Though many fans actually came to admire the way Machine Gun Kelly handled business in his notorious beef with Eminem, a feud that saw him attacking the Rap God with the incendiary "Rap Devil." Though some were reluctant to applaud the Gunner for his efforts, there are who actually admired the way he stood up to such a devastating opponent with far more experience in warfare. Yet the Stan numbers are legion, and MGK quickly found himself on the receiving end of their relentless counterassault, emboldened further after the release of Em's "Killshot."
The backlash got so bad that it actually had a noted impact on the sales of Hotel Diablo, as theorized by Machine Gun Kelly during a recent conversation with Dave Franco for Interview Magazine. In fact, he downright confirms that his public perception was at an all-time low following the beef, despite the fact that he actually held his own like any rapper should. "As a hip-hop album, [Hotel Diablo] is flawless front to back, and also a hint at the evolution of how I went into a pop-punk album," he explains. "But it was coming off the tail-end of that infamous beef [with Eminem]. So no one wanted to give it the time of day."
"It’s like if you make a shitty movie and then you come out with a great movie right after, but people want to focus on the fact that they hated whatever you just did," he explains. "What I did in the beef was exactly what it should be, but that project wasn’t welcomed. The next album came from already feeling like I’d counted out, so I didn’t even care what the public was going to think."
Regardless of how you might feel about Machine Gun Kelly, a simple truth must be acknowledged and downright respected. He was called out on "Not Alike" and responded with "Rap Devil" in a matter of days, willing to engage against one of rap's most formidable lyricists. Though he may have shifted genres entirely these days, MGK deserves his props for keeping his composure.
Check out the full interview with Dave Franco here, and sound off -- do you think MGK's Hotel Diablo deserves a second chance?