page_title: Post Malone
section_title: 2011–2016: Career beginnings and Stoney
hierarchical_section_title: Post Malone / Career / 2011–2016: Career beginnings and Stoney
caption_attribution_description: VELD 2016
context_page_description: Austin Richard Post, known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Known for his introspective songwriting and laconic vocal style, Malone has gained acclaim for bending a range of genres including country, grunge, rap and R&B. He first attained recognition in 2015 following the release of his debut single "White Iverson". He subsequently signed a recording contract with Republic Records.
  Malone's debut album Stoney featured the hit single "Congratulations". In 2018, the album broke the record for most weeks on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart after it reached its 77th week on the chart. His second album, Beerbongs & Bentleys, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and broke several streaming records upon release. Featuring the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Rockstar" and "Psycho", it was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2018 Grammy Awards. In 2018, Malone collaborated with American singer-rapper Swae Lee on the song "Sunflower" for the soundtrack to the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
context_section_description: 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 16, using 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.
  He enrolled in Tarrant County College but dropped out. After leaving college, Malone moved to Los Angeles, California, with his longtime friend Jason Probst, a professional game streamer.
  After moving to LA, Post, Probst, and several other producers and artists formed the music group BLCKVRD and recorded music together. Several members of the group, including Post, moved into a house in San Fernando Valley together. While living in San Fernando Valley, Austin met 1st Down of FKi. He met 1st and Rich from FKi and Rex Kudo who produced several of Malone's tracks, including "White Iverson". Malone recorded the song two days after writing it. The lyrics of "White Iverson" allude to Basketball Hall of Fame player Allen Iverson. In February 2015, upon completion, it was uploaded to Malone's SoundCloud account. On July 19, 2015, Malone released a music video for "White Iverson". The single received praise from Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa. However, the song was notoriously mocked by Earl Sweatshirt.
  After hitting one million views within a month of releasing "White Iverson", Malone quickly garnered attention from record labels. In August 2015, he signed a recording contract with Republic Records. Malone subsequently worked with a number of prominent rappers such as 50 Cent, Young Thug, and Kanye West, among others. In August 2015, he performed at Kylie Jenner's 18th birthday party, where he met Kanye West, who enjoyed his music, leading to him collaborating with Malone on his single "Fade" from his album The Life of Pablo. Malone later began his friendship with Canadian singer and songwriter Justin Bieber, which led to Malone being an opening act for Bieber's Purpose World Tour. On April 20, 2016, Malone premiered his new single, "Go Flex" on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show.
  On May 12, 2016, he released his first full-length project, a mixtape, titled August 26, the title of which was a reference to the release date of his debut album. On June 9, 2016, Malone made his national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing "Go Flex".
  In June 2016, XXL editor-in-chief Vanessa Satten revealed Malone was considered for XXL's "2016 Freshmen Class" magazine cover, but she was "told by his camp that he wasn't paying attention to hip hop so much. He was going in more of a rock/pop/country direction." However, Malone denied these claims, explaining that his latest mixtape as well as his upcoming album were both hip-hop. In August 2016, Malone issued an apology for his album, Stoney, being late. It was available for pre-order on November 4, and was finally released on December 9. Malone later went on to call the album "mediocre", despite the success of the single "Congratulations" featuring Quavo, Malone's first top-ten song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight. Stoney also featured the top 100 hits "I Fall Apart", and "Deja Vu", featuring Bieber, with the album later being certified double platinum by the RIAA in October 2017.
caption: Post at the VELD Music Festival in 2016
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 70D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:02 18:43:41", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/3200", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2000", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "2000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:02:08 01:43:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:02:08 01:43:22", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7487/643", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4946/995", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "89", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "80", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1516", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2068", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "144675/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "144675/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "332158000443", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 135, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000443c08"}