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Billboard’s Griselda Flores sat down with Anitta at Billboard’s MusicCon 2022 in Las Vegas.
Rap and rock star Machine Gun Kelly joined Billboard‘s MusicCon event on Friday (May 13), along with his band — guitarist Jus Lyons, drummer Rook, bassist Baze and keyboardist Slim — to participate in the closing “A Decade of Touring” panel, in advance of both their performance at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards, and their own upcoming headlining arena tour in support of Billboard 200 albums chart-topping new album Mainstream Sellout.
MGK was his typically animated self during the panel discussion, at multiple points getting up from his seat to walk around the stage, and also giving the panel’s host, Billboard executive editor of music Jason Lipshutz, a mock blow to the arm with his microphone (along with an accompanying “boop“). When talking about prepping for their upcoming tour, MGK said he and his band have a division of labor to handle their new arena-level responsibilities.
“They handle the music, I handle the fans,” he explained. “Like, how we’re going to maintain the connection. Because the bigger the venues get, the less the connection is. But not in our case.”
Here are the five most memorable moments from Machine Gun Kelly’s MusicCon discussion, including his band’s strict award show performance policy, his perfectionist nature, and his dream venue (which isn’t really a venue).
IG First
Midway into Lipshutz’s second question on the night, Kelly interrupted the host to ask for a time out. “Can I stop you real quick? We just made a movie…” he began to explain, before pulling out his phone to post about the new flick on Instagram. “Made a movie with my friends. Good Mourning May 20th,” he captioned the post, before realizing that the line break in the caption had a line break after the “Good” in the title. “I hate it when you make a caption and it separates the lines,” he bemoaned, before asking the audience, “Should I edit it?”
Origin Stories
MGK and his band shared the stories of how they all linked up with one another, with the frontman calling drummer Rook’s onboarding story the most legendary of the group, and explaining that Rook left high school to audition for the band and never went back. “He actually just got his high school diploma!” Kelly announced to a warm reception from host and audience, before revealing, “Nah he didn’t, I’m just f–king with you.”
MGK the Perfectionist
Slim talked about how the frontman is the most painstaking reviewer of his own band’s performance. “Kells is the hardest critic,” he explained. “We’ll have an amazing show, 100,000 people, and he’ll find the one thing that didn’t go right.” Kelly didn’t disagree with his bandleader’s assessment, explaining that “it always resonates with [him]” when he watches movies and hears stories about famous musical perfectionists like James Brown and Prince. However, he clarified: “I also hate perfection. So I don’t know why I get so anal about [everything].”
Stripping Down at Warped Tour
In his band’s pre-arena days, MGK says he would still make a point to do what was necessary to capture a crowd’s attention — even when they were playing the tiny Ernie Ball stage at the Warped Tour, which most festival denizens would merely pass by in order to get to the show they really wanted to attend. “I would take my clothes off and just be in my boxers, and I would just have this lanky, stupid body…” he recalls of his extreme measures to grab eyeballs (with Slim chiming in that he would also follow suit). “But it made people stop.”
Kelly’d Like to Be Under the Sea
When asked about their remaining live bucket list items, Kelly’s band ticked off a number of understandable goals, like performing at the Grammys and headlining Madison Square Garden (which they’ll do on this upcoming tour.) But MGK had a more unusual venture in mind: “I wanna perform on all seven continents. And then I want to perform in the ocean. Like, underwater. I don’t think anyone’s done it.” (He then got up to do a little fish wiggle dance, explaining and demonstrating how “all the sharks and puffer fish” passing by would be grooving to the tunes.)
Billboard’s Leila Cobo sat down with Rauw Alejandro at Billboard’s MusicCon 2022 in Las Vegas.
Billboard’s Neena Rouhani sat down with Latto at Billboard’s MusicCon 2022 in Las Vegas.
On Friday (May 13), a lawyer for Young Thug filed an emergency motion with the Georgia Superior Court alleging that the rapper has been jailed in “inhumane” conditions and requesting he be granted an “expeditious” bond hearing or be placed in a “non-torturous” environment while behind bars.
“Specifically, the State of Georgia, by and through its public officials, has detained Mr. Williams in dungeon-like conditions,” wrote attorney Brian Steel in the filing (Young Thug’s real name is Jeffrey Williams). Those conditions are said to consist of “solitary confinement/total isolation”; a “windowless cement compartment with only a bed and a toilet and an overhead light which remains on 24 hours per day, preventing any sleep, rest or meditation”; “no access to any type of media,” including TV or internet; and no opportunities to “exercise, shower or have human contact” aside from his attorneys.
Throughout the filing, Steel reasserts Young Thug’s innocence and slams prosecutors for quoting song lyrics to support the allegations against the rapper, which were included in a sprawling 88-page indictment filed against Young Thug and 27 others, including fellow rapper Gunna, on Monday (May 9). “To weaponize these words by charging overt acts to support a supposed conspiracy is unconscionable and unconstitutional pursuant” to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Georgia state constitution, Steel writes. On Thursday (May 12), lawyers for Gunna also criticized the use of song lyrics to back up charges against the rapper, warning it could lead to criminal charges against “any artist with a song referencing violence,” as others have previously argued.
In the indictment, Young Thug is alleged to be one of three founders of the Young Slime Life, “a criminal street gang that started in late 2012” in Atlanta. Charges include “Preserving, protecting and enhancing the reputation, power and territory of the enterprise through acts of racketeering activity including murder, assault and threats of violence.” He was subsequently charged with seven more felonies on Wednesday (May 11), including possession of drugs and illegal firearms, based on items found at his home during his arrest earlier in the week. On Thursday (May 12), a Fulton County judge denied the rapper bond based on that second round of charges brought after the indictment.
In Friday’s filing, Steel claims that under Georgia state law, the allegations made against Young Thug in the May 9 indictment “do not constitute any evidence of guilt” but rather contain “nothing more than the inadmissible, non-probative hearsay statements of the prosecutor bringing the charges.” Steel does not mention the subsequent charges filed against the rapper on Wednesday, which are technically separate from those listed in the indictment.
One of the allegations listed in the indictment is that Young Thug rented a car that was later used in a 2015 drive-by shooting that killed 26-year-old Donovan Thomas and wounded two others. But in the new filing, Steel writes that there “is no allegation by the Grand Jury that Mr. Williams had knowledge of this crime, had knowledge that this rented vehicle would be used in any supposed crime or that Mr. Williams was a party to this supposed crime.”
As a result, Steel continues, Young Thug “is entitled to bond as a matter of law” given that he is not a convicted felon, a flight risk, a danger to the community, a risk to commit a felony while out on bond or a risk to obstruct justice by influencing witnesses or bribing jurors. In the filing Steel cites the case of Ayala vs. State, which found that defendants meeting those criteria should be eligible for pretrial bond in the state of Georgia, as precedent.
Steel adds that despite the fact that a motion for bond was filed on Tuesday (May 10) on Young Thug’s behalf, the court has not yet scheduled a date for the hearing. “This incarceration of an innocent man is unconscionable and cannot continue,” he concludes.
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