Lana Del Rey‘s musical and literal flirtations with hip-hop have generally proven harmless, if not entirely interesting, but lately she’s been on one. Fresh off out-Azealia-Banks’ing Azealia Banks—responding to the rapper’s critique of Lana’s performative outrage over Kanye West’s politics with the promise that “I won’t not fuck you the fuck up. Period.“—Lana now appears to be threatening a collaboration with Cleveland’s skinniest pop striver, Machine Gun Kelly.
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Kelly is a mostly famous white rapper whose biggest claim to fame to date is getting dissed by the world’s most famous white rapper. He was recently filmed in the studio with Lana, reciting a few of the lyrics heard in the above snippet posted today on Lana’s Instagram. The pair’s intentions are unclear, but the possibilities circulating online are exclusively petty: Kelly has a financial interest in extending his beef with Eminem, who once unfortunately rapped about punching Lana in the face; Kelly also reportedly had a fling with Halsey, sparking beef with Halsey’s on-again-off-again boyfriend G-Eazy, who was rumored to have dated Lana last year. Is this the start of music’s most random beef?
Lana’s new album Norman Fucking Rockwell is expected soon-ish, so feeding the pop conflict industrial complex would certainly favor her, too. But having listened to at least five Machine Gun Kelly songs, we can only urge caution. “Mariners Apartment Complex” and “Venice Bitch” are too good to become footnotes to a pasty brawl! Let’s all do better.
