I have been struggling to find a topic to talk about recently and after listening to the Binge EP a few times I came to realize I am itching to comment on it. MGK, in general, has been an interesting artist for me for the past years and I really couldn’t form a steady opinion about him for several reasons. So get ready for my thoughts and be warned I am gonna be honest about the Gunner’s music and I don’t have much positivity to spread about it. Hope you find it interesting anyway and I will be happy to hear what you think about it as well so don’t hesitate to let me know.

Binge EP was released on September 21st 2018

In order to write this post I have been listening to old and new MGK songs for a while and this only made me more confused. From heartfelt lyrics with concerning and deep meaning to absolutely meaningless and degrading crap.

The reason I never talked about MGK before is that since I discovered him as an artist I haven’t been able to form a steady opinion about him. My first impression after hearing his most popular stuff was – “This dude is legit trying to copy Eminem real hard”. Not only in terms of sound and lyrics but also in his behavior and how he presents his story and journey in the music world (and not only).

He surprised me with several really good songs and sadly mostly collabs like Spotlight ft Lizzy Hale, Lift off with Mike Shinoda and Chino Moreno, Home with X Ambassadors and Bebe Rehxa, Sail, Swing Life Away ft Kelly Quinn, etc and I often got my hopes high for him. And I have to admit I do respect him as an artist and musician and I love that he is not following any flow or concept and just does whatever he feels like doing. I do respect him and his art but I often get disappointed that the potential I see is getting wasted and he is channeling his energy in (for me personally) the wrong direction. His songs about getting high and wasted are honestly disgusting me. Even though some of them are my guilty pleasure I really don’t understand why he puts so much focus into this type of music and meaningless lyrics when he has so much more to say and so many other experiences to talk about.

With that being said, while going through his discography prior to the post I got the same feeling – some songs hit me hard and made me respect this guy even more. And other really lost the respect he earned with shitty lyrics, autotune and crappy trap wannabe beats. What I concluded from that is that I will keep listening to what I enjoy and ignore his degrading songs. That’s the best I could do right?

Getting to the point – his newest EP Binge. I had extremely high hopes for this album. Rap Devil came out brutally destroying the self-proclaimed rap god (I’m not gonna go there – Em has my utmost respect but Kamikadze was an absolutely pathetic album – Stepping Stone excluded – and MGK bodied him with Rap Devil) and I once again saw the potential the Gunner has. Nice flow, sharp lyrics, good content – so far so good.

And then Binge came out.

I really think this is his worst work yet and he wasted an amazing opportunity to prove himself after all the trash talk he received for standing against Eminem. And he blew it away with what seems like a rushed album created to ride the wave of media attention he received after the diss track. But what media attention was he going for exactly – pathetic lyrics, amateur beats, and basically humiliating autotune and general concept. I do understand “he’s been going through shit” and I am familiar with his past and struggles. But unlike him, I am also aware he can’t keep making the same songs with the same stupid lyrics and excuses. I have heard those songs many times before from MGK and unlike Binge, they were with actually decent lyrics and an honest story behind them. In other words, they were presented well. With this EP it is more like – I am an addict and I’m proud of it instead of I have a problem and I am not ashamed to admit it, I will fight with it instead.

MGK sank very low with this one, the execution was poor and despite some of the songs going to my guilty pleasure playlist (I am shameless hypocrite yes) the best one and actually only good one for me still is Rap Devil. The worst thing is that the opening of the album was promising but I am sad to say that both MGK and Eminem really embarrassed themselves with their last albums (in my opinion, of course) and it hurts me to see how pathetic they can both be.

With all the negative stuff out of my system, I can now keep listening to what I actually like and try to ignore the terrible downfall. I hope MGK will come up with something good again soon and I can’t wait to see him actually use his talent and potential and produce something decent, which I have convinced myself he is capable of.

This was my general whining about Machine Gun Kelly and his art. And again – I do respect the guy and I enjoy part of his work, but I just found it interesting to comment on his controversial repertoire. Everybody has his/her taste and MGK as an artist is free to do whatever he wants to. Let me know what you think about Binge. And to finish this on a positive note, here are my top 3 favorite MGK songs, I never stopped enjoying.

1. Spotlight ft Lzzy Hale
   Lzzy is an incredible singer and she just contributes in a great way for the impact of the song. One of MGK’s best in my humble opinion.

2. Alpha and Omega
I honestly am not sure what attracts me so much to this song, I guess it’s the storytelling and general vibe. Proving mumble rap is not MGK’s style.

3. Rap Devil
My apologies to all Eminem fans, but this song destroyed him and I think it showed the potential of MGK very well.

Thank to everyone for reading!

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