Born Colson Baker on April 22, 1990, in Houston, Texas, Machine Gun Kelly experienced frequent moves as a child of missionary parents. He discovered rap at age 11 and began writing his own bars. His family settled in Cleveland in the mid-2000s, and he attended Shaker Heights High School, where he earned the nickname “Machine Gun Kelly” for his rapid-fire rap delivery. Kelly counts Ludacris, Eminem, DMX, and Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-n-Harmony among his earliest hip hop inspirations. MGK released a series of mixtapes, won back-to-back Amateur Night battles at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem and appeared on MTV2’s Sucker Free Freestyle before being signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records in 2011. Kelly’s debut studio album Lace Up was released in 2012. In 2022, Machine Gun Kelly released his sixth studio album, mainstream sellout. Like its predecessor, Tickets to My Downfall, it features a more guitar-driven rock sound than his previous work. Machine Gun Kelly used this flask in the film Punk's Dead: SLC Punk 2, in which he played the role of "Crash." Kelly has acted in several other films and television series, including portraying drummer Tommy Lee in the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt (2019).