Machine Gun Kelly, also known as MGK, is Colson Baker. He was born in Houston, Texas. He has lived in several places, but when he was younger, he settled in Denver, Colorado, With his dad. His mom sadly left when he was just nine years old. “I don’t have a relationship with my mom; she left when I was nine Colson stated. In Denver, he and his father live with MGK’s aunt. His dad battled with depression and had no job; he often wore the same two outfits to school and was bullied by The Neighborhood kids; this is around the time he started realizing his love for rap. “I used to stand out because I was tall and couldn’t fight back then,” said MGK. “Then I got tired of being beaten up, so I started fighting people with my words instead.” In 7th grade, MGK found peace in rhyming after the DMX music video “We Right Here” came out. He wasn’t very popular but pretty good at battling his middle school rap challenges.
After his father left him to fend for himself to go off and fight for his country, he was living in his neighbor’s basement. It was then the star started experimenting with drugs. He also recorded his first Demo tape. “It was terrible, but I thought it was cool,” MGK laughed. Colson eventually stopped attending school. In 2005, his father moved him to Kuwait, Where he continued to get even more trouble. He and his father were ultimately forced back to Stateside. They moved and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. He went back to school again and started doing shows when he was just 15 years old. His fans gave him a nickname, and he released his first mixtape in 2006. He then built a local fan base and performed at Cleveland venues. He was doing that while working at Chipotle to pay his rent. His career was flying to New York in 2009. “We drove straight from Ohio and stood in line for 10 hours”. “I got booed as soon as I walked on the Apollo stage, and then I won…twice.” He became the first rapper in history to win the Apollo’s talent show.
After graduating high school, his father kicked him out to live independently. MGK welcomed his first daughter into the world at just 18 years old; her name is Casie. His daughter inspired him to work harder, and he won a few awards, but a polyp was found in his vocal chord right after his big break. Which kept him out of the studio for six months…during this time, he experienced major depression. He said, “Every night, I’d wake up at 4:00 and want to blow my brains out; that was the most depressing period of my life.” After he healed in 2010, MGK released the “Lace Up” mixtape. Everyone loved it! Fans even tattooed it on themselves. In 2011, he signed a label deal with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, went on to sign more contracts, and promoted his music. He won MTV’s Hottest Breakthrough MC in 2011. In 2012, MGK tweeted about Haili Jade (Eminem’s daughter) That she was “hot AF.” 6 years later, Eminem wrote a diss track about MGK. This rap feud caused MGK’s fame to rise, but not in a good way. Shortly after the rap battle, MGK switched to rock, coming out with his hit song, ranked number 1 on Billboard 200, “My Ex’s Best Friend. I was following his rock album “Tickets to My Downfall,” Which sold over 200,000 copies in album sales as of April 8th,2022. This album won the IHeartradiomusic Award for Alternative Rock Album of the Year and another Billboard Music Award for Top Rock Album. He then released one more rock album, “Mainstream Sellout.” Mainstream Sellout was released two years after his first rock album.
He will continue to further his career by refusing “to be put in a box,” he stated in a tweet. He said this to let his fans and haters know he will not continue just to do one genre of music, he wants to pursue more than one genre of music, which includes rap, Rock, and RnB. Although he’s gone through some hardships, he has seen the sun… and will continue to rise to fame!