MGK

Origins

MGK, originally known as Machine Gun Kelly, was born Colson Baker on April 22, 1990, in Houston, Texas. His parents’ missionary work kept the family moving, and he spent early years in Egypt, Kenya and Germany before settling in Denver around age nine, where he started listening to rap in sixth grade. He later moved to Cleveland and attended Shaker Heights High School, citing DMX, Eminem and Ludacris as influences.

Breakthrough

Between 2007 and 2010 he self-released four mixtapes, including “100 Words and Running” in February 2010. In March 2009 he won consecutive amateur competitions at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. His May 2010 single “Alice in Wonderland” earned him Best Midwest Artist at the 2010 Underground Music Awards, and his November 2010 mixtape “Lace Up” included the hometown anthem “Cleveland”, which was played at Cavaliers games and on local radio. At South by Southwest in March 2011, Sean Combs offered him a contract with Bad Boy Records, then operating under Interscope.

Key records

His Bad Boy debut single, “Wild Boy” featuring Waka Flocka Flame, was released in September 2011 and led the EP “Half Naked & Almost Famous”. It peaked at No. 98 on the Billboard Hot 100 but was later certified three times platinum. AllMusic noted its “heaps of Cleveland love”. His debut studio album, also titled “Lace Up”, was released in October 2012 and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 copies sold. “General Admission” followed in 2015, and “Bad Things”, a duet with Camila Cabello, reached No. 4 on the Hot 100. In 2018 his diss track “Rap Devil”, aimed at Eminem, reached No. 13 on the Hot 100 and drew Eminem’s response, “Killshot”, on September 14, 2018.

Later career and legacy

“Hotel Diablo”, released on July 5, 2019, through Bad Boy, Interscope and his own EST 19XX imprint, peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and moved toward rap rock. In 2020 he turned fully to pop-punk with “Tickets to My Downfall”, produced by Travis Barker, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. His later albums, including “Mainstream Sellout” (2022) and “Lost Americana” (2025), continued in a rock direction. His rap catalog runs from the Cleveland mixtapes of 2007 to 2010 through “Hotel Diablo”, with “Cleveland” and “Wild Boy” as its hometown touchstones.