Malone has quickly become one of the biggest names in the rap and hip-hop industry, with what feels like an extremely rapid rise to superstardom.
Austin Richard Post was born in Syracuse, New York, before moving to Grapevine in Texas at 9 years old. He started playing guitar thanks to video game Guitar Hero, learned how to produce music, and released a mixtape when he was 16 years old. His debut single White Iverson became an instant hit in 2015.
Continue reading to discover more about Malone’s quick rise to fame.
Starting Out
Growing up in Syracuse before moving to Texas, Austin was primarily raised by his father named Rich Post. Rich was a DJ in his early years, and showed Austin many different music genres like rock, country, and hip-hop – it’s clear that these genres had an influence on the music he releases today.
During his teenage years, Austin got deep into playing Guitar Hero. Speaking to The Fader, he revealed:
“I am five star everything on expert mode Guitar Hero 3. My parents don’t make music. I was around music, but my parents were never musical. I just wanted to rock out. I taught myself how to play real guitar off YouTube videos. Watching people play stuff, like a lot of AC/DC and Metallica.”
His music preferences weren’t limited to one type of genre, and he enjoyed work from the likes of Hank Williams, A$AP Ferg, Biohazard and Father John Misty.
Post’s time in high school is where things really started moving with his interests in music. He made a mixtape titled Young and After Them Riches and played in a heavy metal band with some friends.
He even garnered the title from his classmates as “Most Likely to Become Famous.”
In 2010, he tried to audition for a spot in a different metalcore band called “Crown the Empire”, but he didn’t get the part due to his guitar strings breaking during his performance.
Although he started out focusing on heavy metal, Post began to transition towards hip-hop, soft rock, and even a little country.
When he was around 14 or 15 years old, Post decided to put his name through a “Rap Name Generator.” Out popped “Malone”, and he combined this with his surname, Post.
Sticking with his interest in music, he learned how to produce songs by messing around in a studio. He had a quick stint at Tarrant County College, but dropped out not long after to move to Los Angeles and pursue his music career.
It was during his time in LA that Malone wrote, produced, and recorded his debut single and massive hit, White Iverson.
An Overnight Star
Post was lucky enough to land worldwide fame and recognition with the first song he’d ever released – White Iverson came out in 2015 and garnered instant attention.
The name White Iverson was inspired by huge NBA player Allen Iverson. On creating the song, Malone had this to say:
“I wrote it two days before I recorded it. Me and 1st [of FKi] made the beat and then I was writing the words to the beat at my house. I didn’t even know if I was going to record.
He continued, “It was like 7AM and everybody was fixin’ to go to bed and I was fixin’ to record it by myself, so Raye Rich [of FKi] was teaching me how to work Logic for a second to get the main idea. Then he heard it and he’s like, ‘We need to record it.’ It was morning and, I don’t know, it was a perfect culmination of everything.”
After uploading the track to his SoundCloud account and putting the music video on YouTube, it obtained praise from several high-profile artists.
“All of a sudden I’m getting tweets from artists like Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller saying they like my song,” Post told Forbes in 2017.