Mgk launched his music career almost 20 years ago and has a new album, Lost Americana, coming out on Friday. It’s not a bad track record for someone who, if you listen to online talk, seems to be universally hated. But the singer tells People that at this point, the hate is — just like the title of his current single — a “cliché.”
“I became so hated for, what has become apparent to me, no reason … just because I artistically express myself, through fashion, music, whatever — because I choose to not stay contained into a societal box,” he tells People. “The hate for me has become so pop culture that it’s almost like that’s automatically what you say to fit in.”
“I’ve realized they’re the conformists — you don’t even hate me for a reason that you can actually think of because all I do is entertain, and entertainment can’t be that serious.”
Mgk also believes that most of his haters are men.
“I think men let their insecurity rule their entirety,” he says. “I think to them, they’re like, ‘He’s supposed to be like this, because this is this carnal, archaic way of what men are…’ I’m like, ‘Look, we can be protectors, and all these other things that we’re supposed to be, and also be expressive and vulnerable and emotional, and we can dress how we want, look how we want.'”
Mgk hopes the new album might change people’s opinions of him.
“Maybe this time they’ll get to know the man-slash-broken-boy behind the moniker MGK,” he tells People. “Vulnerability is how I was able to hold on to the fan base I’ve had for so many years. The human behind the music has to show the human side.”
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