I love Machine Gun Kelly. Now let me tell آپ why.

I grew up going to church. I couldn’t swear, I couldn’t smoke یا drink, I couldn’t wear revealing clothes. I was home-schooled for most of my childhood. My only دوستوں were my siblings. It’s محفوظ to say that I lived a very sheltered life. I’m in college now and I do what I want, for the most part. My morals haven’t really changed. What I choose to believe in hasn’t changed. I might push the boundaries a bit further these days, but I always stick to who I am and what I believe to be right. This is where MGK comes in.

January 14, 2012. It was a cold night in mid-Michigan, lightly snowing. I had been anxiously awaiting the time when I hit the road with my sister, heading south to Lansing for my first Machine Gun Kelly show. I had heard that things get pretty wild when he plays and I was looking آگے to it. Like I کہا before, I was sheltered. I had only been to a few concerts before and this was one that I was determined to remember for the rest of my life.

We waited outside in line in the 18 degree weather. I wasn’t even cold; my adrenaline was so high just knowing that MGK was in Lansing, Michigan at the same time as me. I hadn’t been expecting anything really outrageous, like getting to meet him یا anything like that. But standing there in the cold, in my Chucks, it didn’t matter. Just to hear him tell about his movement, in his own words and his own voice, was all I needed.

We finally got inside. It was a small venue: the Loft, above another business in downtown Lansing. Just a small stage and dance floor, a bar lining one wall. My sister and I stood at the back of the crowd; we were some of the first people there, so we were pretty close to the stage. Close enough to make it feel different than any other concert. The openers played, some from Cleveland, some from East Lansing. To be honest, I was bored with them. I was there for Machine Gun Kelly, not some amateur Eminem wannabes. But we waited patiently, waited for the lights to dim, waited for the موسیقی to start. When it did, everyone went crazy. Screaming and cheering, everyone with their L’s up. I stood on my tiptoes, desperate to see him up there on stage, the man with the voice of the people, the voice of the movement. I saw members of his crew: Slim Goodz and Dubo, DJ Xplosive, but not MGK. I know that he’s tall, he’s over six foot, I should have been able to see him the easiest. What I did see was a pair of red pants being passed over the crowd, a black شرٹ, قمیض with the block white letters ‘RAGERS’ printed across it, a short blonde Mohawk. There he was, right above me, surfing the crowd, surfing his fans, his family.

It was a different feeling than just having stars in your eyes because it’s not like that with MGK. He’s not a star. He’s a kid from the bad side of town. He’s a leader. He’s the voice of what so many of us believe in. And that’s what I felt when I saw him.

I wasn’t there from the beginning. I didn’t listen to his first mixtape, 100 Words and Running, in 2009. I didn’t listen to the mixtape that would get his foot in the door of the hip hop world, فیتا, فیتے Up. It wasn’t until the end of 2011, when I had come across his cypher at the BET Awards. I had been a پرستار of Eminem for quite some time and was interested to see another white rapper on a channel that was focused on black entertainment. I watched his cypher and then I Googled him. Machine Gun Kelly. I had heard that name before. I had seen him get arrested for starting a mob at a mall in Ohio. That was pretty cool, I had thought, that someone could pull something like that off. It made it even مزید appealing when I had found out that he had been banned from that mall. I have always been a supporter of going against the grain and just doing what آپ want when آپ want to do it. So I watched that video again. MGK standing on a میز, جدول in the middle of a packed mall, all those people were there for him. I decided then that I liked him. He was going against society and I admired that. I searched around a little bit more. I watched his video for his song Chip Off the Block and was hugely impressed with his lyrical flow and the speed at which he was able to spit his words. I downloaded his mixtapes,100 Words and Running and فیتا, فیتے Up and found myself listening to them constantly. In the car, during class, at home. Whenever there was a free second, I was playing his music. Not only had I admired him as a person, but I was also becoming a پرستار of him as an artist. He was real in his lyrics, he didn’t hold anything back. He کہا what he felt, but he kept it clean. Many times in hip hop music, rappers will go after each other and start beef. MGK didn’t do that. He made it clear that he was doing it for his family, his friends, and his fans. I wonder if he knew that they would all one دن become one entity: the EST family.

At my first MGK show, I was thrashed. It was kind of a shock at first; I had never been to an event quite like it before. People were moshing and crowd surfing and there were always L’s in the air at all times. I pushed my way towards the stage, hoping to get a better view, when the sea of people heaved backwards, causing me to stumble over my own and others’ feet. I fell to the ground, other people toppling down on سب, سب سے اوپر of me. I was stepped on and crushed, no doubt getting bruises and cuts everywhere on my body. My hair was pulled and my clothes were soaked in alcohol. I was sure that I was going to suffocate on the bottom of a pile of people and my last image of life would be of Machine Gun Kelly up onstage, speaking the words I so desperately wanted everyone to hear, too. But then people somehow found their way upright and the pressure was relieving. I could feel the bodies, one سے طرف کی one, being lifted off of me. And then I felt the arms, the hands, helping me from the ground. I was lifted up and placed back on my feet. And that was a feeling like none I had ever felt before.

I had played sports in high school. I have been a member of some sort of team my whole life. We would compete together, we would win together, we would lose together. We were there for each other. But it was incomparable to what I felt that night. I was on the bottom of a pile of humans, crushed against the floor, hoping that I wouldn’t get trampled to death. And they helped me up. They physically and literally helped me up off the floor. The way that felt, to be lifted back up onto my feet, was nothing like a team. It was like family. That is what MGK stands for. Family.

See, there’s a difference between being a پرستار and believing in something. When someone has the power to change others’ lives, it’s amazing. But when someone has that power and lives start to actually change, it’s beyond words. Machine Gun Kelly stands for so many great things and the fact that he uses his voice, not only for himself, but for all of us, too? It’s overwhelming.

Okay, so I left out the part where he told us about a graphic sexual encounter that he had the night before in his hotel room. And I’m not saying that the guy’s a saint. He’s quite the opposite. He encouraged the girls at the دکھائیں to take their pants off یا take their shirts off. And while I don’t like the objectification of women, I realize that it’s sometimes a part of hip hop culture. Find me a rapper that doesn’t like naked women. But he goes deeper than that, too. It’s مزید about doing what آپ want instead of doing what آپ think others would want.

Machine Gun Kelly started this movement and I’m not sure if he realizes how far it’s actually going. His شائقین go to his shows, they rage hard with him, and then they go home. But what happens when they go home? Well, in my case, I was able to see just exactly what he represents. Loyalty, hope, courage, and family. He challenges us all to dream and to never give up on those dreams. He tells us that when things get hard, we shouldn’t give up. We should work just that much harder and push through it. He has been through a lot and will only continue to experience negativity because of his success. That’s just the way it is. When you’re on top, people always want to bring آپ down. But he has us. His fans. His friends. His family. He will never fall down because we will always be there to lift him back up. He will have us forever.

I have joined his movement. EST. I have laced up. I will fight for him and with him until the دن that I die