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\n\tSince emerging as a hyperactive, scaffolding-scaling rapper in the early 2010s, MGK<\/a> \u2014 formerly Machine Gun Kelly, born Colson Baker \u2014 has forged his own path through the pop-cultural consciousness. He\u2019s feuded with Eminem; he\u2019s engaged in egregious red-carpet PDA with his onetime flame Megan Fox; he\u2019s acted in movies and TV, with his full-body channeling of M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce drummer Tommy Lee being a highlight of the hard rockers\u2019\u00a02019 biopic The Dirt<\/em>. And, oh yes, he\u2019s released records.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 2020, MGK fully pivoted from hip-hop to pop-punk with Tickets to My Downfall<\/em><\/a>, a collection of punchy, hooky cuts that included the spittle-flecked Halsey duet \u201cForget Me Too\u201d and the trap-tinged blackbear collab \u201cMy Ex\u2019s Best Friend.\u201d He continued playing with genre in the ensuing years, even calling his brand of bummed-out emo-rap \u201csadboy\u201d on a 2024 joint EP with fellow Ohioan Trippie Redd.<\/p>\n \n\tMgk has always had a\u00a0quintessentially \u2014 if oddly \u2014 American public-facing persona, which was only highlighted by how he\u00a0managed to get Bob Dylan<\/a> to provide a voiceover for the album\u2019s trailer<\/a>. (Dylan called MGK\u2019s latest work, \u201c music that celebrates the beauty found in the in-between spaces.\u201d) On his seventh album, he\u00a0musically and thematically updates\u00a0the concept of \u201cheartland rock,\u201d the storytelling-heavy, road-trip-ready strain of guitar music made by the likes of John Cougar Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n