Part of Machine Gun Kelly’s persona as a musician and performer is his tendency to take things to the extreme. Whether he’s smashing a champagne glass against his head or climbing to dangerous heights of his concert venues, you literally never know what MGK is going to do next. With that in mind, his latest move has sparked some backlash — with many saying that his new Razor Blade Guitar promotes cutting. And the singer seemingly responded with some thoughts about art.
MGK Called Out For Glorifying Self-Harm With New Razor Blade Guitar
Schecter Guitars announced its partnership with the rock artist (whose real name is Colson Baker), sharing photos of the Machine Gun Kelly Razor Blade on Instagram. Predictably, the instrument in question features a body shaped like a giant razor blade, which you can see below:
It didn’t take long for the criticism to start, with social media users accusing MGK of glorifying self harm and perpetuating the stereotype that punk and emo kids intentionally cut themselves. One comment read:
Promoting self harm and making money off of it Let's go!! Now mgk can do another 30000 songs about cutting his wrist and having Emo girl.
This seemed to be what many thought when they first saw the unique instrument, because there were several other similar comments under Schecter’s post, including:
- Everyone, this deserves a boycott. I'm not kidding. Who tf approved this? – korean.grape.drank
- I mean who are his signature models for…14 year olds? I get it’s a money grab, but damn Schecter have some dignity. This also looks like it could promote self harm culture. Big L. – ap8chew0lf
- I LOVE IT WHEN BRANDS AND ARTISTS GLORIFY SELF HARM!!! – oyasumiconcon
- Man this guy wants to be emo so bad. Weird concept to promote. Nationwide pushes against self harm...and yet we make a giant razor blade guitar for a guy who makes emo pop songs. Strange – the_alex.davis
Machine Gun Kelly appeared to address the response on social media shortly after.
Machine Gun Kelly Makes A Statement About Interpretation Of Art
The singer didn’t specifically mention the Razor Blade Guitar, but that was possibly what he was referring to when he took to X (Twitter) the day after the guitar’s release to say:
i'll never explain my art, because true art is conversational and always up for interpretation, but i will say, most of you constantly interpret it wrong. and then blame me for your version of what you think my art is. ultimately im sad at how people perceive me in general. peace.
He’s kind of talking out of both sides of his mouth by saying that art is open to interpretation but most of that interpretation is wrong, but either way it sounds like Machine Gun Kelly thinks the messages that people are taking away from his art don’t line up with what he is intending to say. That problem certainly comes with being an artist of any kind, especially if — like MGK — they choose not to explain themselves further.
Fans who do want to get inside Colson Baker’s head a little more, however, can stream his documentary Machine Gun Kelly’s Life in Pink with a Hulu subscription.
