Machine Gun Kelly & Travis Barker Close 2021 VMAs With Guitar-Smashing ‘Papercuts’ Performance

Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker closed out 2021’s MTV Video Music Awards at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center with a performance of their latest collaboration “Papercuts,” as MGK made his debut performance at the VMAs.

The two musicians’ respective girlfriends, Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian, introduced the performance, referring to the artists as “our future baby daddies.”

The raw performance began with Kelly, his face covered with thorns, lying on a grave with a statue of an angel above him. Then, he stood up and stepped up to the mic and ripped through the song, as Barker set the pace for the collaboration’s thundering rhythm.

The pair released their first collaborative project with MGK’s 2020 Billboard 200 No. 1 album Tickets to My Downfall, which Barker produced, and earlier this year, they announced the follow-up project Born With Horns.

The VMAs performance came to a dramatic finish as MGK smashed his guitar on the stage and promptly fell down beside it.

Earlier in the evening, Machine Gun Kelly won best alternative video for “My Ex’s Best Friend,” featuring blackbear. Last year, MGK won in the same category for the song “Bloody Valentine.”