Post Malone
photo: chrisallmeid · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Austin Richard Post grew up in Grapevine, Texas on a diet of hip-hop, country and rock fed to him by his DJ father, then taught himself to blur all three into one continuous sound in FL Studio. 'White Iverson,' a hazy 2015 ode to Allen Iverson, turned a suburban kid with a slurred melodic flow into a star, and 'Rockstar' and 'Circles' made him one of the decade's biggest genre-agnostic crossovers. He spent the years since refusing to stay in a lane, closing out with a full pivot into mainstream country on 'F-1 Trillion.'
Post Malone has said Bob Dylan is who he puts on when he wants to sit and cry, and that reflective, plainspoken confessional mode bleeds into his own acoustic-leaning ballads.
listen forCue up Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' and then Post's 'Stay' — you'll hear the same stripped-back, guitar-and-voice honesty, just swapped from folk-rock sneer to hungover, Auto-Tuned vulnerability.
Post Malone livestreamed an entire Nirvana covers set with Travis Barker in 2020, and the grunge-rock rasp and heavier guitar palette shows up whenever he leans into his rock side.
listen forPut 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' next to 'Take What You Want' (with Ozzy Osbourne) and listen for the same distorted-guitar weight and shout-along hook, just filtered through 2019 trap-rock production.
Post Malone has called 50 Cent a legend and named him among his influences, and the half-sung, half-rapped, hook-first mixtape style 50 helped popularize is baked into Post's earliest breakout material.
listen forPlay 50's 'In Da Club' back to back with Post's 'White Iverson' — both ride a woozy, melodic hook delivered in that same conversational, not-quite-singing, not-quite-rapping pocket.