By Jesika Islam || Arts and Leisure Editor

Austin Richard Post, better known as Post Malone, began his musical career on SoundCloud with songs such as “Whats up,” “Tear$,” and “Boy Bandz”. However, his true debut into the musical world was the release of “White Iverson,” and its accompanying music video. The song gained 400 million hits on YouTube and helped Post get his first record deal with Republic Records.

One year after dropping “White Iverson,” Post released his first mixtape “August 26” in May, suggesting that would be the date of his first album release. During this time, Post has done concerts from his SoundCloud hits, and opened for Justin Bieber on his Purpose World Tour, gaining fame and anticipation for his album. He became iconic for being a recently turned 21-year-old, with cornrows, a BudLight, and a cigarette. Despite his atypical appearance and his haters, Post never strayed from being himself. Every music video, performance, outfit screamed Post Malone. His fashion choices include a Ferarri fanny pack, a Chanel candy necklace, and grills. Perhaps Post’s biggest claim to fame is performing at Kylie Jenner’s Sweet Sixteen and meeting Kanye. This performance connected him to Kanye West and he earned a feature on “Fade” off of Kanye’s controversial album “The Life of Pablo.” Post’s crooning voice can be heard in the background of the award winning music video with Teyana Taylor that was iconic because of the choreography and interesting story line.

Despite his mixtape being called “August 26,” Post did not drop his album until December. His first album “Stoney” released with eighteen songs, some of which were completely along the same genre as “White Iverson.” However, a lot of the album also spoke to Austin Post’s upbringing rather than Post Malone’s persona, and had a more folksy, acoustic guitar vibe. Seven of the eighteen songs had already been released as singles prior to the album that made the album seem more hip hop, but songs like “I Fall Apart” and “Your Truly, Austin Post” added a deeper element to the album than money, girls and booze. He delves into how he felt touring and how tiring and lonely it can be.

His album released at the end of his Hollywood Dreams Tour, and he began his Stoney tour from Irving Place in New York City. From there he played at multiple music festivals and sold out medium-sized venues. While touring, he also found time to record in the studio and post two very short clips of unreleased music. In the videos he has a cigarette and BudLight in one hand, clearly very used to juggling both, his other hand holding the phone up in selfie video position and singing along to his own songs. “rockstar” was the first song to appear on Twitter, which was released before he cut his hair to have bangs and cornrows, and describes the party life of a superstar musician. The second song to appear, which was untitled, had the lyrics “got diamonds by the boatload” relating back to his consistent theme of gaining wealth. During this tour he also tweeted the name of his next album “Beerbongs and Bentleys” which then was rumored to drop June of 2017. However, June came around and Post finally responded to the rumors saying that he never claimed a release date and people should not anticipate it anytime soon.

Post seems to be changing his persona again. He has stopped wearing basketball jerseys, sweatpants, and his hair in cornrows and has started dressing in pseudo- cowboy attire, and letting his long brown hair out. This change in appearance is accompanied by the release. “rockstar” features 21 Savage and has been very well received, even being reviewed as one of the best new tracks of the week from Highsnobiety.

Post Malone once claimed that he thought he would be a one hit wonder but clearly he has more in store for the world.

Senior Jesika Islam is the Arts and Leisure Editor. Her email jislam@fandm.edu

By TCR