Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Although Post Malone’s music couldn’t sound much more different to Kiiara’s, his career trajectory has been strangely similar. Also aged 20, the Texan hip-hop singer (real name Austin Post) was until recently a total unknown, and got his big break via Soundcloud. After dropping out of college, Post Malone moved to LA and began working with production team FKi (Iggy Azalea, Tyga etc.). One of the first tracks he shared online was White Iverson, which unexpectedly went viral, and was played a million times in the first month. Naturally, he soon had his pick of label deals, and went with Republic Records. Since then, he’s released several more songs to Soundcloud and music videos for White Iverson and Too Young. White Iverson has a mellow groove but Post Malone’s terrible diction makes the lyrics almost indecipherable, and his other songs are even more hard work. Also, it’s clearly not a prerequisite for hip-hop success to be good-looking, but this guy is particularly scruffy and unattractive, with his braids inciting comparisons to the much-mocked rapper Riff Raff. Nonetheless, big names from Kanye West to Rick Rubin are getting behind him, and his debut album will be released to high expectations.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLsTskih7_I]