Machine Gun Kelly Feels White People Stigmatize Him for His Place in Hip-Hop

Machine Gun Kelly has been a mainstay in the rap game for well over a decade and MGK’s shown versatility to dabble in other genres such as rock and even country with his “Lonely Road” single featuring Jelly Roll.

The Cleveland native joined Logan Paul’s Impaulsive 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 is a subconscious stigma around that — being white in hip-hop,” he said around the 37-minute mark. “To me, it’s so funny because the streets f–k with me so tough. It’s honestly from other white people that give me the most s–t.”

MGK continued while seemingly saluting his rap battle foe Eminem: “The crazy thing is there’s only been one who’s done it. There’s only been one who’s done it and crossed that line of acceptance.”

Kells returned in July with his John Denver-sampling Jelly Roll collaboration “Lonely Road,” which sits at No. 74 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 following a No. 33 debut.

After laboring over perfecting “Lonely Road” to his standard for two years, MGK admitted he was worried he’d face backlash for people thinking he was attempting to follow in Post Malone’s footsteps in the hip-hop to country pipeline. Posty released his F-1 Trillion album earlier in August, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 250,000 album units sold.

“In the past two years while I was doing ‘Lonely Road,’ Post did this and so the whole time I’m thinking, like, ‘F—ing people are going to think I’m just following this.’ I had to humbly sit there while, for years, I’ve been curating this song knowing I’m gonna have to fight against something here,” he said.

MGK was nervous to play the demo to what became “Lonely Road” for Jelly Roll, but he ultimately let him hear it for the first time while they were driving around together looking for a party following the Grammy Awards in L.A. earlier this year.

“He’s driving himself. I’m like, ‘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 cord and that same thing that took over when it told me to black out my tattoos or Tickets to My Downfall is the name — those moments when the universe is telling you something, it told me play the demo of ‘Lonely Road.’ I press play and he was like, ‘What the f–k is this?’ I was like, ‘Man, it’s just calling you.’ He was like, ‘I’m on it.’”

Watch the full interview below.

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