Machine Gun Kelly - Hotel Diablo

Machine Gun Kelly
Hotel Diablo
2019
Spotify

A lot of things in this world are haunting, but nothing haunts me quite like a new Machine Gun Kelly album to review. MGK represents nearly everything I hate about pop music. He appropriates a genre that somewhat fits him, appeals to the majority by being just edgy enough and then once the hype is the right level star in a movie. It's become the dream of every influencer out there, cash in in and every way possible, the death of real artistic expression. Is depression the thing that's in? MGK has plenty to bring to that table. Partying, well He's done plenty of that too and has so much to say about it. It's not that Machine Gun Kelly cannot rap, He can, it's that He wants to be a bigger deal than He already is and the fact that He isn't still plagues him. You can hear it in almost every line, He is acting mighty tough but underneath it's all pretty hollow. He's got words for people who made fun of Pete Davidson and than has the audacity within the same line mention knowing Nipsey Hussle. On that same track "Glass House" He goes on to call Mac Miller a dear friend, lamenting never meeting lil Peep and recounts a time meeting Chester Bennington. I mean talk about cashing in on other people's sorrow, good god is there anything that He won't to to self aggrandize?  His stories just sound so fucking fake, which is fine if you're trying to be a songwriter, but MGK is trying to pitch this as his real life.

When the song is emotionally bankrupt MGK uses relies on his lyrically skill to bail him out. However none of the songs on Hotel Diablo are bangers enough to propel this album forward. If you are going to write something that is generic it better at least make you want to move, but nothing here does that. He is in this odd middle ground between trap and rap rock that just does not work. When you hear a spooky trap beat followed by a clearly electronic guitar solo it's just so so bad. "A Message From the Count" a disjointed and utterly pointless skit featuring MGK and the aforementioned Pete Davidson. It's one of the cringest moments on the album that is chalked full of them. I mean, I guess if this is your jam good for you, but personally I find MGK really bad, and I actually liked him in the Mötley Crüe movie! This just is not the stuff man, not the stuff at all.

2.0 out of 10