Machine Gun Kelly Says He’s Returning to Rap

After crossing over into the pop-punk lane for his last two albums, Machine Gun Kelly plans on returning to rap.

Machine Gun Kelly recently sat down for an interview on the Audacity Check In podcast, which aired on Tuesday (April 26). During the interview, he spoke about moving back into the rap space.

“I’m going to make a rap album for myself,” the Bad Boy artist said when asked what his next move would be, around the 19-minute mark of the interview. “For no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder. Like, ‘Okay, I did that. Now I gotta show them… ‘ It’s just like, 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 [to My Downfall] and Mainstream Sellout because I wanted to make them,” Machine Gun Kelly added. “I need to now also make people miss that sound. I need to also… Because Tickets and Mainstream Sellout are companion albums, I don’t think making a third that’s so close… Sonically, making a third album is going to be unexciting unless it’s missed.”

The Ohio-bred rapper plans to pick up where he left off with his 2019 hip-hop album Hotel Diablo.

“I’m going to do this tour and I’m gonna step into where I left Hotel Diablo and expand on my storytelling as a rapper and find a new innovative sound for the hip-hop Machine Gun Kelly,” he continued. “And that’s where my excitement is and that’s, like, where me as a music archaeologist wants to explore. I did Tickets and I did Mainstream Sellout and I don’t know what the next version of that sound is yet. So, I need to step away until I hear the right tone or the right inspiration.”

Machine Gun Kelly has had his ups and downs in the arena of pop-punk. His Mainstream Sellout album, which was released in March, debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart. However, he’s received pushback from fans at multiple shows, who showered the neophyte rocker with objects from the crowd. Machine Gun Kelly also gotten into spats with Slipknot’s Cory Taylor, who called MGK out on multiple occasions.

See MGK’s full interview on Audacity Check In below.