MGK Flips *NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ Into a Freestyle

Machine Gun Kelly is giving a pop classic a fresh twist. In a surprising but effective move, he’s reimagined *NSYNC’s early-2000s hit “Bye Bye Bye” as a freestyle rap—showing once again that he’s not afraid to mix things up.

MGK teamed up with producer and writer No Love and slowed down the famous chorus, layering in sharp drums and dark bass to build a more intense sound. Over the beat, he delivered verses that hint at the creative direction of his upcoming album.

“Don’t ask me no questions like what genre this album is/I’m Gordon Ramsey cheffin’ in this kitchen – no suggestions,” he raps. “What’s my mood? Look at mood boards, I’m a lot of artists’ reference/Got a lot of sons out here, I should have used a contraceptive.”

Lately, the artist has been sharing freestyles and cover songs almost weekly—building anticipation for his next LP, which is rumored to arrive this summer. It will follow 2022’s Mainstream Sellout, which leaned heavily into the pop/punk sound he explored during the pandemic.

While that shift earned him major success, MGK has slowly been returning to his rap background over the past few years. In 2023, he released the single “Pressure,” marking another step in that direction.

In a May 2024 interview with Marvin magazine, he explained why rap still holds a special place for him:

“There is one part of my stomach that just cannot be filled by any other genre other than doing a great rap album.”

Still, the next project won’t simply be a return to his old sound. MGK told fans on his Discord that he scrapped all the music he’d made recently, in order to start over with a clearer creative vision.

“What happened with me was that I had a realization of the sound of this new album,” he said. “In the vein of world building, I can’t afford to just make songs without a firm planet home to belong to. [My 2019 rap album] Hotel Diablo is clearly like its own planet. [My 2020 pop/punk album] Tickets [To My Downfall] is its own planet.”

He continued: “[My 2022 pop/punk album] Mainstream [Sellout] is the other continent on the Tickets planet. This one I would like to be a new planet, right? I don’t want it to be another continent on the Hotel Diablo planet or another continent on Tickets planet. So this one has to be its own planet.”

As of now, there’s no official single, but MGK did announce on X (May 8) that he’s shooting the cover art—so the first release may be coming soon.

Until then, fans can check out his recent remixes on Instagram, including a blend of Juice WRLD’s “Empty Out Your Pockets” and Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” featuring a verse from MGK’s own song “LATELY.”