Rapper-singer MGK does not want to be cool any more

Before American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan delivered him an out-of-the-blue stamp of approval earlier in 2025, American rapper and singer MGK was on unsteady ground.

- Joe Coscarelli and Jon Caramanica

NEW YORK —

He had just returned from an extended stay at a rehabilitation facility amid a high-profile break-up with American actress Megan Fox, who was expecting the couple's first child (their daughter was born in March).

The Los Angeles fires had destroyed his favorite studio. And he had scrapped some two years of work on a new album, opting to pursue a new genre-agnostic, mostly pure pop direction. Everything felt far from certain.

Then, in February, a decade-old clip of MGK rapping in a Central Florida record store appeared on Dylan's cryptic Instagram account.

“Everything on his grid is black-and-white and old — either it's Malcolm X or, like, dead jazz players,” said MGK, born Colson Baker and formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly. “I'm like, okay, how do I fit in here? What's going on? It's like a D-side MGK video from, like, the 17th page of my YouTube channel.”

After a period of disbelief, MGK began inching towards meeting the reclusive rock legend. They finally came face to face in May, following a Dylan performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

Not long after, MGK announced his new album, Lost Americana, with a video narrated by that familiar — but rarely heard — voice, intoning about “a sonic map of forgotten places, a tribute to the spirit of reinvention and a quest to reclaim the essence of American freedom”.

“He's the most elusive snow leopard,” MGK, 35, said of Dylan, 84, explaining his decision to take his idol's approval — along with that of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger — as a sign that he was on the correct path.

Lost Americana, which came out on Aug 8, is the result of that new-found confidence, yet another reinvention for a polarizing artiste.

Having come to prominence as an aggressive white rapper claiming Cleveland, MGK made a mainstream name as a worthy opponent of American rapper Eminem, a fellow chip-on-his-shoulder outsider who had grown from a Midwestern battle rap scene.