Post Malone HHV Records 24 Items

From Soundcloud to a Major Label

While Hip-Hop has become mainstream over the past decade, establishing itself as a youth culture, the fusion with pop doesn’t always sit well with fans of the young genre. Purists prefer to stick with Boom-Bap, while artists like Kanye completely abandon conventional song structures. However, with newcomers like Drake, we hear a new wave of pop-oriented rap music emerging, which pays little attention to genre boundaries and breathes fresh air into the mainstream. Leading the way is Post Malone, whose sudden internet success in 2015 was as spontaneous as his name – the young American reportedly took his rapper name from an online generator. Born in New York and raised in Dallas, Austin Post picked up the guitar early in his youth – a passion that would later be reflected in the country elements of his music, but he was also fascinated by rock ‘n’ roll soon. In Los Angeles, he became a co-founder of the BLCKVRD crew, and together with local producer FKi 1st, he navigated the hazy trap beat on White Iverson, which he posted on Soundcloud in 2015 with no great expectations – a few months later, he was already earning praise from rappers like Wiz Khalifa and signed with major label Republic Records.

The Dark Side of Stardom

After Kanye West featured him on his album The Life of Pablo, Post Malone went on tour with Justin Bieber, opening for him in arenas. His first mixtape August 26th was released in 2016, and with Stoney, the autotune enthusiast delivered his debut album in the same year, staying true to the cloud rap style of his early tracks – it immediately landed in the top ten of the Billboard 200. It’s clear that the newcomer was not only confronted with the positive aspects of stardom, especially in the face of his massive success. On his second album, Beerbongs and Bentleys, Post Malone addresses these dark sides while inviting notable guest features like Nicki Minaj, G-Eazy, Ty Dolla $ign, and 21 Savage to accompany him. The single rockstar became his first number-one hit, and his ambition is clear: “I just want to keep on growing and one day be the biggest artist in the world.” The trap newcomer is certainly close to that goal, as his album reached nearly 50 million Spotify streams within a day in the United States, breaking records. A rockstar not just in the lyrical sense.

Finding the Answers in Music

However, the hip-hop narrative can also be broken: with Sunflower, Post Malone delivered a dreamy pop hit in 2019, which he recorded for the Marvel movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He continued this artistic fluidity shortly after on the album Hollywood’s Bleeding. He himself described his music as “genreless” – and so, the tattoo-covered trap rocker bridges genres that no longer represent opposites for his young fanbase. In addition to features with Tyla Yaweh and DJ Khaled, Malone collaborated with The Weeknd on the single One Right Now, and in 2022, he released his fourth LP Twelve Carat Toothache. Effortless earworm melodies combined with a pop-punk attitude mark this album, which became even more prominent on his 2023 follow-up, Austin, where the musician found himself without feature guests for the first time. He relied on his synthesizers and guitar, singing about his inner conflicts as honestly as ever – this was evident in songs influenced by 90s grunge, acoustic folk, 80s pop, and countless other elements in between. Fully committed to the appeal of pop, the artist has become nearly impossible to categorize, as diverse emotions demand various style outbursts. “I spent so long looking for a purpose. Like, Who am I? What do I want to do? What is this?” Post Malone finds the answers in music.