“Lately” by Machine Gun Kelly

“Lately” is a track by American hip hop recording artist and singer Machine Gun Kelly (MGK). The song consists of an intro, two verses, a chorus (repeated multiple times) and a bridge. Below we try breaking down the meaning of some of the major lines in the song’s chorus and verses.

Chorus

The song’s chorus sees MGK reflecting on the “crazy thoughts” that have been filling his mind lately. He also talks about how things in his life “get crazy dark”. Furthermore, he goes on to ask someone apparently close to him why they “barely talk”. He tells that person he’s been trying to change, but he’s been finding it very hard to do so.

First Verse

In the first verse of the track, he reveals among other things, how stressful life has become for him and how he’s dealing with “demons” that don’t actually exist. He goes on to reveal certain things about his childhood and past. He talks about how in the 7th grade he had no bed to sleep in thus had to share one with someone.

In the line “Have you ever had somebody try to take your life?”, MGK reveals something shocking. If he meant this literally, he’s basically revealing that someone actually tried killing him at some point in his life.

He concludes the song’s first verse by telling the world how sometimes he doesn’t even feel safe from himself. Could that someone trying to kill him in the line above actually be him himself?

Second Verse

The second verse of the track sees MGK delving deeper into the sad things in his private life. He raps about how he’s own mother abandoned him when he was just 9 years old. Actually it is public knowledge that MGK’s mother abandoned him and his father when MGK was just a child. In this verse, MGK talks about how destructive that “type of sh*t” can be to the soul. He goes on to reveal how he eventually found someone who really loved him but how he ended up treating “her like a h**”. Here, he’s probably trying to connect his mother abandoning him to the current way he’s treating the woman in his life.

“I only smile in public just for show”

This is probably the saddest line in the song. This is MGK basically telling fans that he’s inherently a sad person. He tells the world that his smiles are nothing but fake. He might be smiling but deep down within him he’s a sad man.

Facts about “Lately”

• “Lately” was written by Machine Gun Kelly.
• The song’s production was handled by three music producers, namely Ronny J, Nils and SlimXX. It is worth noting that Ronny J was also the same producer who handled the production of MGK’s famous track “Rap Devil” in which he severely disses fellow rapper Eminem. And what’s even more interesting is the fact that that same producer (Ronny J) also produced Eminem’s MGK diss track “Not Alike”. FYI: MGK’s diss track “Rap Devil” was a response to Eminem’s “Not Alike”. By the way, it’s also worth noting some suspect the feud between Eminem and Machine Gun Kelly was staged. According to this category of people, the mere fact that the same producer produced both diss tracks, is just one of the many signs the feud was staged.
• “Lately” was officially released on September 21, 2018. It can be found on Machine Gun Kelly’s second major label EP titled Binge.

Does this track have a music video?

Yes, it does. The official music video of “Lately” was released the same day the EP Binge was also released. Within just two days of the song’s music video being published on MGK’s YouTube channel, it garnered almost 3 million views.

Is this song in some way a response to Eminem’s MGK diss track “Killshot”?

No, it isn’t, considering the fact that the song had already been recorded when Eminem released “Killshot“. As a matter of fact, MGK announced the release of Binge (the EP on which “Lately” appears) on the same day Eminem’s “Killshot” came out.