Machine Gun Kelly Back in the Studio in LA as Personal Life Draws Headlines

A Late Night at the Studio

Machine Gun Kelly — born Colson Baker — was photographed leaving a Los Angeles recording studio late Thursday night, and the images have done double duty: they've stoked anticipation for whatever he's working on next, and they've added fuel to a story that has followed him for weeks now. According to reports, the musician wrapped a session and was met outside by actress Dakota Johnson, who was photographed waiting near the building in an oversized leopard-print coat and black pants, holding what appeared to be a laptop.

The two were seen getting into MGK's car — a Maserati — after he cleared the front seat, moving items including a large denim Hermès Birkin bag into the trunk. Photos obtained by Page Six showed the car still parked at Johnson's house the following morning, an detail that has only intensified the conversation around the pair.

Studio Time in Context

For fans of the music first, the more significant takeaway is simply that MGK is back in the room. Studio sightings are rarely the most reliable gauge of an artist's timeline, but they do signal motion — and for MGK, motion has been the defining rhythm of his career.

His catalog has been restless by design. After a run of mixtapes and his 2012 debut Lace Up — which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and gave him the triple-platinum "Wild Boy" — he moved through General Admission (2015) and Bloom (2017), the latter home to "Bad Things," his top-five Hot 100 hit with Camila Cabello. Then came the pivot: Tickets to My Downfall (2020), a full pop-punk turn produced entirely by Blink-182's Travis Barker, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and stood as the only rock album to top the chart that year. Its sequel, Mainstream Sellout (2022), matched the commercial success even as reviews split.

More recently he's been in collaborative and exploratory mode: the 2024 EP Genre: Sadboy with Trippie Redd, and then 2025's Lost Americana, which leaned into pop-rock. Whatever emerges from these LA sessions will arrive in the wake of that record — and with the sense that MGK rarely repeats a lane twice.

A Rumored Romance, Carefully Tracked

The Johnson rumors date back to early September, when the pair were seen spending time together in New York City. A source told Page Six at the time that the two had used Taylor Swift's Tribeca apartment for privacy before heading to dinner at Estela, adding that there was "definitely chemistry" between them.

The pair reportedly first met at Taylor Swift's wedding in July. Earlier this week they were spotted at the Hollywood speakeasy Say Yes, and Johnson was photographed sitting front row at Vogue World 2026: Milano, where MGK performed on September 22 — a booking that itself signals his continued presence on fashion-and-music crossover stages.

Sources quoted by Page Six have described the relationship as new and low-pressure. "Colson had a really nice time with Dakota. He thinks she's really cool and obviously he's attracted to her," an insider said, adding that the rapper likes that she's "funny and doesn't take herself too seriously."

Personal Lives, Public Context

Both parties come to this moment after significant personal transitions. Johnson split from longtime partner Chris Martin in July 2025. MGK split from fiancée Megan Fox in late 2024; Fox gave birth to their daughter, Saga Blade Fox-Baker, on March 27, 2025.

That context matters for how these stories land. MGK has always been a tabloid-native artist — his public life has run parallel to his music, from the Eminem diss track era to his pop-punk reinvention — but his fanbase has also shown up for the records. The tension between those two audiences is part of what makes him interesting: the noise around him is constant, yet he keeps returning to the studio.

What Comes Next

There's no confirmed release date, no announced title, no verified collaborators from Thursday's session. What we have is a pattern: an artist who has restlessly moved between rap, pop-punk and pop-rock across seven albums, who has never let a genre definition hold him, and who appears to be working again in Los Angeles.

The romance story will keep generating headlines — celebrity-watching outlets have already committed to it, and every sighting adds a data point. But for the listeners, the studio is the story. MGK's next move, whenever it surfaces, will land on a career that includes a number-one rock album, a top-five pop single, a triple-platinum debut and a steady willingness to shed his own skin. Whether these LA sessions produce another reinvention or a refinement of Lost Americana remains unknown — but the lights are on, and he's in the room.