Machine Gun Kelly peeled back the bombastic layers of his recent pop-punk pivot for the stark, piano-driven new single “Don’t Let Me Go,” released Wednesday. In the minimalist black-and-white video, MGK reckons with personal demons laid bare through self-reflective lyrics, examining his frayed relationships, substance abuse issues, and deteriorating mental health.
In brutal honesty, Kelly references the trauma of his fiancée Megan Fox‘s miscarriage, rapping, “How can I live with the fact that my hand wasn’t on her stomach when we lost the baby?” The raw lyric spotlights a grief only hinted at when Kelly dedicated a performance to his unborn child at the Billboard Music Awards 2022.
The visual echoes the song’s despair, with the Cleveland skyline seeming to trap Kelly as he pours out revelations from the piano bench. In a shot evoking rebirth, Kelly emerges shirtless from dark waters, his torso blanketed in the massive blackout tattoo unveiled earlier this week after 13 grueling six-hour sessions.
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True to Kelly’s mercurial nature, “Don’t Let Me Go” marks a departure from 2022’s chart-topping glam punk escapades into stark self-examination. The stylistic shift harkens back to his last rap outing, 2019’s Hotel Diablo, suggesting Kelly’s pop flirtation may give way to more confessional hip-hop catharsis.
Perhaps Machine Gun Kelly is realizing that you can’t outrun your past through mere spectacle as he mulls over a life rife with family wounds, drug problems, and mental health issues. “Don’t Let Me Go” is MGK at his most raw and relatable.
