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Rapper Machine Gun Kelly has three movies coming out in the next several months and is prepping his new album, due for release in 2015.
(Interscope Records)
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Hometown rapper Machine Gun Kelly was in town Thursday night for a special premiere of his new film "Beyond The Lights." Fans should get used to seeing more of MGK over the next few months.
"My sophomore album is coming up," MGK proclaimed while greeting fans and press at the Cinemark at Valley View on Thursday. "That single is about to release. You know when that happens it's about to be a whole other beast."
Fans won't have to wait long for that to happen. MGK, real name Richard Colson Baker, says his new single "Till I Die" is ready to go. In fact, the former Shaker Heights High School student has been in town the past couple weeks filming the song's music video.
"It's just showing off the city how we want to see it," says MGK. "It's showing than more than what they show of us on 'SportsCenter.'"
Machine Gun Kelly shot some of the video in between handing out food from B&M BBQ to students at Shaw High School in East Cleveland this week.
The rapper's next album, the follow up to his 2012 effort "Lace Up," is due out in early 2015. MGK says he recorded much of the LP in Cleveland.
Fans can expect a very different MGK, who admits he's grown as an artist. The album will feature a lot of live instrumentation and guitar parts he played himself.
"I'm saying all the things I wanted to say on the first album, on this album," MGK says. "I took that two-year hiatus because I wanted to grow and comeback as something new and exciting."
The album will cap a busy fall and winter for the 24-year-old. "Beyond The Lights" hits theaters nationwide on Nov. 24. The film is written and directed by "Love & Basketball's" Gina Prince-Bythewood, and stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Minnie Driver, Nate Parker and Danny Glover.
"Beyond The Lights" tells the tale of an up-and-coming singer named Noni (played by Mbatha-Raw) who struggles with the pressures of stardom. Machine Gun Kelly plays Kid Culprit, a rapper and Noni's bad-boy love interest.
MGK will also star in two more films in 2015, including James Merendino's "Punk's Dead" and a horror film called "Viral." MGK filmed the movies in between a busy touring schedule that included an opening spot on Limp Bizkit's recent trek.
"I looked up to Limp Bizkit so much when I was growing up," says MGK. "That was really the first CD that I ever bought and it was explicit, it was loud and it had attitude."
"The tour was the same way. It was loud. Spit was flying everywhere. Bodies were flying everywhere." (He's not kidding).
MGK says he's happy to spend time at home in Cleveland before his schedule picks up again. He says he's already noticed a change in the city during recent months.
"The energy is great," MGK says. "You can just feel that money is coming back into the city. Downtown is amazing. We look like an established place you want to be. And the music scene is getting hotter and hotter."