Machine Gun Kelly, one of the world’s hot “new” artists making a wave all over the U.S. and soon Europe, and one whom I’ve had the honor to rage with, is big on driving one point across…”I am not a celebrity.”
He’s addressing one thing a lot of celebrities deal with. The celeb-status catch-22, which many people can feel for.
You ever get that feeling where you just want to go off and be alone? It seems that everyone wants fame, but doesn’t want attention. Power, but no spotlight. Obviously I’m not referring to the fame-whores who from birth jump in front of every camera they see; but I’m speaking of the people who want to spread their message, get their point across, or even just make money, without having their privacy compromised.
It is an open world, & technology has deadened the “legend.”
What is a legend? A legend, according to the dictionary, is “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.” Most celebs want to be a legend. Even MGK says to “remember this face” in one of his songs, and in another he speaks on people making sure his name stays alive if he’s gone. What he wants…is fame with privacy.
Jay-z spoke on fame in his song “Lost Ones” by mentioning that it’s a drug, and its consequences are hard to deal with:
And I ain’t even want to be famous
Niggaz is brainless to unnecessarily go through these changes
And I ain’t even know how it came to this
Except that fame is
The worst drug known to man
It’s stronger than, heroin
When you could look in the mirror like, “There I am”
And still not see, what you’ve become
I know I’m guilty of it too but, not like them
You lost one
He is speaking about the quest for continued fame. He says that when it’s achieved, you seem to have lost yourself. Artists like MGK are looking to stay true to themselves, and thus don’t want to lose themselves in celeb-status. They want their message spread, but they don’t want to become spread too thin. It’s the age old, “mainstream vs. underground” battle, where “underground” artists are said to have retained more of their true identity. Do they though? The trick is to find that balance.
Female rapper, Iggy Azalea, recently tweeted “What’s mainstream anyway? something that appeals to a mass amount of people. why is that negative?”
She makes a good point, and thus the argument pro-whomever goes mainstream. MGK recently stated in a video with ThisIs50.com that he is against going mainstream just for the money. Mac Miller’s recent collaboration with Justin Bieber was brought up. He says that even though he could be wealthier taking that route, he is choosing to hold true to his identity, and wait for the right time.
Take a look at the video where MGK talks about wanting to be an EQUAL, not a CELEB, as well as his feelings on going mainstream the right way:
As we all try to achieve our own level of success in the world, be sure to do it in such a way where you do not lose yourself in the process.