Premiere: Machine Gun Kelly, ‘MGK Takes Over the Rucker’

In this video exclusive, rapper Machine Gun Kelly gets the crowd going at the 2012 Entertainers Basketball Classic in Harlem’s Rucker Park. The Cleveland-based rapper spits his rhymes without hesitation as he moves around the court and wows the audience as he climbs up on a basketball hoop and raps his single “Wild Boy.” He even reveals a new verse to the song, which he made up on the way to the show and read off his Blackberry while performing.

If it seems as if MGK is fearless while standing on the hoop and rapping into the mic at lightning speed, it might be chalked up to the fact that this performance is the culmination of many years of struggle. In 2009, Machine Gun Kelly became the first white rapper to win back-to-back victories at Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night, all while on the verge of being evicted from his apartment in Cleveland.

After MGK’s victories at the Apollo, he started to gain more atttention in the rap world. In 2011, he was signed to Bad Boy Records after he was approached by Sean Combs himself. Many successful NBA basketball players, such as Kobe Bryant and Wilt Chamerlain, competed in tournaments held at Rucker Park, so the location holds a tradition of growth and change that has started to resonate in Machine Gun Kelly’s own career.

 The rapper’s debut album, Lace Up, is set to release later this year.