Hot 21 Radio

Post Malone

Born in Syracuse, New York, Austin Post (July 24, 1995) moved to Grapevine, Texas, at the age of 9 and grew up absorbing his father's eclectic record collection which included Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, playing out his rock star dreams on the video game Guitar Hero. He turned to a real guitar when he was 16 and began teaching himself to play with the help of online tutorial videos. He moved on to community college and worked shifts at a fast-food chain, but when his friend Jason Probst found success with a YouTube gaming channel and moved to Los Angeles, Post followed him to begin his musical career. Living in Probst's San Fernando mansion, he turned his bedroom into a studio while tirelessly working on writing songs, developing his guitar and rap skills, and making his own beats. Taking his moniker from a hip-hop name generator, he developed quickly from making mixtapes to playing in hardcore bands and appearing in Probst's videos. After working with producers FKi and Rex Kudo, he came up with his debut single. Two days after recording it, he uploaded "White Iverson" to SoundCloud and received a huge response, including millions of plays and praise from Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. A deal with Republic Records followed and the single reached Number 14 on the US charts, and after playing at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday party, Post featured on Kanye West's single "Fade" and became the opening act on Justin Bieber's Purpose World Tour in 2016. His debut album Stoney experimented with genres such as country, electronica, pop, and hip-hop and his single "Congratulations" made the US Top 10. He scored his first Number 1 single with the trap-inspired "Rockstar" at the end of 2017 and returned the following year with a second album titled Beerbongs & Bentleys, which featured appearances from Nicki Minaj, Ty Dolla $ign and G-Eazy. In 2018, he collaborated with Swae Lee on the track "Sunflower" for the soundtrack of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The track went to Number 1 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot 100, and Rhythmic charts. 2019 saw the arrival of "Goodbyes" featuring Young Thug and "Circles" before the release of third studio album Hollywood's Bleeding in September of the same year. The album hit number one on the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. Featuring guest spots from Roddy Ricch, Doja Cat, Gunna, Fleet Foxes, the Kid Laroi, and the Weeknd, his highly-anticipated fourth studio LP Twelve Carat Toothache appeared in 2022 and debuted at Number 2 on the US rap charts. Preceded by the singles "Chemical" and "Mourning," his fifth studio effort Austin hit the shelves in July 2023.