Inside Machine Gun Kelly's Beef With Fellow Musicians
Machine Gun Kelly has seen success in two different genres of music, which not every artist can say. In 2011 MTV reported that he signed to Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy label, and he went on to release several albums as a rapper before going the pop-punk route. For the most part, Kelly was welcomed into hip-hop, but the same can't be said when he entered the rock genre.
That has a lot to do with some comments he made about rock artists. Plus, some seemed unimpressed by his genre change and have basically called him a poser, suggesting that his desire to make rock is based on superficialities and not a deep-down love for the music. Clearly, though, not everyone shares that opinion, because Kelly's rock albums, "Tickets to My Downfall" and "Mainstream Sellout" have given him a legion of new fans and an American Music Award.
Still, though, Kelly has bickered with rock musicians and he's gotten into rivalries with rap artists as well. Let's take a look at the many beefs Machine Gun Kelly has had with his fellow musicians.
Joyner Lucas ranted, then apologized
First on the Machine Gun Kelly beef list is Massachusetts rapper Joyner Lucas, who became angry after organizers of the Lollapalooza music festival announced their 2022 lineup. In Lucas' opinion, he should've gotten way bigger billing and he Kelly deserved less of the attention he was getting as one of the headliners. In addition to his specific shot at the "Bloody Valentine" artist, Lucas said he was offended that his name was in such small letters on the digital flier, while the names of other artists, who he called unknown, were placed more prominently. He posted a photo of Kelly after that and blasted festival organizers for making him a headliner, calling the pop-punk singer "goofy."
A few days later, though, Lucas did a complete 180, deleting his tweets and backpaddling on his Kelly diss. "I be getting frustrated when I feel like I'm the underdog all the time," Lucas wrote in a tweet which was later shared by Complex in its writeup of the whole incident. "Maybe I ain't put in enuff work ... maybe I think I'm a bigger artist than what I actually am ... @machinegunkelly did absolutely nothin to me to deserve that lame tweet. If u readin this, I apologize dog."
Corey Taylor responded to an insult
Was the beef between Machine Gun Kelly and Slipknot's Corey Taylor about a failed collaboration, or shoes? The answer is both. In a 2020 interview, Kelly criticized the footwear of other rock artists. Several rockers took offense, including Taylor. We'll get into the song collab in a bit.
"I did 'Warped Tour' and these motherf****** would wear comfortable shoes onstage every day," Kelly said on "Rock This With Allison Hagendorf" (via Audacy). "New Balance comfy shoes because it makes you feel comfortable ... You don't look cool, man ... Rock and Roll's not comfortable, it's uncomfortable." Taylor seemingly responded to Kelly during an interview on "Cutter's Rockcast" by calling him a failed rapper and fake rock artist. Kelly then fired back at Chicago's "Riot Fest" in 2021 (per Vulture).
"You wanna know what I'm really happy that I'm not doing?" said Kelly. "Being 50 years old wearing a f****** weird mask on a f******* stage, talking s***." Later, Kelly tweeted that Taylor was supposed to be on his "Tickets to My Downfall" album but it didn't work out, hence their issues with each other. Taylor responded by saying he dropped out of the project because he didn't like the creative direction. From there, Kelly shot back by saying that Taylor's contribution to the song was terrible, to which the Slipknot singer responded by blasting him on the ShipRocked cruise in 2022 (captured in a Facebook video shared by Kris Sterbinsky). So yeah, there's a lot going on between these two.
Eminem answered MGK with 'Killshot'
Some might find shoes a silly thing to start a fight over when thinking about Machine Gun Kelly's beef with Slipknot's Corey Taylor, but it's a little easier to understand Eminem's reason for feuding with Kelly.
See, the "Hotel Diablo" creator called Eminem's daughter Hailie Jade "hot" in a 2012 tweet (per Vibe), which sparked a much-talked-about-feud between the two men. Kelly dissed Eminem years later in a featured verse on Tech N9ne's "No Reason," and accused the "8 Mile" vocalist of blocking his music on Shade 45, an Eminem-owned radio station (via Power 106 Los Angeles). Eventually, Eminem insulted Kelly in his 2018 song "Not Alike."
But the height of Kelly and Eminem's beef came with their respective diss tracks fully targeted at each other. Kelly struck first with "Rap Devil," featuring the lines "Hello Marshall, my name's Colson / You should go back to 'Recovery' / I know your ego is hurting / Just knowing that all of your fans discovered me ... Stop all the thuggery, Marshall, you living in luxury." Eminem responded in his song "Killshot." "Yeah, I had enough money in '02 to burn it in front of you / Younger me? No, you the whack me / It's funny, but so true / I'd rather be 80 year old me than 20 year old you," Em fired back.
G-Eazy and Machine Gun Kelly fought over Halsey
Machine Gun Kelly's beef with Bay Area rapper G-Eazy didn't have anything to do with shoes or daughters — it was mainly about the pop singer Halsey. That's because Eazy and Halsey were an item for more than a year before breaking up for good in 2018 (per Insider). A few days after the split, some theorized that Kelly and Halsey were a couple since they were seen hanging out at the beach in an Instagram pic. But the "Walls Could Talk" singer shut down that talk with a tweet. Then more drama between the rappers arose after Eazy showed up at the 2018 ESPYs with blonde hair because Kelly suggested on Twitter that Eazy was copying his style.
Then after a while, it seemed that Eazy had enough of the subliminal talk and he sent direct insults to Kelly on his 2018 cut "Bad Boy." "Someone might'a lit a fire inside the soul of me / Your shots just graze me, I'm standing, ain't put a hole in me / I answer to no one, nobody can get control of me / MGK please stop trolling me, get over me / You wanna be me, you're mad that you're not as big as me," rapped Eazy.
Kelly responded on New York DJ Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show and implied that he bedded Halsey — something that he fully claimed during a 2018 interview on "The Breakfast Club" (per Hot New Hip Hop).
Halsey was disgusted
Not surprisingly, Halsey wasn't happy about Machine Gun Kelly's claim that they were intimate with each other, and had a succinct response locked and loaded.
But first, in regards to the pair's history, Halsey once wrote on Instagram that they've been friends with the self-proclaimed "Blonde Don" since the "dawn of time." It was something that Halsey detailed while posting a message about their MGK collab "Forget Me Too," from Kelly's "Tickets to My Downfall" album. And remember that photo of Kelly and Halsey hanging out at the beach? That certainly had a lot to do with the dating rumors that swirled around them. But again, Halsey said the rumor wasn't true while adding on Twitter that the pic was already two years old when people began fussing about it.
Now, back to their response after Kelly said they slept together. "how *absolutely* pathetic," they tweeted. Of course, the message could've also been a response to being dragged into Kelly's beef with G-Eazy and Eminem.
Shaun Morgan doesn't think MGK belongs on a rock stage
To reiterate, Machine Gun Kelly insulting Slipknot's Corey Taylor at 2021's "Riot Fest" bothered a lot of people, and some of those bothered people seemed to attend the "Louder Than Life" festival that same year. So, how did they react to Kelly when he played? He was booed and given the middle finger salute, as seen in YouTube video posted by Gage Puffinbarger. One person who was pleased with the crowd's response was Shaun Morgan of the South African band Seether, who praised the rowdy assemblage during his "Louder Than Life" set, according to various reports.
"I congratulated the crowd for booing," Morgan later told Loudwire. "Here's my thing: You were a rapper, you got rapped out of rapping because you got so owned by Eminem. Then you come to rock for example, and it's more pop punk than anything else ... I was proud of those people. I didn't feel like you belong on a stage like that after one or two singles just because you've got a name and a fancy girlfriend ... And especially not when you take on one of metal's greatest singers and you think that you're gonna get away with it."
Kelly didn't respond to Morgan but he did deny being booed off the "Louder Than Life" stage. "I don't know why the media lies in their narrative against me all the time but all I saw was 20,000 amazing fans at the festival singing every word and 20 angry ones," tweeted Kelly.
Matt Heafy gave Machine Gun Kelly a new nickname
It turns out that Matt Heafy of the Floridian heavy metal band Trivium is another person who took offense to Machine Gun Kelly's comments about Corey Taylor. In a tweet, Heafy got all fifth-grade with his insult and gave the Ohio artist a new nickname. "Squirt Gun Smelly," he tweeted. Heafy followed up that diss by bringing up Kelly's switch from a baseball hat-wearing rapper to a rock n' roller. "I'd like to formally diss Machine Gun Kelly for being 31 years old wearing ... 16 year old pop punk cosplay identity," wrote the heavy metal artist.
His message got a lot of positive feedback, with many saying Kelly deserves all of the backlash he gets. "I never thought about him till he took a shot at Slipknot — who are a band who's paved the way for bands like mine, thousands of bands like mine," Heafy continued on Twitter. "Squirt Gun is a clout chaser. And even though it's all a PR stunt, a shot at SK needs an addressing."
Millyz spoke badly of MGK's rap skills
Millyz is a rapper from Cambridge, Massachusetts (via XXL), and let's just say he isn't the biggest Machine Gun Kelly fan. He talked about the father-of-one in a 2022 interview with VladTV and spoke badly of his rapping ability. Millyz also said he hated "Rap Devil," Kelly's Eminem diss track.
"MGK is garbage," Millyz said flat out on VladTV. "'Cause he can't rap, but he got a good rockstar image, but like I'm a real rapper ... I really like break down bars, syllables and words ... So even when the Eminem battle happened ... he came in and said a rap, 'Your beard is weird.' Name a bar from that song ... I'm breaking it down on a rap level."
Of course, not everyone shared Millyz's opinion about "Rap Devil," and even one of Eminem's former group mates said he was impressed by it. "I think it was good," said Bizarre of the Eminem-fronted group D12 in a video message on Twitter. "I think this is the best I ever heard Mr. Kelly rap in his life. I think he stayed up all night and wrote the best possible bars he possibly could, and I think it's good for hip-hop. But boy the repercussions." For the record, Kelly never responded to Millyz.