Post Malone is hard to hate and easy to love. He’s eased broken hearts with his breakup song’s, gotten the party started with his bops, and now he’s about to release his fourth album, “Twelve Carat Toothache.” But a lot has changed to get to this point, so let’s track Posty from his first album all the way to now.
Before we get straight into it, I need to let you all know that I’m a huge Post Malone fan and have been since his first album dropped. With that being said, I do apologise for my bias but it’s hard not to be biased when he’s just so damn cool!
Since the release of his first album, Stoney, Austin Richard Post has continued to skyrocket up the charts with no signs of slowing down. Sure, Beerbongs and Bentleys didn’t receive the best feedback, but it still had some hits like ‘Rockstar’ and ‘Better Now.’ Hollywood’s Bleeding saw the direction move away from the outright melancholy to a sad rockstar-like vibe. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Early Days
Posty’s voice on Stoney was a lot softer than what would appear on later releases. That might have contributed to the fan’s shock when Beerbongs and Bentleys came out which was only exacerbated by Hollywood’s Bleeding. Tying all of these works together though is Post Malone’s unique vibrato that certainly eased fans through the transitions of each album cycle.
Fun fact! Stoney was Posty’s nickname given to him by his friends, but that name has faded since Posty stopped smoking marijuana after it induced an anxiety attack that he never fully recovered from. He’s definitely not Stoney but he does love his Bud Light.
Beerbongs and Hollywood
After the release of Beerbongs, Post Malone was living the lecherous life of a rockstar. He would party and drink every night, live the high life, and continuing to chase his dreams. Sounds awesome! Right? It was until it all started catching up to him. Post Malone is now 26 (until July 4th) so it seemed like it was only a matter of time before he would take a break, and he did.
After Hollywood’s Bleeding, Posty went completely MIA. He settled down and essentially just took a chill pill for a year. He still worked and appeared on others tracks, but he had stopped making music of his own, instead focusing on grounding himself. It’s not a bad thing to take a break, and there’s some credit towards him realising that the high life isn’t all that at 26.
Just before he went MIA, Posty and his manager Dre London started the music management company, London Cowboys. They signed notable Australian indie group, Lime Cordiale, who are a personal favourite of mine.
Loud and Live
Posty hasn’t been to Australia very often, but I did manage to see him at FOMO Festival in 2018. I still remember it raining all day until he came on stage and the clouds parted and the sun shined down. It was magical.
If you’ve ever seen Post Malone live, you know that his stage presence is awe-inspiring. He gives it everything he’s got but with a genuine humility that’s most obvious in his stage banter. He always gives the audience a pep talk telling us to “chase our dreams” or to “not let anyone tell you shit ‘cause they ain’t shit.” Those little moments made the show for me personally.
There was a period of concern at this show from fans as Posty’s performance became a little “intense.” But he did reassure his fans that he was just “living his rockstar life.” It was a little shocking, the people around me were questioning whether he was high or just completely wasted, maybe both? I figured that he was just vibing from the beers, especially after performing a “shoey” on stage.
The King of Heartbreak and Other Labels
The title, “King of Heartbreak” has been bestowed upon Posty recently. A title I very much think he deserves. If you didn’t damage your lungs screaming to “I Fall Apart” than your breakup clearly wasn’t bad enough (joking).
One of my favourite things about Post Malone is the constant labelling of him as a hip-hop artist, but he rather describes himself as a rockstar. His idols include Guns N Roses and even Bob Dylan. I feel the reason for this is because he started his career on YouTube under the channel name Austin Post where he posted a cover of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” hoping we would one day get noticed. He didn’t at the time, but Jimmy Fallon did get a hold of the video depicting a 16-year-old Posty with an acoustic guitar. One of his dreams was to perform alongside one of tehse legends and now he’s achieved that, performing live with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Aerosmith. He even got Ozzy Osbourne to feature on his track “Take What You Want” from Hollywood’s Bleeding. You can see on this album the heavier rock influence as he delves further into the rockstar persona.
Style Reflects The Man Within
As his music has changed throughout the years, so has his appearance, sometimes drastically. Posty has gone from cute little braids with just a few tattoos to a shaved head and full body and face tattoos. His most iconic tattoos are surely the “stay away” above his eyebrow and “always tired” under both his eyes.
You might not expect the reasoning behind his iconic face tattoos. Post Malone has always been self-conscious about his appearance which is why he’s leaned into the face tatts. Instead of looking at a plain face, he wanted to look in the mirror and see his tattoos and say, “Hey, you’re a cool kid.” He’s mentioned that this has helped him with his insecurities, but I’ve never had an issue with his appearance, but I guess it isn’t about what I think in this case.
Where to Now? The New Album
Since 2016, Post Malone has continued to grow into the person he wants to be, which is why I think his fans are so loyal. They’ve been there through all his changes and reckless phases and still love him for it. Out of all the artists I’ve followed throughout the years, Post Malone has always felt the most relatable because of how genuine his music and his personality are. He always refers to his music as “shitty” and not because he thinks that’s true, he says it to remind himself that his music won’t appeal to everyone. He has learnt to make the music he wants instead of being confined to the latest trends in hip-hop.
So where is he going now? Great question because more than ever, Posty has shut the world out. He keeps his personal life under wraps so much so that no one has actually seen his girlfriend. We do know that he is expecting a baby but no one knows how far along the pregnancy is or when Baby Malone is to be expected.
The only other thing we know is that his fourth album is coming out on June 3rd. But once again, we don’t know much about the project. We do know that he told Rolling Stone that the album will be in a “short format” with “less songs, but songs that speak more to life and speak to how I’m feeling at the moment, and the ups and downs and the disarray and, kinda like, the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream.”
There was some tension with his record label over the length of the upcoming album. As he told Billboard,
“Trying to shove 20 to 25 songs, it doesn’t work. Talking to the label [it’s like], ‘Oh, if you have less songs, you’re not going to stream as much,’ but the whole thing is that you don’t want to compromise your art and your gut vibe on anything. I’ve made a lot of compromises, especially musically, but now I don’t feel like I want to anymore. I don’t need a No. 1; that doesn’t matter to me no more, and at a point, it did.”
You can see this effect with the length of both Beerbongs and Hollywood.
From what I’ve been able to gather, this album is probably going to go back to his original sound which you can hear in the teaser track “Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol.” It features Fleet Foxes so you can see that there’s already going to be an indie influence to it. Maybe it’s the dad in him slowly coming out? Or maybe he’s finally making the music he wants to make. After listening to the track, I know I want a breakup song that competes with “I Fall Apart.”
What I’m excited for is the new subject matter in the lyrics. From the tracks he’s released so far, they sound familiar, but the lyrics are very personal and come from a place of experience now. It’s like the logical next step from Stoney, something that Beerbongs failed to really be.
All I can say is that I’m excited for the album! Keep an eye out for our upcoming review for “Twelve Carat Toothache.”
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