If you ask anyone I talk to on a regular basis, I have a not-so-secret love for Post Malone.
Before you straight-up close this tab, hear me out. Austin Richard Post, a.k.a. Post Malone, is a 23-year-old rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Post shot to fame with the song “White Iverson” in 2015 and his debut album, Stoney. In the three short years since then, Post Malone has collaborated with a ton of different artists (including, but not limited to, Nicki Minaj, 21 Savage, and Justin Bieber) as well as came out with the album beerbongs & bentleys in 2018. Physically, Post Malone looks like a kinda crusty human being. I had a friend once describe him as “someone you would meet behind a 7/11 at 3 am” and there were even a lot of people pushing to get him on the makeover show Queer Eye. Many of his fans consider his “look” as part of the Post Malone brand, though, and I can’t say I’m mad at it.
I’m not gonna lie. I love the Stoney album. I love the beerbongs & bentleys album. And, most recently, I love “Sunflower”.
I’m a little late to the party with “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee, which dropped on October 18th and is the first single off the new Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse movie (which I’m super hype for).  As of today, the video on YouTube has 29,685,768 views and the overall reaction to the song on social media has been wildly positive.
“Sunflower” seems to be the latest success for Post, but will that success contribute even more to the controversy characterizing his career?
In case you don’t know what I mean, Post Malone is white. He’s a white dude rapping, which in and of itself isn’t novel (Mac Miller, anyone?), but the various comments he’s made in interviews and just the general attitude he holds regarding his music have people doubting. In the three years since Post Malone has climbed to the top of the charts, he’s been called “the Donald Trump of hip-hop” and a “culture vulture”.
“Now, he’s in the news for making it abundantly clear he doesn’t understand or care about the music and culture he’s still using to top the charts,” writes Shawn Setaro, senior staff writer at Complex. “…[Post Malone] shows a stunning level of ignorance about black music and culture (and, by extension, the people who make it).”
With Post Malone, you either love him or you hate him or you just can’t decide.
What do you guys think? Does anybody really think about this stuff? Or do we just judge based on whether we like the music?
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Sources
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-post-malone-20161216-story.html
https://www.complex.com/music/2017/11/post-malone-and-racism
http://www.vulture.com/2018/07/what-if-post-malone-is-here-forever.html
the treachery of text [this is not a blog] 
I agree that music is so much more than a single song!! I love post and especially how he responds to the hate, watching interviews he’s in he always remains above what people characterize him as. He is an incredible person and creates great music. When he first moved to LA he had absolutely nothing, relying on his friends for everything. Now he is a lot of peoples favorite artist.
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Hayley,
I only recently heard of Post Malone. When Lauren Ball, who’s an alumna and a social media strategic for Zippo, comes to class in two weeks, ask her about her encounter with him.
Pat
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I will endeavor to remember! Usually people have good stories about meeting him!
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Post Malone and Swae Lee, Sunflower was quite a hit. I don’t understand why people don’t like him. Maybe, I don’t know the type of music that he make in the past until now. I don’t listen to his music that much so that is probably why I don’t understand. I just like to listen to music with good beat and isn’t too aggressive with their words. Sometime, I listen to rnb and pop music to just vibe with.
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Personally I don’t listen to a lot of rap music. That being said I do know of Post Malone through a popular YouTuber h3h3, which they’re close friends of. With little of the music I’ve heard from Post, I like him as both an artist and personality wise. I don’t fully understand why people dislike him, some even off his looks. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Well in this case it’d be don’t judge and album by it’s cover.
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