In their first-ever collaboration, Machine Gun Kelly and Willow Smith declare their love for all emo girls with their creatively titled song “emo girl.” It is the latest single released to tease Kelly’s upcoming album “mainstream sellout,” which was released March 25. 

The rapper, who goes by the acronym MGK, had previously undergone a notable change in musical style with the release of his fifth studio album, “Tickets to My Downfall,” in 2020. The album was marked by its pop punk sounds which clearly conveyed that MGK had drastically moved away from his usual hip-hop style. MGK obviously has no plans of returning to his hip-hop roots any time soon, as he proves with the campy yet unforgettable “emo girl.” 

The rapper’s whirlwind romance with his fiancée, actress Megan Fox, has recently been the subject of much public scrutiny due to controversial remarks and over-the-top declarations of love from both parties. MGK is clearly feeding into that attention through this single. And what better way to further cement his new image as a punk rocker and prove his love to Fox than by sampling her voice to start off the song? A recording of Fox saying the line, “I am a god,” taken from her edgy 2009 horror film “Jennifer’s Body,” rolls quickly before the sound of a guitar playing an obnoxious punk riff immediately takes over. 

MGK then sets the scene for us in all of its emo glory. The girl he sings about is doing her “makeup by the mirror in her bedroom,” all while wearing “thigh-high fishnets and some black boots.” Naturally, she has her “nose pierced with the cigarette perfume,” and, to top it off, this girl is “half dead but she still looks so cute.” That’s right, she is a certified emo girl. 

I can appreciate some vivid imagery that accompanies any kind of storytelling. However, by the time you hear the second verse, MGK has already thrown at least 10 tropes into the mix that perpetuate the usual emo stereotype. He creates a caricature, not a character. When the second verse, sung by Willow Smith, comes along, we are entertained by another plethora of stereotypical tropes that fulfill what it apparently means to be emo. 

The lyrics at this point turn pretty graphic, in order to convey to us listeners that the emo lifestyle is not for the weak. The emo girl “tells me lies but she knows all of my secrets,” according to Smith, who then goes on to sing about how one interaction with the emo girl left her “bleeding on your Blink tee,” in reference to the girl’s choice of clothing as well as the rock band Blink-182. Furthermore, the emo girl is “depressed,” but for Smith, “that makes two of us.” 

You can’t help but cringe at the lyrical glorification of the miserable emo girl. Yes, she knows your dirtiest secrets and she bites people, but she has a mysterious edge to her and she’ll do it with style. The fervor and passion with which both MGK and Smith sing about the emo girl prove that, despite the fact that the lyrics border on satire in their extremity, these two are being completely unironic in their expression.  

The chorus of the song, in which both singers repeat the lines, “I fell in love with an emo girl, I’m in love with an emo girl,” is what makes this song so unforgettable, because it will quickly become an earworm that you are desperate to shake off. Even if the song is a catchy one, its lyrics will most likely be sung sarcastically among fans for its dramatic portrayal of an emo love story. However, it can’t be denied that MGK will continue to try to garner an enormous amount of attention, even if it is overwhelmingly negative, to sustain his relevance in pop culture discourse. You have to admire his willingness to take a risk by jumping into a completely different genre and sticking to this new image he has appointed himself, despite all of the mockery it has brought him.