Machine Gun Kelly has responded after he was accused of promoting self-harm with his new guitar.
The rapper turned pop punker's latest signature instrument with Schecter Guitar Research is shaped like a giant razor blade. They're currently selling for $1,499 on the company's website.
Music reviewer and podcaster METALBIRB summarized people's complaints with the guitar in a Jan. 9 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"I know MGK sucks and people don’t like him… but what’s up with the guitar being a razor? It’s almost like it’s glorying self-harm?" he said. "Schecter man… the scene has problems with mental health and making tools that can cause self-harm look 'cool' is actually super lame. Also the guitar is hideous, but that’s just obvious."
Others thought the razor blade was a reference to drugs.
"Some people use this for cutting cocaine, and we all know MGK is a junkie," one commenter said.
"It’s 100% glorifying self harm and or drug use," said another. "He’s trying to lean into that edgy wannabe emo audience he’s cultivated, and it’s backfiring. Shame on him, and shame on Schecter for supporting this."
'Ultimately (I'm) sad at how people perceive me in general," the musician said in a social media post.
MGK responded in METALBIRB's comment section.
"You show your lack of depth by taking art at face value," he said. "This has nothing to do with any of the subject matter you just presented. so no my friend, you suck."
A few hours later, he made another post about the flap.
"I'll never explain my art, because true art is conversational and always up for interpretation, but i will say, most of you constantly interpret it wrong. and then blame me for your version of what you think my art is," MGK said. "Ultimately (I'm) sad at how people perceive me in general. peace."
METALBIRB tried to reason with the chart-topping artist.
"I actually don’t mind your music man, I find it catchy and if you get more ppl into punk that’s a plus in my books," he said. "But this guitar ain’t it imo. The pink one is badass but the razor design doesn’t sit well with me. I know it’s not your intent like I assumed. But kids will think razors are cool and the emo/pop punk scene is notorious for self harm. And kids are super impressionable and look up to you."
MGK's other signature Schecter model, a much simpler pink guitar, is currently on sale for $999.
"The pink one is actually a sick guitar and it’s not trying to be a try hard edgelord with its design too," METALBIRB said.
The guitar is currently selling for $1,499 on Schecter's website.
Not everyone in the original post's comment section came down so hard on MGK.
"I think it looks cool not gonna lie," one person said.
Several commenters pointed out that there's a razor blade on the cover of Judas Priest's iconic 1980 album British Steel.
"Agree to a certain extent but it’s kind of part & parcel to heavy music isn’t it? Especially Metal," one person said. "How many metal album covers glorify violence or war? Wouldn’t like to think that decades after the Satanic Panic that people from within the genre would start to use some of that same language."
MGK first found fame as a rapper in 2011 when he released the track "Wild Boy," a collaboration with Waka Flocka Flame.
Nearly a decade later, the musician found massive commercial success by switching to pop punk. His two most recent studio albums, 2020's Tickets to My Downfall and 2022's Mainstream Sellout, both made it to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
