Machine Gun Kelly, “Chip off the Block”

As we reach the end of 2011, it’s time to name my favorite song of the year.  I did enjoy a lot jams released in 2011: Young Chris “Racks,” Chris Brown “She Ain’t You,” Roscoe Dash “Good Night,” Drake “I’m on one,” “Proud of You,” J Cole “Can’t Get Enough,” Wale “Focused,” B.O.B “Strange Clouds,” and almost all the “Watch the Throne” album, but my favorite song goes to one I just heard recently.  I may be a little late jumpin on the Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) train, but here goes…

I was in overdrive this year focused on work , so I fell a little behind in keeping up with new music.  (Shout out to my boys MM and H for keeping me on track!)  As a somewhat futile attempt, I set my DVR to record Sucker Free Sunday on MTV2 each week, and then would try to put it on sometime while working from home.  On this particular day a couple of weeks ago, I was grueling away and had zoned out on much of Sucker Free.  All of a sudden I look up to the beginning of this video with Waka Flocka Flame… and this skinny tattooed kid named Machine Gun Kelly.  Not gonna lie, what initially attracted me was him, wilin out shirtless with his sideways snapback cap (anyone who knows me is likely unfazed right now).  “Who is this cat?!” I exclaimed out loud.  The song, “Wild Boy” is a catchy, standard song- but then I noticed a couple of times that his flow was really good (much better than the sloppy mess Waka Flocka spit out).  So I sent a quick email out to my boys (subject: Who is this cat??!! with the YouTube of “Wild Boy” attached) and then started looking up more of his stuff (a quick time-out from work).   I watched another one of his videos online, for “Chip off the Block” and he just become more adorable to me. Within minutes my friends had responded, sending me the “Wild boy” single as well as a link to MGK’s newest mix-tape.  I downloaded it, made myself a CD, and got back to work.

The next morning I’m driving to court and put on the CD, listen to “Wild Boy” then the rest of the “Lace Up!” mixtape.  It’s really good, full of good beats and a variety of messages.  More than a few could be released as singles.  Then I recognized the song from the one YouTube video I watched the night before, “Chip off the Block.”  As I listened to it, loud in my car, my mouth dropped open.  I wanted to just have a passenger next to me I could turn to and exclaim, “Did you just hear that shit?  What the fuck!”  He kills it.  The beat in “Chip off the Block” is great, and this kid, who can’t be more than 21 years old, absolutely kills it.  I am pretty sure for the whole next week I had this song on repeat every time I drove and when I worked out.  Eminem, one of the best, just released his one of his best verses (in competition with “Forgot About Dre”) last year with “No Love:”

If you listen to that, then “Chip off the Block,” you can see this kid has the potential to be the next generation’s Eminem.  The whole flow: rhythm, tempo, rhyming…  Asher Roth and Mac Miller are just decent from what I’ve heard so far, and I am somewhat familiar with Yelawolf- he is good, but I think MGK is better.  And he is cuter and will gain better acceptance by female fans- which was one of Eminem’s assets.  Again, I repeat, not Eminem level yet, but has the potential.  MGK has been signed by Diddy’s label, that is actually how my friend H heard about him, by following Diddy on Twitter.  This is what I get for unfollowing Diddy a couple months ago (all he was tweeting about was drinking Ciroc responsibly so I got annoyed one day and hit “unfollow”)  If I had only known his tweets would get some substance…

So MGK is the kid to watch in 2012.  Download his mix-tapes, better yet if you have my email address, email me directly and I’ll send you “Chip off the Block.”  Don’t just watch the video- you’ll get distracted by everything going on, and it gets interrupted a couple times, and have I mentioned how cute he is?  But seriously, put this song in your headphones or car or whatever and listen.  He’s good.