MGK on Finding Joy, Following Venus, and Smelling Good

Let’s talk about the fragrance you’re launching with Dossier.

A huge part of my lore has always been how I smell. In my fan base, it’s a very talked-about thing that…I mean…dude, I don’t know how to say this without sounding douchey. Fun fact: People ask me, “What is the first big purchase you made after you got some money?” It was a $350 bottle of cologne.

Seriously?

I believe it was Tom Ford. For some people it’s cars, a house, or other stuff. My thing was cologne. When you come from being broke, you’re in the mentality of being so scared of going broke again. So that’s kind of why so many artists are obsessive with hustling, with always being on the road or always being in the studio. And so that mindset also came with my spending. I was like: What’s a way that I can show wealth without actually having to buy a bunch of stuff? I found I wanted to smell good. This will show people that I, like, graduated a level. That’s the same reason why I like having nice nails, or why I like wearing certain clothes. I like a good compliment. The art of a compliment has never gotten old to me. I like giving them as well. The smell thing became natural because it’s almost like alchemy, like just taking a bunch of different elements and creating, quote unquote, magic.

Were you confident about saying, like, more of this, less of that? Did you have set ideas about what you wanted your fragrance to smell like?

Absolutely. But also I think, going, “Oh, this has to smell exactly like me”—that’s like taking Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” or something and being like, We need to make a song exactly like this. You’re not gonna get that. You have to cook your own meal. You have to make your own song. So I love this element of, like: desert, nighttime, cigarettes. I love the roundness of almonds—when you extract almonds, the way that smells. I love the myrrh for its spiritual importance. Pink pepper to give a little bit of a bite. The fragrance is also something that smells good when you mix it—like when you smoke a cigarette and it’s on your clothes and you have your own fragrance, and it all comes off a certain way…. That’s a long-winded way of saying like, I like the way it smells.