walking upstream…
Machine Gun Kelly
photo: stefan brending (2eight) · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Machine Gun Kelly
sourcesWikipedia2 · VladTV · Rolling Stone2
Colson Baker was born in Houston and shuttled through a rootless Army-adjacent childhood across Germany, Egypt, and half a dozen American cities before landing, as a teenager, in Cleveland, where he started rhyming to escape a home life he's described as chaotic and a school life defined by bullying. He built a local following as Machine Gun Kelly — the nickname a nod to his rapid-fire flow — and a deal with Diddy's Bad Boy Records turned that into 2012's 'Lace Up' and a run of aggressive, radio-built rap capped by 2016's 'Bad Things.' In 2020, a friendship with blink-182's Travis Barker detonated into a full genre pivot: 'Tickets to My Downfall' remade him as a snarling pop-punk frontman and gave him his first Billboard 200 No. 1, a persona he's kept mining since across acting and an increasingly rock-facing catalog.
the sound in question
2016
Bad ThingsMachine Gun Kelly
walk the tributaries ↓
DMX1990s · East Coast hip hop / Hardcore hip hop
MGK has said he found rap in seventh grade after watching the video for DMX's 'We Right Here,' and he's called DMX his idol outright: 'That's my idol, I'm on DMX's first single, that's like big bruh... bow to him.' He's described putting on DMX records to get through fights at home and being bullied at school — 'I always put on some DMX and imagined myself beating people up' — and DMX later became a mentor, giving him advice like an older brother. That relationship shows up as a template: a guttural, chest-forward delivery and dark, confrontational bravado built to be shouted along to.
listen: upstream & here
2001
We Right HereDMX
2011
Wild BoyMachine Gun Kelly
listen forLine up 'We Right Here' with 'Wild Boy' — both ride a barked, aggressive cadence over a stomping beat, turning menace and bravado into something closer to a rally chant than a conventional verse.
blink-1821990s–2000s · Pop punk / Punk rock / Alternative rock
Reporting on his pivot to pop-punk describes MGK going to blink-182 shows in his hometown for fifteen years running and growing up on the band during his teens as Warped Tour-era pop-punk crested. That fandom became collaboration: drummer Travis Barker, a friend for a decade, executive-produced 2020's 'Tickets to My Downfall' after one studio session convinced him to block off two months for a full album, remaking MGK's sound around blink's brash, hook-driven template.
listen: upstream & here
1999
All the Small Thingsblink-182
2020
Bloody ValentineMachine Gun Kelly
listen forCompare 'All the Small Things' with 'Bloody Valentine' — both snap a simple, shouted hook to a driving, palm-muted guitar pulse and Barker's hard-hitting live drums, built for a crowd to yell back at more than to analyze.
Eminem2000s · Hip-hop / Rap
MGK has named Eminem, alongside Ludacris and DMX, as one of the first rappers who pulled him into hip-hop as a kid — the technical, rapid-fire wordplay he grew up rewinding. That grounding turned combative in 2018: after Eminem needled him on 'Not Alike,' MGK answered with 'Rap Devil,' a title and instrumental built as a direct play on Eminem's own 'Rap God,' stacking internal rhymes and multisyllabic jabs in a style lifted straight from the artist he was attacking.
listen: upstream & heresource: Collider ↗
2000
The Real Slim ShadyEminem
2018
Rap DevilMachine Gun Kelly
listen forSet 'The Real Slim Shady' beside 'Rap Devil' — both pile clipped, percussive syllables into dense internal rhyme schemes at speed, using exaggerated cadence and pop-culture callouts as the joke's delivery mechanism.