There is now a music video for Machine Gun Kelly’s latest collaboration track, “DAYWALKER!” YouTube creative and artist Corpse makes an audible guest appearance, but nothing more (per his calculated mysterious persona). MGK’s (very real) fight scenes and surprise blue hair makeup for that, though.
Corpse + Kelly = A Match Made In Alt Music Hell… But We’re Not Complaining
On March 12, Machine Gun Kelly released his first song of 2021: “DAYWALKER!” After one of the biggest years of his career, the Cleveland star had a lot to follow up. His pop punk-style fifth record, Tickets To My Downfall, reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It also came with fistfuls of stellar, chart-topping singles and globe-spanning performances. With those big shoes to fill, he recruited a beloved Internet personality to continue his success.
The anonymous YouTuber, gamer, and musical sensation goes by the name of Corpse Husband. Very few people know who Corpse or what Corpse looks like as he remains behind a twisted animated figure. What people do know is that collaborating with Machine Gun Kelly resulted in amazing career growth. “DAYWALKER!” reached No. 88 on Billboard’s Hot 100, marking Corpse’s first entry on the chart.
Fans of Corpse are all relatively new, dedicated, and cult-like, while MGK’s are laidback and a decade in the making. The fact that a YouTuber and a rock star crossed paths is interesting, let alone wrote a song together. The track, “DAYWALKER!,” surprised everyone, especially fans of both artists on different sides of the industry.
The most shocking aspect of the single release was actually it’s explosion online. “DAYWALKER!’ is the most aggressive song out right now. It’s an angry, distressed song talking about fighting and violence in a horrifying way. Machine Gun Kelly raps and whispers in an eerie narrator, while Corpse dives into his gritty, borderline-screamo register.
Successful and Scary, “DAYWALKER!” Premieres Without A Hitch
“DAYWALKER!,” all in all, is a song about fighting for yourself, literally and figuratively. The use of alternative rock instrumentation, hip-hop lyricism, and heavy metal vocals cement that narrative. And yet, it shot up the charts. Just 24 hours after it was released, it earned the top debut spot in the US Spotify chart with almost 700,000 streams.
The music video, which dropped a week later, had the same kind of success. In its first 24 hours, it reached four million views on YouTube. As Machine Gun Kelly wrote in a tweet, “that’s a first,” for him.
Even with MTV VMA wins, Saturday Night Live performances, and his girlfriend Megan Fox making cameos, “DAYWALKER!” reached this milestone. Thus, showcasing that this is a collaboration for the ages – and not just for Kelly’s blue hair.
Not even a day before the music video came out, MGK began teasing what was in store. He asked his followers “did i get corpse husband to finally show his face?”
As we now know, he did not. Corpse remains anonymous and, in his own words, “faceless.” This didn’t stop the music video for anything, though. It was still as entertaining and equally as violently-charged as the song itself.
While debuting his newly blue hair, Kelly gets in a fight, goes to jail, draws some blood, and scares fans new and old. An alternative rap track with screamo vocals within an off-the-wall collaboration, as we now know, can become a fan favorite. “DAYWALKER!” proves that.
