Machine Gun Kelly has never been shy about responding to the hate he’s gotten for switching between rap and pop punk, and he’s now poked fun at those critics in Spain.
On Wednesday (July 6), MGK performed as part of the first day of Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Spain. During his set, he took a break from running through his hits to pay homage to his Spanish-speaking fans in the audience.
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“Spain, thank you very much for welcoming me into your country,” Machine Gun Kelly told the crowd completely in Spanish. “I can feel all the love here today. In return, I want to sing a song with you all in your own language.”
He then dove into a flawless rendition of Marc Cisco’s “Oy Yoy Yoy,” with the dense crowd screaming along to every word.
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“Haters will say I switched genres again,” MGK wrote alongside a clip of the moment on Instagram.
Diplo, Swae Lee, Don Omar, Tech N9ne and numerous others all showed their support in the comments, with the latter writing: “BEYOND the fuckin stars bruh bruh!”
The 33-year-old has had his fair share of critics over the years, and despite his pivot into pop punk — which garnered him two No. 1 albums: Tickets to My Downfall and Mainstream Sellout — MGK promised his next album would be a return to his rap roots.
“I’m going to make a rap album for myself,” he told Audacy last April. “For no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder. If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I’m going to one, drive myself crazy and two, not make a good product. I made Tickets and Mainstream Sellout because I wanted to make them. I need to now also make people miss that sound.”
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“I’m going to do this tour and I’m gonna step into where I left Hotel Diablo and expand on my storytelling as a rapper and find a new innovative sound for the Hip Hop Machine Gun Kelly. That’s where my excitement is and where me as a music archaeologist wants to explore.”
The hate has continued to flow in Kelly’s direction since this announcement, with Millyz most recently coming out to criticize the Cleveland star’s rapping abilities.
During a visit to VladTV, Millyz listed off his top white rappers, which included Eminem, himself, Paul Wall, Mac Miller, Jack Harlow and Action Bronson.
“MGK is garbage. He can’t rap, but he got a good rockstar image, but like I’m a real rapper. I really break down bars, syllables and words, so I look past image and flow,” Millyz said in April. “A lot of white rappers just came through and did that fast flow and said nothing, so he came in with a rockstar image and all of that, but you’re not nice though.”
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He added: “So even when the Eminem battle happened, and peoples minds was blown because at the time, they expected MGK to just get blown out. So when he showed any type of resistance, he came in and said a rap, ‘Your beard is weird.’ Name a bar from that song. That shit is garbage.”
MGK most recently made good on this promise by dropping off a rap-heavy new single “PRESSURE” back in May.
