Why is everybody raving about the guitar playing of Mk.gee?
Some endorsements carry a weight that transcends trends, standing as a testament to an artist’s mastery and influence. These are the co-signs that resonate deeply, no matter the era. Imagine The Bomb Squad declaring a producer’s beats as groundbreaking or Tom Jones lauding a vocalist’s power. For generations of guitarists, the ultimate dream might be Eric Clapton not only praising your playing but likening it to his own style—and even Prince’s—all in one breath. For one fortunate artist, that dream has just become a reality.
Born Michael Todd Gordon in Somers Point, New Jersey, Mk.gee represents a thoroughly modern approach to music. While Eric Clapton embodies classic rock tradition, Mk.gee’s connection to the legendary guitarist begins and ends with a shared love for Fender guitars—though Mk.gee takes his own path by stringing his Fender Jaguar like a baritone. Where Clapton honed his skills in the British blues club scene, Mk.gee is a product of the internet age, bypassing traditional band dynamics to focus on writing and producing his own music.
If anything, Mk.gee’s rise has more in common with a hip-hop musician than a standard rock ‘n’ roller. Beginning by self-releasing material in 2017 to gain buzz, using that buzz to hop onto tracks for the likes of Omar Apollo and Dijon before dropping his highly anticipated debut mixtape A Museum of Contradictions in 2020. In the years since, he’d had his work sampled by Drake and Travis Scott and collaborated with artists such as The Kid Laroi and Fred Again, all before his debut album Two Star & the Dream Police dropped in 2024.
That record became his mainstream breakthrough, going on a world tour and appearing on Saturday Night Live off the back of it. All very modern, except for the fact that so much of Mk.gee’s work isn’t just built around a guitar, but a signature guitar sound and style of playing. Icy, melodic hooks played high up the fretboard coming through the production work like hail through the mist, like The Police produced by Jai Paul. A sound not quite classic and not quite modern, but timeless.
He’s a truly fascinating presence in today’s pop world, and he would have to be for the godfather of modern guitar to sit up and take notice. Clapton told The Real Music Observer, “It’s unique. He has found things to do on the guitar that are like nobody else. And he can do it live.” Not content with that high praise, though, he goes one step further: “The same when I first saw Prince, it was like we’re safe… [Innovation is] happening. It’s still going on.” The wonderful truth is, he’s not being effusive for the sake of it either.
It truly is a great thing that the man known to a generation of musos as God is putting his spotlight on a guitarist who isn’t just talented but genuinely innovative. The session musician scene, YouTube, hell, even most wedding bands have players that can do decent copies of what Clapton was doing in the 1960s. It would be very easy to wax lyrical about what they’re doing as “keeping the flame alive”, even expected. Instead, Clapton found someone who was genuinely doing what he was doing in the heyday of rock ‘n’ roll. Innovating and inspiring the world.
