Month: February 2018

This post will be about none other than Post Malone, the rapper that surprised everyone with his quick rise to success. Although no one knew him a few years ago, he is know loved by many, and is referred to as one of the most successful rappers today. Austin Richard Post, more commonly known as Post Malone, was born on July 4th, 1995, the same day that we commemorate the independence of our country.

Growing up in Syracuse, New York, he was raised by his father, Rich and stepmother Jodie. Post was surrounded by music as a young child, as his dad was a disc jockey when he was younger, and he then introduced Post to many genres, some of which included rap, country and rock. He left Syracuse behind for the big state of Texas at the age of 9, due to his dad receiving a job with the Dallas Cowboys.

After playing Guitar Hero as a child, he soon became interested in learning guitar, which was his first step towards becoming the musician and singer he is today. His first experience with music was actually becoming a part of a heavy metal band. This transitioned to soft rock and then hip-hop. He started experimenting with FL Studio and Audacity, the latter of which he used to create his first mixtape Young and After Them Riches, at the age of 16 years old. He showed it to some of his classmates, and in turn was voted “Most Likely to Become Famous” as a senior in high school. He enrolled in his local community college, but soon dropped out, moving to Los Angeles, California. Soon after arriving, he formed a group named BLCKVRD, recording music together and soon loved into the same house in San Fernando. His stage name was made when he was 14 or 15, using a rap name generator that gave him the name Malone, adding it onto his last name post.

His career started when he wrote “White Iverson,”in reference to  which he recorded just two days after writing the song. The song garnered lots of attention, receiving praise from Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, while the music video also received over 390 million views on Youtube. With this song gaining more attention, it caught the eyes of record labels as well, signing with Republic Records in August 2015. This same record label houses other big names such as Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, The Weekend, and Aminé. This same month, he actually performed at Kylie Jenner’s 18th birthday party, where he met legendary artist Kanye West, who enjoyed his music so much he featured him on his single “Fade.” He also met Justin Bieber, who he performed the opening act for Bieber’s concert. He followed this up by releasing his new single, “Go Flex” in April 2016. Over 6 months later on December 9th of 2016, he released his debut album, ‘Stoney.’ This featured “Congratulations,” which hit #8 on the billboard, as well as “I Fall Apart” and “Deja Vu” breaking the top 100. The album went double platinum, although Post himself said the album was mediocre.

After this album, he started working on his second album, Beerbongs & Bentleys, which is set to be released sometime in 2018, after being delayed. “Rockstar,” the first song from the album was released in September 2017, with this song staying at #1 for eight consecutive weeks. Many are awaiting the arrival of his new album, expecting something even better than his first.

What separates Post Malone from many of the other rappers and artists is his unique ability to mix musical styles and genres, making each his own and being successful with them all. While “I Fall Apart” is slower and more R&B, “Rockstar” and “Congratulations” goes more with hip-hop and rap. He called himself genre-less, knowing the unique abilities that he has. With his talents, many are expecting his success to continue throughout his career for a long time to come.

Future will be the focus of this week’s blog, and you have all probably heard of him before. Unknown to many is that his real name is actually Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, much longer and not quite as catchy as his stage name. Similar to several other rappers examined, Future grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, born on November 20, 1983. Although it seems he hasn’t been around too long, Future is one of the oldest rappers in the game at the age of 34 years old.

Growing up, Future doesn’t have the extremely rough upbringings that other rappers have experienced. Although this is true, his family was involved in street hustling, so he didn’t have the parents to look up to and want to strive to be. As a teenager he attended Columbia High School, and it was then when rapping become more of a reality to him. He joined the musical collective, “The Dungeon Family,” which includes some other rappers from Atlanta, such as Cee Lo Green, OutKast’s Big Boi and his cousin, Rico Wade, who was the one that inspired Future to take up rapping due to his impressive writing skills. It was also due to this that he gained the name Future.

Although he joined early on, Future’s first work was released in early 2010. Throughout 2011, he released three mix tapes called ‘1000’, ‘Dirty Sprite’ and ‘True Story.’ Although no one knows about these works, it did catch the attention of A1 Recordings, who signed him in September of 2011. After signing this deal, he released a mix tape ‘Streetz Calling,” which focused more on the pop genre than the rap he is known for now. At this same time, he collaborated with fellow rapper Gucci Mane to put out a collective album ‘Free Bricks.’ It was in April of 2012, when Future released his debut album ‘Pluto,’ which featured Drake and T.I in “Tony Montana” and “Magic,” respectively. “Magic” was the first song Future released to ever enter the Billboard hot 100. Later that same year, he was featured on Rihanna’s song “Loveeeeeee Song,” which Future wrote and produced.

Transitioning to 2013, Future released a successful mix tape ‘F.B.G.: The Movie’, which actually went platinum, featuring some artists signed to his label. This same year, he announced he was releasing his second album, ‘Future Hendrix,’ with his lead song “Karate Chop” being released in January 2013. After several months, in August, Future said he was changing the name of the album to ‘Honest.’ This caused much speculation, and it wasn’t released until over a year after the lead song, in April of 2014. This album featured collaborations with Kanye West, Rihanna, Drake, Jeremih and others.

After several other successful mix tapes, Future released his third album ‘DS2’ in July 2015, following it up with a collaborative mix tape with Drake. The album hit #1 on Billboard, which made him the first rapper in over a decade to have two #1 albums in a year. Less than six months later he released his fourth album “EVOL,” which also hit #1, making him the fastest to have three #1 albums since Glee in 2010. Before his fifth album, Future released several singles, which were certified gold or better. These include some of his greatest works such as, “F*** Up Some Commas (My personal favorite),” “Where Ya At,” “Jumpman,” “Low Life,” and “Mask Off.”

His fifth album, released in February 2017 was cleverly called ‘FUTURE.’ This album featured his hit “Mask off” as well as “Used to This,” which was very successful. While listeners took in his works from this album, he decided to surprise them by releasing his sixth album ‘HNDRXX’ just two weeks after his fifth album. Both albums went to number one consecutively, becoming the first artist to have two albums at number one at the same time.

With this much success, one must wonder what gives Future this much success. Personally, I believe it is his smooth flow, because no offense, but his lyrics are not the main focus of listeners. Defined as a mumble rapper, many people cannot understand what Future is exactly saying, but with his rhythm and flow, people still find it catchy. The auto tune matches his actual voice very well also, helping the harmonic feel of his music. At the age of 34, it’s fair to wonder how much longer Future can continue this success. With a net worth over $50 million, he may not need to continue the success, although it will be interesting to see how the future of Future plays out.