On Monday (March 14), Machine Gun Kelly took to Instagram to preview the visual assets of his forthcoming album, Mainstream Sellout and shared all the artists featured on his tracklist.
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After debuting his album art, Rolling Stone drew parallels between MGK’s prominent use of pink tomatoes and Japanese Breakfast’s use of persimmons on the cover of their critically acclaimed 2021 album, Jubilee.
The band’s frontwoman, Michelle Zauner joked on Twitter that the two fruit-covered albums are “20022’s feud of the year.” Later, Zauner shared with Pitchfork how she believes that MGK did not infringe on her creative rights or mimic the image shot by Peter Ash Lee.
She explained, “I don’t actually think it looks anything like my album cover at all, but I think it’s very funny that Rolling Stone put up an article about it just because there’s a circular fruit in the foreground. I mean his is people throwing tomatoes at him, and mine is persimmons peacefully hanging around me, so I think they’re very different concepts.”
She also noted that the Blonde Don’s use of pink tomatoes is “a very contemporary Avril aesthetic. Which, as much as I stan Avril, is an aesthetic I don’t really embrace for myself.”
Zauner made it clear that she has no beef with the “emo girl” artist, but is entertained by the assertion that she would. “I’ve never met Machine Gun Kelly. He seems like a fine person,” said the “Be Sweet” singer. “I can’t imagine having rock beef with anyone, but if I had to choose, it would probably be Machine Gun Kelly.”
She concluded, “I’m honored to have a celebrity feud published in Rolling Stone today; it was not something I had anticipated. My manager actually was like, ‘I think you should lean into this.’ I’m excited to see what clickbait you come up with. ‘Japanese Breakfast Slams Machine Gun Kelly!’”
MGK responded back to Japanese Breakfast on Twitter, writing, “so should we beef over tomato’s or…should i thank them for introducing me to your album, because i just listened and i really like it.”
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Mainstream Sellout arrives on March 25 and boasts features from Bring Me The Horizon, Lil Wayne, Pete Davidson, Blackbear, Willow, Iann Dior, Gunna and Young Thug.
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