Rapper-turned-punk rocker Machine Gun Kelly had some choice words for a certain masked band.
During his Sunday night set at Riot Fest in Chicago, MGK (nee Colson Baker) took a verbal jab at Slipknot (who were performing at the same time at the festival) when he addressed the crowd saying:
“Hey, you wanna know what I’m really happy that I’m not doing? Being 50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage, talking shit. So anyway, what’s everyone’s favorite candy? Reese’s Pieces?”
He followed up later in his set,
“Turn the lights up. Let me see who chose to be here instead of with all the old weird dudes with masks.”
On Monday, Machine Gun Kelly clarified his Riot Fest statement, saying that Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor was almost featured on his album ‘Tickets To My Downfall,’ but the appearance was scrapped because it wasn’t good. He claims that Taylor was upset and lashed out. Wrote MGK on Twitter, “
“Corey did a verse for a song on tickets to my downfall album, it was f*cking terrible, so i didn’t use it. he got mad about it, and talked shit to a magazine about the same album he was almost on. yalls stories are all off. just admit he’s bitter.”
MGK was referring to a comment Taylor made during an interview with Cutter’s Rockfest in February that vaguely referred to him as an “artist” who “failed in one genre and decided to go rock.” Said Taylor at the time (as transcribed by The PRP),
“The [young artists] that really frustrate me are the ones that they take something that’s been around forever and then just basically rework it and call it new — even though it’s completely derivative. You know the band they’re ripping off — they’re not even trying to rip off a bunch of bands; they’re ripping off one band. But the younger generation picks them up and says, ‘This is our blah blah blah,’ because they’re tired of old people telling them that the music that came before them was better. And I don’t know who’s right, but I know both are wrong, because we should be encouraging everything.”
Taylor has fired back to the new statements sharing “receipts” on Twitter, stating:
“I don’t like people airing private shit like a child. So this is all I’ll say: I didn’t do the track because I don’t like when people try to ‘write’ for me. I said NO to THEM. So without further ado…. #receipts This is all I’m going to say about it.”
I don’t like people airing private shit like a child. So this is all I’ll say: I didn’t do the track because I don’t like when people try to ‘write’ for me. I said NO to THEM. So without further ado…. #receipts
This is all I’m going to say about it. pic.twitter.com/pkhweg1Ptn— SHRED DJENT REDEMPTION (@CoreyTaylorRock) September 20, 2021
Machine Gun Kelly released his latest album, Tickets To My Downfall, in 2020, transitioning his genre focus from rap to pop-punk. The album was produced by Blink-182’s Travis Barker and gave him his first Billboard 200 #1 and first platinum record. MGK announced in August that he would be teaming up with Barker again for his next album, Born With Horns.
In 2019, MGK portrayed Tommy Lee in Netflix’s Motley Crue biopic ‘The Dirt.’
Slipknot put out their latest album, We Are Not Your Kind, in 2019 and are reportedly working on another release that is set to premiere some time in 2021. Corey Taylor released his debut solo album, CMFT, in October 2020.