CULTURE

Worst Celebrity Halloween Costumes: Billie Eilish and Jesse Rutherford? Or Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly?

These problematic couple costumes weren’t just cringe — they’re making light of serious issues

Billie Eilish

By Fred Duval via Shutterstock

Halloween: a holiday for spooky-themed debauchery. Its allure can partly be attributed to its unabashed celebration of our inner children. We’re encouraged to be creative. To carve pumpkins, dress up in costume, and revel in our shared silliness. We show off our interests — from our favorite characters and to our favorite memes — with our elaborate get-ups. Even if you opt for a minimal, last-minute, or outright “sexy” outfit — bunny ears or cat ears included — it’s all about the fun.

Until it isn’t.

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Music Features

Machine Gun Kelly's New Merch Is Really Ugly

The rapper turned rocker released a new Valentine's Day collection for all the lovebirds out there

MGK Merch

machinegunkelly.com

"She loves a boy so much she wants him to steal her breath," it reads on Machine Gun Kelly's website.

MGK and Megan Fox are no strangers to corny euphemisms. After all this is the same couple who believed they came together as part of a "twin flame" ideology. "Instead of a soul mate, a twin flame is actually where a soul has ascended into a high enough level that it can be split into two different bodies at the same time," Fox told Elle. "So we're actually two halves of the same soul, I think."

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Machine Gun Kelly

Photo by ABC/Shutterstock


Machine Gun Kelly surprised everyone when it was announced that his pop-punk project Tickets to My Downfall debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 this week.

The project sold over 126,000 copies and is followed in close suit by other punky records such as Juice WRLD's Legends Never Die.

As BLM protests continue to swell across the country, along with an overall "burn this house down" type of attitude, Tickets to My Downfall thrived this week because of its timing more than its content. The album didn't necessarily bring anything new to the pop-punk genre. Produced by Blink 182's Travis Barker, MGK wore the drummer's influence directly on his sleeve for the project's entirety.


The album clocked into the 85-to-110bpm of Blink, offered the swelling chord progressions of The Starting Line, and had the overall "f*ck you" attitude of American Hi-Fi and Good Charlotte. The album's deluxe edition even featured a cover of Paramore's "Misery Business" and a bonus track, "Body bag," which was so close in similarity to Fall Out Boy's "Dance Dance" that the rapper needed clearance from the band to even release it. Tracks like "WWIII," "my ex's best friend," and "concert for aliens" paint MGK as a diluted scene kid more than a true champion of the genre. But even if he's trend-hopping, kids have never been more in need of the type of raucous energy MGK offers.

Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly

Photo by ABC/Shutterstock

If you scroll through the YouTube comment section on MGK's previous singles, you'll find praise littered with nostalgia. "This pop punk album sounds like a time machine to the early 2000s," wrote one fan of 2019's "I Think I'm OKAY." "Life was simple as a kid. We had no internet and we spent our afternoons playing football on the street, or riding our bike or just chatting and laughing over something stupid."

Pop-punk bands are nowhere close to being obsolete (Neck Deep and Knuckle Puck are just a few groups to release great projects in 2020), but as teens grow up in a world fueled by Drake and TikTok dance trends, the rambunctious sounds of pop-punk have remained lost on teens until recently. The late Lil Peep, YUNGBLUD, and other Soundcloud emo artists have maintained their hybrid throne, but MGK is the first mainstream celebrity to give the genre a splash of rock chords and mass appeal.

Tickets to My Downfall sounds clean and polished–features from stars like Blackbear and Halsey inevitably drew in pop fans– but its best moments ("bloody valentine," "title track") are guitar-laden and offer enough snap to reignite nostalgia in the old heads (i.e. us), who grew up going to Warped Tour.

As we enter a dramatic closing quarter for 2020, catching a nostalgic vibe is a priority for exhausted and traumatized Americans. Deftones, the iconic early-aughts metal band, also charted on the Billboard 200 this week with their latest release, Ohms. All of it is indicative of collective anger and a collective yearning for freedom and escape.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" has experienced a 374 percent increase in streams thanks to a video of @420doggface208, real name Nathan Apodaca, skating down an Idaho freeway sipping cranberry juice. The video merely highlights a fleeting positive moment in Apodaca's otherwise sh*tty day, whose car broke down moments before filming. But these days, those quick moments of joy mean more than ever before.

MGK's new record may not be as tough and gritty as the pop-punk contemporaries he embodies, but in a time where we're all collectively miserable, Tickets to My Downfall serves as a time machine for some and a cathartic release for others that is more than welcome.

Tickets To My Downfall (SOLD OUT Deluxe)

MUSIC

INTERVIEW | Obie Iyoha "Karats"

Michigan rapper Obie Iyoha took a trip home and returned with a "golden" new single

Akin Oluwadare (Press)

Obie Iyoha is an emcee/producer with an energetic flow, and a buzz that possess the same energy.

The son of Nigerian immigrants, Obie's African upbringing coupled with his love for hip hop and rock has helped him forge his own lane. He's opened up for the likes of A$AP Rocky, Logic, and MGK, and has toured with the likes of Ghostface Killah and Big K.R.I.T. Now gearing up for his sophomore release "Pink Moon", Obie hits us with "Karats". The afrobeats influenced single was inspired by a recent trip to Nigeria. Obie took some time from working on "Pink Moon" to talk to us about "Karats".

Deascent: Talk to us about the inspiration behind "Karats".

Obie Iyoha: Well, my cousin got deported from Canada back to Nigeria a couple years ago. He had to leave behind his newborn son and everything. Coincidentally, I was at a low point in my life as well. I booked a flight to Nigeria in order to reconnect. I felt so inspired after just kicking it in the studio out there doing tracks with cats from my hometown in Benin. So this is more of a motivational track for my peeps.

D: What was it like growing up in a Nigerian household in the South

O: There was a duality. I felt like I was always on the fence of two cultures. At home, it was Fufu & Okra, Akaba Man records, and Nollywood cassettes. But when I stepped out of the house into rural Greensboro, I was surrounded by African American culture. Sometimes (a lot of times) we got picked on for our long African names. I developed a thick skin about my cultural identity and how to navigate on both sides. Both perspectives influenced my music a huge deal.

D: You have a very eclectic ear. How do you manage to take all of those influences and create your own sound without sounding like them?

O: I'm a visual artist first, so my influences are like different coats of paint added to a picture over a period of time. I guess I just created my own color, but if you look closely, you can see where it started. That's how I see sounds.

D: You've been on tour and have opened up for some big names in the industry. Do you have a crazy show/on the road story you can share with us?

O: I'd have to say my set in Zory, Poland on tour with TBO (The Black Opera). It was surreal to watch a crowd on the other side of the world catch vibes to a song I wrote in my dad's basement in Ann Arbor. Not the craziest story, but I did almost cry lol.

D: What do you hope to accomplish as an artist with the release of "Pink Moon"?

O: I hope to establish my vibe as an artist with the people and begin to bridge the gap between my cultures.Stream and/or purchase "Karats" here.

Follow Obie Iyoha on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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