Victoria Abraham defines one up and coming artist each week so you can impress your friends with your musical brilliance. This week, she tackles Machine Gun Kelly, a hip-hop artist from Cleveland, Ohio.
Machine Gun Kelly, known as MGK for short, combines two of my favourite things: white rappers with mad skills, and illegal amounts of swagger. At 15, his rapid-fire lyrical style earned him his stage name, which is a reference to notorious 1930s gangster George “Machine Gun Kelly” Barnes. MGK has been blowing up on the hip-hop scene after releasing four mixtapes. His debut album, Lace Up, drops today!
Full name: Richard Colson Baker
Known for: MGK is known for his lightning speed delivery.
Used in a sentence: “If MGK continues to produce the type of brilliance he has thus far, then he’s probably going to have to change that dangerously placed “Almost Famous” tattoo.”
File next to: DMX, Yelawolf
Download now: “Invincible”
Five fun facts:
1. Born to missionary parents, MGK spent the first four years of his life in Egypt. He spoke Arabic before he spoke English. Read more…
We see the everyday struggles of several different people in MGK’s new video “Invincible,” featuring Ester Dean. Specifically, a grieving MGK, a bullied teen, a preacher, a pregnant woman, two pranksters, and a boxer.
It’s a sensitive side of MGK that we don’t see often. And we like it.
MGK’s debut studio album Lace Up, drops on July 10.
Watch the video here:
“Invincible,” Disney’s film about an underdog football player, took the top weekend box office spot for the second time. It beat out two major new releases, “Crank” and “The Wicker Man.”
Though final numbers won’t be out until Tuesday because of the Labour Day holiday, “Invincible” took in $11.9 million U.S. in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, according to Reuters.
The film stars Mark Wahlberg as real-life football hero Vince Papale, who earned a spot in the NFL at the ripe old age of 30.
The newly debuted “Crank” took second place, though sales numbers weren’t released by the movie’s distributor, Lionsgate. Figures from other studios determined its spot in the top 3.
Starring Britain’s Jason Stratham, the action flick follows a professional hitman after he’s injected with a poison that will kill him should his heartrate drop below a certain point.
The third spot went to another new release, Nicolas Cage’s “The Wicker Man.” Cage plays a sheriff investigating the mysterious disappearance of a girl in a pagan community. Critics haven’t been kind to the film, but it still managed to bring in $9.6 million.
South Philly wasn’t exactly a fun place in the ’70s. Labour unrest led to joblessness, and joblessness led to losing your wife — at least for Vince Papale, the real-life focus of “Invincible.”
Though it’s first and foremost a typical sports movie (i.e. unlikely hero triumphs over obstacles and skeptics), “Invincible” manages to include the outside issues and tensions of the time, creating a much fuller film.
Mark Wahlberg stars as Papale, an out-of-work teacher/part-time bartender. His beloved-yet-struggling Philadelphia Eagles NFL team takes on a new coach (Dick Vermeil, played by Greg Kinnear), who brings with him an unconventional approach — opening team tryouts to the public.
Though Papale was 30 and hadn’t even played college football, his friends manage to pressure him into attending the open tryouts.
Of course, the rest of the story and its ultimate conclusion are fairly predictable. And while this is to be expected from a film that retells a true story, “Invincible” doesn’t manage to create much tension; not enough is done to trick the audience into thinking, “Maybe he won’t make it.”
The movie also suffers from a rather formulaic love subplot. While Papale may have actually been developing a new romance while also aiming for the NFL, it sure feels awfully Hollywood-esque.
In all, though, this isn’t a bad sports movie. With Vince Papale as the focus, “Invincible” has an incredible story at its core, and goes out of its way to capture a time of turmoil that affected much more than just a single man.
