Biography

Austin Richard Post (born July 4, 1995), known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He has gained acclaim for blending musical genres including pop, trap, and rock, his introspective songwriting, and his laconic vocal style. Born in Syracuse, New York and raised in Grapevine, Texas, Post first attained recognition in 2015 following the release of his debut single "White Iverson" which peaked in the top 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100. He subsequently earned a recording contract with Republic Records.

Post's debut studio album Stoney (2016) peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200, and was eventually certified triple platinum, and featured the hit "Congratulations". Post's second album Beerbongs & Bentleys (2018) debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and broke several streaming records upon release. The album opened to mixed critical reception and contained the US chart-topping songs "Rockstar", "Psycho", and "Better Now". It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. In 2018, he collaborated with Swae Lee on the song "Sunflower" for the soundtrack to the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which also reached atop the Hot 100. He then released the song "Wow", which was the first single from his third studio album, Hollywood's Bleeding. It peaked at number two on the Hot 100. He returned in July 2019, releasing the single "Goodbyes", which features Young Thug and debuted at number three on the Hot 100. Post Malone released his third album, Hollywood's Bleeding, on September 6, 2019; it features "Wow", "Goodbyes", "Sunflower", and "Circles", with the latter serving as its third single in August 2019.

As of 2019, Post has sold 60 million records in the US. He has a received a Diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for "Congratulations". He has won two American Music Awards, a Billboard Music Award, and a MTV Video Music Award, and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards.

Early life

Austin Richard Post was born on July 4, 1995, in Syracuse, New York. He was raised by his father, Rich Post, and his stepmother, Jodie. His father had been a disc jockey in his youth and introduced Post to many different genres of music including hip-hop, country, and rock. When Post was nine years old, he and his family moved to Grapevine, Texas, after his father became the manager of concessions for the Dallas Cowboys. Post began to play the guitar and auditioned for the band Crown the Empire in 2010, but was rejected after his guitar strings broke during the audition. He credited his initial interest in learning guitar to the popular video game Guitar Hero.

Post has always had a love for emo music, and appeared for a DJ set at Emo Nite in Los Angeles in June 2017, playing My Chemical Romance at the event. According to Post, his very first foray into professional music began when he was in a heavy metal band. Soon after, he says he transitioned to softer rock as well as hip-hop, before beginning to experiment on FL Studio.

Career

2011–2017: Career beginnings and Stoney

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Post performing in 2015

According to Post, he chose "Post Malone" as his stage name when he was 14 or 15. The name was rumored to be a reference to the professional basketball player Karl Malone, but Post later explained that "Post" is his last name, and he used a "rap name generator" to get "Malone". At 16, using Audacity, Post created his first mixtape, Young and After Them Riches. He showed it to some of his classmates at Grapevine High School. He was voted "Most Likely to Become Famous" by his classmates as a senior in high school. He worked at a Chicken Express as a teenager.

He enrolled in Tarrant County College but dropped out. After leaving college, Post moved to Los Angeles, California, with his longtime friend Jason Probst, a professional game streamer.

After moving to LA, Post, Probst, and several other producers and artists formed the music group BLCKVRD and recorded music together. Several members of the group, including Post, moved into a house in San Fernando Valley together. While living in San Fernando Valley, Austin met 1st Down of FKi. He met 1st and Rich from FKi and Rex Kudo who produced several of Post's tracks, including "White Iverson". Post recorded the song two days after writing it. "White Iverson" is, in part, a reference to the professional basketball player Allen Iverson. In February 2015, upon completion, it was uploaded to Post's SoundCloud account. On July 19, 2015, Post released a music video for "White Iverson". The single received praise from Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa. However, the song was notoriously mocked by Earl Sweatshirt.

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Post at the VELD Music Festival in 2016

After hitting one million views within a month of releasing "White Iverson", Post quickly garnered attention from record labels. In August 2015, he signed a recording contract with Republic Records. Post subsequently worked with a number of prominent rappers such as 50 Cent, Young Thug, and Kanye West, among others. In August 2015, he performed at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday party, where he met Kanye West, who enjoyed his music, leading to him collaborating with Post on his single "Fade" from his album The Life of Pablo. Post later began his friendship with Canadian singer and songwriter Justin Bieber, which led to Post being an opening act for Bieber's Purpose World Tour. On April 20, 2016, Post premiered his new single, "Go Flex" on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show.

On May 12, 2016, he released his first full-length project, a mixtape, titled August 26, the title of which was a reference to the release date of his debut album. On June 9, 2016, Post made his national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing "Go Flex".

In June 2016, XXL editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten revealed Post Malone was considered for XXL's "2016 Freshmen Class" magazine cover, but she was "told by his camp that he wasn't paying attention to hip hop so much. He was going in more of a rock/pop/country direction." However, Post denied these claims, explaining that his latest mixtape as well as his upcoming album were both hip-hop. In August 2016, Post issued an apology for his album, Stoney, being late. It was available for pre-order on November 4, and was finally released on December 9. Post later went on to call the album "mediocre", despite the success of the single "Congratulations" featuring Quavo, Post's first top-ten song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight. Stoney also featured the top 100 hits "I Fall Apart", and "Deja Vu", featuring Bieber, with the album later being certified double platinum by the RIAA in October 2017.

2017–2018: Beerbongs & Bentleys

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Post in 2018

In February 2017, Post revealed the title of his next project, Beerbongs & Bentleys, and was set to be released in December, before eventually being pushed back to 2018. In September, Post released the first single from the album, "Rockstar", featuring 21 Savage. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the spot for eight consecutive weeks, later prompting Rolling Stone to call him "one of the most popular musicians in the country" in 2017. In November, Malone released the official music video for "Rockstar", directed by Emil Nava.

On February 20, 2018, Post previewed his new song with Ty Dolla Sign titled "Psycho." "Psycho" was released on February 23, 2018, and a tour with 21 Savage was announced. The song debuted at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Post's third entry in the top 10. On April 5, 2018, Malone stated that Beerbongs & Bentleys will be released on April 27, 2018. The same day, he also premiered the song "Stay" during the Bud Lite Dive Bar show in Nashville. Upon release, Beerbongs & Bentleys broke the first day streaming records on Spotify, with 78.7 million streams worldwide. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 moving 461,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, with 153,000 coming from pure sales. The album was also certified platinum by the RIAA after four days and spawned three top 10 songs and six top 20 songs.

2018–present: Hollywood's Bleeding

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Post performing on the main stage at Stavernfestivalen in 2018

In an interview with Billboard in May 2018, Post's manager announced that Post was planning to start his own record label and film production company and Post later won Top Rap Song at the Billboard Music Awards for "Rockstar" featuring 21 Savage. Post confirmed in June 2018 that he was writing his third album, and confirmed that a festival will be taking place, organized by him, titled "Posty Fest" in Dallas, Texas on October 28. Post promised a "blockbuster" lineup with headliners like Travis Scott.

In August, Post broke Michael Jackson's 34-year-old record for most weeks on Billboard's Top R&B and Hip-Hop Albums chart with Stoney reaching its 77th week compared to the 76 weeks that Thriller spent on the chart. A collaboration album with Mac Miller was also teased in August 2018. During his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he previewed his song "Sunflower", a collaboration with Swae Lee, from the soundtrack to the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In November 2018, it was confirmed Post was recording his third album in his Utah home.

Post has been nominated for 4 awards at the 61st Grammy Awards for his album Beerbongs & Bentleys including awards for Album of the Year and Record of the Year. He performed with Red Hot Chili Peppers at the awards show on February 10, 2019. In July 2019, Post Malone released the single "Goodbyes" featuring Young Thug, and also announced the Runaway Tour with Swae Lee as the opener. On August 5, Post shared a snippet of an unreleased track "Circles" on YouTube. He then performed the song at his second annual Bud Light: Dive Bar concert and confirmed that the official song would be released the following week. That same day and on July 25, 2019, at Cheyenne Frontier Days. He released the song on August 30, 2019. He confirmed that his upcoming third studio album will be released on September 6, 2019. On August 26, 2019, Post announced on Twitter that his third album is called Hollywood's Bleeding and would be released on September 6, 2019.

Musical style

Post's music has been described as a "melting pot of the country, grunge, hip-hop and R&B" and Post himself has been described as versatile. His vocal style has been described as laconic. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described Post as "an artist who toes the line between singing and rapping, and hip-hop and spooky electric folk". Malone himself has called his music "genre-less".

Post cites Bob Dylan, in whom he became interested around the age of 15, as an influence on his music, calling him "a genius" and "a god" though his music has been called "about as far away from Rock n' Roll as you can get." He called "Subterranean Homesick Blues" the "first rap song". He has a tattoo of Dylan as well. Post also cites Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash as influences. Post has cited rappers 50 Cent, whom he called a legend, Kanye West and Key! as influences.

Controversies

Post has been called a "culture vulture" multiple times by different publications and on social media for "appropriating" African-American culture. California rapper Lil B wrote on Twitter in October 2017: "Post Malone is slowly turning into a white dude! Lol he's pushing it, give it a few years he gon be full country and hate blacks lol", with Post replying in an interview, claiming that his white skin has been "used against him." In January 2018, Post went on an intoxicated rant against people who describe him as a culture vulture. In an interview with GQ several days later, Post said "there's a struggle being a white rapper."

In a November 2017 interview with Polish media outlet NewOnce, Post said that modern hip-hop music lacks "people talking about real shit" and added that "if you're looking to think about life, don't listen to hip-hop." He received social media backlash for his comments, including from fellow rappers such as Lil B and Vince Staples. Post later appeared in a video on Twitter, saying that the reason for his comments was that it was a "beer-tasting" interview, and going on to say that he loves hip-hop. NewOnce, however, denied that claim, stating that Post barely drank at all during the interview.

Personal life

Post currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He also has a multimillion-dollar 13,000-square-foot home in northern Utah. Post's old home in San Fernando Valley, California was robbed on September 1, 2018. Post was in a three year long relationship with Ashlen Diaz, ending in November 2018.

On August 21, 2018, Post boarded a plane leaving Teterboro Airport and was scheduled to land in London Luton Airport. At 10:50 am, the tires blew out on takeoff and the plane was rerouted to Stewart International Airport for an emergency landing. The plane landed safely at 3:50 pm. Once the plane had landed, Post tweeted about the incident, writing "i landed guys. thank you for your prayers. can't believe how many people wished death on me on this website. fuck you. but not today."

Post was involved in a car crash on September 8, 2018. Post's white Rolls-Royce was driving through Santa Monica in the early morning when it collided with another car at 3:30 am. Although no one was severely injured in the incident, several people were treated for minor injuries.

Tattoos

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Post's "STONEY" tattoo below his chin which is in reference to his debut album.

Post has a number of tattoos that he inked himself and has also inked tattoos on several friends and acquaintances. His first tattoo was of the Playboy Bunny. He has tattoos on his hands and fingers of artists who have influenced him. In recognition of the Second Amendment, he has a tattoo on his triceps of a snake coiled around a rifle. The face of deceased rapper Lil Peep is tattooed on his arm.

Post also has a number of face tattoos, including a line of barbed wire across his forehead, two playing cards, a smiley face, a Playboy bunny and a heart, the words "Stay Away" tattooed above his right eyebrow, "always” and “tired" under both of his eyes, "STONEY" below his chin and a sword on the right side of his face.

Political views

Post has a tattoo of U.S. president John F. Kennedy on his arm, and has said that Kennedy was "the only President to speak out against the crazy corruption stuff that's going on in our government nowadays." In December 2016, Post stated that if asked to perform at the inauguration of Donald Trump he would not have been opposed, though he stated that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton were fit for President of the United States and expressed his support of Bernie Sanders during the election cycle.

Post later expressed a dislike for Trump in a November 2017 interview for Rolling Stone. In the same interview, he revealed that he has a large collection of guns and believes it is an American right to own and operate guns. Post also expressed a strong interest in conspiracy theories when he said, "There's crazy shit that goes on that we can't explain." During a trip to Canada, Post was interviewed and when asked what the "biggest lie is", he replied "The biggest lie in the world is the U.S. government. It's a fucking reality show and I think there's gonna be a lot of weird shit that happens within our generation that really changes the way of the world."[140