside Vera Farmiga and John Goodman.

MGK was going to be the opening act on the North American leg Linkin Park's One More Light Tour before the tour got cancelled because of the Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington's suicide. Kelly would subsequently pay tribute to Bennington by releasing an acoustic cover of the Linkin Park song Numb

Personal life

MGK has a child named Casie, who was born in 2008. Although MGK and the child's mother are no longer together, they are on good terms, with MGK going as far as using the advance money from his record deal to buy a new house for her and Casie.

MGK has openly spoken about his previous 2-year heroin addiction, making a song referencing the addiction titled "Lead You On", and with the song having a profound impact on him, it has allowed for him to self-refer "Lead You On" as his most meaningful song. MGK was forced through a period of homelessness to feed the addiction in 2010, and therefore attended a rehabilitation center in which he was aided by a guidance counsellor to combat the addiction. MGK even contemplated suicide by drug overdose, contemplating whether to "stick that shit up in my skin and overdose [on heroin] so I can't have it again", but managed to combat the addiction and was able to remain sober until a brief relapse period in 2012, which is documented on the movie Half Naked and Almost Famous, titled after his first EP. Following self described "harrowing realization talks" with Slim Gudz and Ashleigh, he has remained sober since.

MGK is open about his use of cannabis and he has claimed in many interviews that he smokes daily, describing it as a "source of happiness and a way people can feel a little more love [in their own right]." He has frequently mentioned cannabis references within sources of his music and rap persona, making it a forefront of both his rap and personal character.

MGK cites DMX and Eminem as music influences, as well as listening to rock bands Guns N' Roses and Blink-182 during his youth. MGK cites the latter rap and rock artists as major musical influences.

In May 2015, reports surfaced that MGK was dating hip hop model Amber Rose. On May 26, MGK confirmed the relationship during an AOL Build interview. MGK and Rose split up in October 2015.

Regarding his political philosophy, Machine Gun Kelly identifies as an anarchist.

Discography