Post Malone

Austin Richard Post (born July 4, 1995), known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor.

Malone has gained distinction and acclaim for his blending of various genres including hip hop, pop, R&B, and trap.

His stage name was derived from inputting his birth name into a rap name generator.

Austin Richard Post was born on July 4, 1995, in Syracuse, New York.

He was raised by his father, Richard Post, and his stepmother, Jodie.

His father had been a DJ in his youth and introduced Malone to many different genres of music including hip hop, country, and rock.

When Malone was nine years old, he and his family moved to Grapevine, Texas, after his father became the manager of concessions for the Dallas Cowboys football team.

It contained the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Rockstar" (featuring 21 Savage) and "Psycho" (featuring Ty Dolla Sign), and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 61st Grammy Awards.

Malone began to play the guitar and auditioned for the American 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 video game Guitar Hero.

Malone began his musical career in 2011, and gained recognition with his 2015 debut single "White Iverson", which peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

He signed with Republic Records to release his debut studio album Stoney (2016), which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and spawned the diamond-certified single "Congratulations" (featuring Quavo).

The song reappeared online in 2016.

Malone later referenced the DeChino alias on his song "Psycho".

Malone later enrolled in Tarrant County College, but dropped out.

After leaving college, Malone moved to Los Angeles with his longtime friend Jason Probst, a professional game streamer.

After moving to Los Angeles, Malone, Probst, and several other producers and artists formed the music group BLCKVRD and recorded music together.

Several members of the group, including Malone, moved into a house in the San Fernando Valley together.

While living in the San Fernando Valley, Malone met record producers FKi 1st and Sauce Lord Rich, who formed the production team FKi, as well as Rex Kudo, who produced several of Malone's tracks, including "White Iverson".

Malone recorded the song two days after writing it.

Malone has expressed his affinity for alternative rock music, and appeared for a DJ set at Emo Nite in Los Angeles, California, in June 2017, playing songs by American alt-rock band My Chemical Romance at the event.

According to Malone, his first foray into professional music began when he was in a heavy metal band.

He says soon afterwards he transitioned to softer rock as well as hip hop, before beginning to experiment on FL Studio.

According to Malone, 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 Malone later explained that "Post" is his last name, and he used a "rap name generator" to get "Malone".

At the age of 16, using audio editor Audacity, Malone 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.

At age 17, Malone released a parody synth-pop ballad song called "Why Don't You Love Me" under the alias Leon DeChino, intended for a school project.

His second album, Beerbongs & Bentleys (2018) debuted atop the Billboard 200 and set numerous streaming records.

His third number one single, "Sunflower" (with Swae Lee) was released for the accompanying soundtrack to the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; it became the highest-certified song in RIAA history as the first to receive double diamond (20-times platinum) certification.

"Sunflower" was included on Malone's third album Hollywood's Bleeding (2019), which became his second to peak the Billboard 200.

It spawned the single "Circles", which was his fourth number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 61 weeks on the chart.

His fourth album, Twelve Carat Toothache (2022) was supported by the top-ten singles "I Like You (A Happier Song)" (featuring Doja Cat) and "One Right Now" (with the Weeknd).

His eponymous fifth album (2023) explored pop rock and reached similar success, supported by the lead single "Chemical".

Malone is among the best-selling music artists with over 80 million records sold.

His numerous accolades include ten Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award, and nine Grammy Award nominations.

He holds several Billboard chart records: He is the first solo lead artist to top both the Rap Airplay and Adult Contemporary charts, while "Circles" set the record for longest climb to number one (41 weeks) on the Adult Contemporary chart by a solo artist.

As of 2024, Malone holds the record for the artist with the most diamond-certified songs, with eight to his name.