You come at the king, you best not miss.
Rapper-turned-rocker Machine Gun Kelly has become public enemy #1 of the metal world lately, with Slipknot fans in particular choosing him as the object of their hatred. Metal fans at the Aftershock festival this past weekend in Sacramento, CA let MGK have it, pelting the singer with bottles, tree branches and a smattering of boos throughout his set.
A quick recap, in case you missed it: Kelly made headlines in September when he ripped on Slipknot on-stage at Chicago’s Riot Fest. Both Slipknot and MGK closed out the fest, playing on different stages at the same time. In an apparent response to ‘Knot frontman Corey Taylor telling an interviewer that he hates “the artists who failed in one genre and decided to go rock,” Kelly told the Riot Fest audience that Slipknot were “old weird dudes with masks” and he was happy that he isn’t “50 years old wearing a fucking weird mask on a fucking stage.”
When Metal Twitter started giving MGK a hard time about what he said, he attempted to defend himself by asserting that Taylor was just “mad” because he “did a verse for a song on [Tickets to My Downfall[ album, it was fucking terrible, so i [sic] didn’t use it.” Taylor fired back by sharing a private e-mail exchange in which he declined to be on Tickets to My Downfall after Kelly asked for changes to Taylor’s proposed guest-verse.
Then, at the Louder Than Life festival a couple of weeks back, the rapper was met with a chorus of boos and a sea of middle fingers. Afterwards, Kelly posted on social media, “i don’t know why the media lies in their narrative against me all the time but all i saw was 20,000 amazing fans at the festival singing every word and 20 angry ones.”
Which brings us back to Aftershock. Kelly took to the stage to more boos and middle fingers and, according to festival attendees, had empty water bottles and even tree branches thrown at him throughout the set. At one point he addressed the hate directly, saying, “Mixed opinions. I love you so much. This morning I was like, ‘Do we get on the plane and go to this?’ I was sitting there thinking about the last festival we did where this 10-year-old got her poster ripped up just for liking me. I’m doing this show for her and everyone who came to see us.” He mostly remained positive, though, at one point light-heartedly exchanging middle fingers with some fans.
You can watch footage of MGK’s crowd address and performance below.
[via Loudwire]