Last Updated on March 11, 2022

Machine Gun Kelly has made a name for himself by combining rap music with punk and rock. All of his albums so far have reached the top 10 in the USA, and the musician also enjoys great popularity in the rest of the world. In addition, he is active as an actor and was featured in the successful Netflix film Bird Box, among others. Machine Gun Kelly’s estimated net worth is $10 million.

The fortune of Machine Gun Kelly

The main source of income and thus the basis of Machine Gun Kelly’s fortune is his music. By mid-2021, he had sold over 20.8 million records worldwide. The most successful of these was the single Bad Things, which sold more than 4.5 million copies. In addition, the musician earns money with commercials that run before his videos on YouTube, with concerts and with streaming, further increasing his fortune. Numerous of his songs have received millions of views on Spotify and the like. The Spotify statistics are led by the single My Ex’s Best Friend, which has been played over 310 million times on the platform.

Colson Baker is also a more frequent actor and has been paid for his engagements in films such as Nerve and Bird Box – Open Your Eyes.

Successful up-and-coming rapper

Because Colson Baker aka Machine Gun Kelly’s parents were missionaries, he spent his childhood in various US states as well as in Germany and Egypt. When he went back to school in the USA at the age of twelve, he got to know the music of rappers Eminem, DMX and Ludacris. They sparked his interest in hip-hop. In 2007 and 2008, he released two mixtapes. In March 2009, he participated in talent contests at New York’s Apollo Theater several times and became the first rapper to win. A short time later, he released another mixtape. Although his fame was steadily increasing, he had to work in a fast food restaurant to afford his rent. On top of that, he became a father in July 2009

Read also: 10 Inspirational Machine Gun Kelly Quotes

Signed to Diddy

In May 2010, Machine Gun Kelly released his first single Alice in Wonderland. Another mixtape called Lace Up was released in November 2010 and included the song Cleveland, which from then on was played at the home games of the NBA club Cleveland Cavaliers. In March 2011, the rapper made his first appearance at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Afterwards, rapper and producer Sean Combs aka Diddy approached him and offered him a contract with his label Bad Boy Records. Machine Gun Kelly signed and released his debut album Lace Up in October 2012. It reached #4 on the charts in the U.S. and was awarded a gold record for selling more than 500,000 copies.

Two more successful albums

Machine Gun Kelly’s second long-playing record, called General Admission, released in October 2015, also rose to fourth place in the US sales list and achieved gold status. In addition, the musician thus attracted attention outside North America for the first time. Thus, the album reached the German, Swiss and Norwegian charts, among others. The follow-up Bloom, released in May 2017, also became a worldwide success. The single Bad Things featured on it, which he recorded with singer Camila Cabello, reached No. 4 in the United States.

Video: Bad Things

The rapper performed as the opening act at Linkin Park’s One More Light World Tour concerts in Berlin and Krakow in June 2017. He was also scheduled to do the same at the band’s North American performances. However, this did not happen because Linkin Park’s singer Chester Bennington took his own life in July 2017.

With musical change to the top

Machine Gun Kelly released Hotel Diablo, his fourth album, in July 2019. It reached No. 5 in the U.S. and No. 6 in Canada. His subsequent long-playing record, September 2020’s Tickets to My Downfall, took him to the top of the U.S. and Canadian charts for the first time. He also reached the Top 10 in many other countries, and in Germany the album rose to No. 11. Musically, it represents a change, because the rapper turned to pop punk on it.

Machine Gun Kelly as actor

At times, Machine Gun Kelly also appears as an actor. He made his debut in 2014 as a rapper in Beyond the Lights. This was followed by roles in films such as Nerve (2016), Bird Box – Close Your Eyes (2018) and Captive State (2019). In addition, in 2019 he embodied the drummer of the band Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee, in The Dirt – They Wanted Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll. In 2022, the feature film Taurus by Tim Sutton will be released in cinemas. It stars Machine Gun Kelly and also features his fiancée Megan Fox.

Machine Gun Kelly net worth

Machine Gun Kelly is an American musician, rapper, singer and actor who gained fame for his work, which combines contemporary hip-hop and alternative rock, with an estimated net worth of $10 million