“Genre” doesn’t mean much to Post Malone. An artist who has created a name for himself in just a short period of time, by combining new age R&B with rock and folk music. It all began one day, when Post Malone uploaded the song “White Iverson” to his SoundCloud page on the night of February 4, 2015. When he went to sleep, he was a dreamer and broke. Within a day, the song had changed his life. It became a viral hit, a song he invoked about the legendarily basketball player Allen Iverson to describe his own triumphs over adversity. The song, which peaked at fourteen on the Billboard charts was later certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA, which earned him a recording contract with Republic Records.
Born Austin Richard Post in Syracuse, New York, he was raised by his father, Rich Post, and his stepmother, Jodie Post. Post Malone’s father had been a DJ in his youth and introduced Post to many different genre’s including hip hop, country and rock which later became a huge influence on Post’s music diversity. When he was 9 years old his family moved to Texas after his dad became the manager of concessions for the Dallas Cowboys. Post began to play the guitar which he learned after playing the video game Guitar Hero II. In 2010 he auditioned for a band called Crown The Empire, but was rejected after his guitar strings broke during the audition. Post said his professional career began when he was in a heavy metal band, soon after his musical style transitioned into softer rock as well as hip hop. At age 16, Post created his first mixtape, “Young And After Them Riches” which he showed to classmates at his high school. He was voted “Most Likely To Become Famous” by his classmates.
Throughout his teens Post performed in a series of rock bands, and made videos that he posted onto YouTube and Vine. After high school he moved to Los Angeles with his friend Jason Probst, where they lived in a house full of aspiring gamers and YouTubers. As they played minecraft, Post would play the guitar and sing songs by Queen and Frank Sinatra. The stage name Post Malone was born from an online rap name generator. Genre has never been a box Post Malone has fit himself into and when he began working with the producers FKi 1st and Rex Kudo on songs that merged hip-hop with rock- and folk-influenced melodies, he was destined to catch the ear of a whole new age of music listeners. His debut album “Stoney” which came out in 2016 went double platinum and it was filled with catchy rags to riches anthems as Post transitioned between rhythms of rapping to power ballad singing.
Last year Post Malone released the single “Rockstar” featuring Atlanta rapper 21 Savage as the lead single from his second album “Beerbongs & Bentleys”. This quickly became a hit and and managed to represent a rival to hip-hop, a genre which had slowly been fading away since the late 90’s. “Beerbongs & Bentleys” was released late last month, and set a record on Spotify for first-day streams. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard charts and was also certified Platinum by the RIAA. This album came together in just over a little more than a year of recording sessions in between extensive touring. It embodied influences from SoundCloud rap, party rap, more straightforward pop, and 2000s indie rock, and its varieties in production is what catered for almost all music enthusiasts. While the albums second single “Candy Paint” failed to get the traction Post was hoping for, the albums third single “Pyscho” featuring Ty Dolla $ign continued the steam rolling success. “Pyscho” debuted and peaked at number one on the Billboard charts, with it’s heavy play on contemporary radio.
The remarkable thing was at this point, while Post Malone was garnering global success, a song from his debut album was about to enter the charts. “I Fall Apart” was included on Post Malone’s 2016 album “Stoney”, and never was originally released as a single, but a live performance of the song on September 24, 2017 went viral. Video of the performance was posted by a fan on Twitter, and has earned more than 200,000 retweets. It was later uploaded on Facebook, and has tallied more than 7.9 million global views. It was the song that caught my attention and made me a fan of Post Malone, and song that not only sounds good, but is delivered well vocally and lyrically.
From the beginning “Beerbongs & Bentleys” was destined for Grammy looming success, the album achieved 47.9 million streams in the US and 78,744,000 streams globally within 24 hours. It was projected to open with 460,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. It logged the largest week of the year for an album, and the biggest streaming week ever with 431.3 million on-demand audio streams in the country, surpassing the previous record held by Drake’s “More Life”.
“Ball For Me” featuring Nicki Minaj and “Better Now” were released as the albums official fourth and fifth single and both reached the top 20 in Australia, Canada, and Slovakia. Numbers speak for themselves when it comes to Post Malone, and he’s an achiever of the American Dream. “Beerbongs & Bentleys” is an authentic reflection of his journey from suburban teenager to urban artist in designer suits. And while most rappers of this era strive on derogatory and ill advised comments, it’s gratifying to see Post revive hip hop from where it began; music with artistic vision.
