Post Malone burst onto the scene in the mid-2010s grinning from ear-to-ear with his gold grills, braids, face tattoos and a Bud Light in his hand. The Texas native quickly became a household name in hip-hop with his genre-blending flair, delivering hit after hit while developing an unbreakable bond with his fanbase.
Less than a decade later, Posty traded the Hollywood Hills for Utah’s snowy solace, and has more RIAA-certified diamond songs to his name than his beloved Dallas Cowboys have Super Bowl victories.
“I’ve made music for years and years, and down the line, I just want to relax and enjoy the simple things. Be like a kid again,” Posty told Billboard in his 2022 cover story. “Have no responsibilities and everything is handled: your kids, your family, everybody is set and doesn’t need to worry, so you can just play games and play in the tall grass.”
Post Malone – born Austin Post – has been a staple on the Billboard charts throughout his prolific career, with 75 Hot 100 entries, four of which have reached the chart’s apex. Three of them even found a slot on Billboard’s Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs list. Posty has accumulated about 33.5 billion U.S. on-demand song streams in total to date, according to Luminate.
With five albums on the Bud Light fanatic’s résumé – all of which peaked inside the Billboard 200’s top five – Billboard sifts through the 28-year-old’s anthem-filled discography, to handpick his best 20 songs. See our choices below.
Two of music’s biggest superstars of the past decade join forces in an attempt to break the internet. “One Right Now” boasts the ’80s electro-pop influence The Weeknd made his playground on After Hours, so this may have been a beat left on the cutting room floor. Still, the duo meet expectations on the track, while Posty contests, “Truth is, maybe one’s just not еnough” — so hopefully there’s more to come from the pair of pop titans.
Justin Bieber was an early co-signer of Post Malone when Bieb invited him to open on the Purpose World Tour. “Déjà Vu” opens in doom and gloom backed by a church organ before Bieber joins Post on the silky hook for an atmospheric adventure. Just don’t expect to get déjà vu from seeing the pair link up again in the future.
A heavenly acoustic ballad crafted by frequent collaborator Louis Bell sets the table for Post Malone to bare his soul and open up about his debilitating drug addiction, while still maintaining his hardcore rock star persona. “Just act as hard as you can/ You don’t need a friend/ Boy, you’re the man,” he hypes himself up.
Post Malone pays his respect to the legendary Fleetwood Mac by flipping the band’s “Dreams” into his own grandiose “Hollywood Dreams.” The groovy tune originally landed on the artist’s August 26th mixtape and remains a hidden gem fan-favorite for the OG Posty lovers nearly a decade later.
Post Malone turns the lights out and transports to the darkness for arguably his most vulnerable work to date. Over icy keys, “I Fall Apart” tearfully illustrates a crushing break-up Post experienced years prior, even admitting to boozing in an attempt to numb the grim pain he felt in isolation following the scarring split.
Post Malone closed out the 2010s churning out hit records so effortlessly that it seemed like the Dallas Cowboys brought more stress to him than his career. “Wow” finds Posty bathing in his success with a more braggadocious tone than other anthems in his catalog. He brags about the G-Wagons in his driveway and stacks of cash in his pocket, a life scenario 99 percent of his listeners can only dream of. There’s even a salute to Dak Prescott and his beloved Cowboys to close out “Wow,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100.
Kanye West once said that “rap’s the new rock ‘n’ roll.” Malone and 21 Savage make the case here by detailing their “Rockstar” lifestyles while toasting to their recent success. The swaggering tune served as something of a changing of the guard in the streaming era of rap, as “Rockstar” debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 before eventually overtaking Cardi B for the No. 1 spot.
Ty Dolla $ign recently earned his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 thanks to his joint project with Kanye West, Vultures 1. Some may have forgotten that the California crooner already has a Hot 100 chart-topper to his name, with his appearance on Posty’s “Psycho.” Malone cooks up another memorable hook, with Ty handling the final verse, and the rest is history. Both artists have proven to be dynamic collaborators in the studio, and their seamless chemistry is evident on the smooth Beerbongs & Bentleys standout.
Posty and Doja Cat collide for a bubbly bop which served as a leader in the clubhouse on the Texas-bred artist’s Twelve Carat Toothache album in 2022. Post Malone brings the good vibes matching his personality and welcomes Doja and her baby voice into the fray, which transitions into a nasally flow while she attempts to woo a love interest. “I Like You” blasted to a No. 3 peak on the Hot 100.
Sometimes life ain’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Posty deals with the doldrums of his situation and takes unnerved listeners to the depths of their cavernous souls with “Lemon Tree,” the title phrase of which he uses symbolically. “Life is pretty sweet, I’m told/ I guess I’m just s–t outta luck, growing a lemon tree/ I’m gonna burn it down, and grow me something bettеr,” he contests.
Diamonds are forever (and Post has eight diamond records to be exact). “Congratulations” took on a life of its own bigger than the rap world, as the top 10 Hot 100 hit became the soundtrack to people across the globe celebrating their achievements and accolades. Seven years later, Post and Quavo both have a litany of wins stacked up that are worth toasting to in their outstanding careers.
Posty’s meteoric rise to fame came with ripple effects, as he developed anxiety and paranoia while adjusting to his celebrity lifestyle. “Paranoid” served as the album opener to 2018’s Beerbongs & Bentleys, where the genre-blending rapper candidly addresses his loneliness and frets about not being able to trust those around him. “Sometimes feel like I got no friends/ Can’t trust a soul, like I’m Snowden/ Right by the bed, keep it loaded,” he admits.
Some are envious of the glitz and glam of Hollywood, while others deal with the crippling adverse effects of the high-pressure celebrity lifestyle. Post Malone contemplates the tortures of Hollywood while juggling who would show up for him, versus others using him for fame. “It seem like dying young is an honor/ But who’d be at my funeral? I wonder,” he ponders. There’s a price that comes with chasing perfection.
When a series like Fast and Furious brings in over a billion dollars at the box office, it’s never a bad idea to join forces with it. Instead of keeping the bubbly “Candy Paint” for himself, the Dallas Cowboys superfan lent the joyous anthem — which could play at amusement parks across the country — to the blockbuster movie series. Even the most angry people walking around are going to have a jolt of dopamine after pressing play on “Candy Paint,” and Spotify listeners entered a sugar coa after running up the witty hit’s streams past the billion mark.
Everyone can relate to trying to be the winner of a harsh break-up. Posty represents for those looking to bask in a victory lap following a relationship gone sour. The catchy chorus finds Malone doing what he does best, delivering an inescapable earworm that had fans repeating his lyrics long after they were done listening. “Better Now” spent an entire year on the Billboard Hot 100 after peaking at No. 3.
Nobody could predict the precipice of greatness Post Malone was on the verge of following “White Iverson,” but what he was bringing to the table wasn’t well-represented in hip-hop’s mainstream. Posty’s luscious hooks and infectious vocals were evident with his 2015 breakout hit, dedicated to the titular NBA legend. Others had plenty to say about the rapper-singer’s braids, face tats and gold grills, which only heightened the intrigue surrounding him.
The cinematic strings and chants of “Leave” could score a blockbuster drama, but Post turns the camera around to direct his own film about his shortcomings on the Stoney sleeper. “I kept wishing I would die, oh that whole plane ride home/ And I wish I could I know I should leave you alone,” he belts out.
The Hollywood’s Bleeding anthem scored Posty another Hot 100 chart-topping monster. Post blends his indie rock and folk influences for a poignant pop ballad where he puts his crooning to the test. Malone’s warm vocals mesh with the guitar riff as he sings about a girlfriend who got away, but knows they’ll be eventually reunited, since the relationship keeps “running in circles.”
The sweetness of “Sunflower” became ubiquitous throughout 2019, after landing on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated film the prior year. Swae Lee and Posty trade turns on the track, crooning about a love interest who needs more affection and watering. The sweet collab is now certified double-diamond — and in the midst of it topping the Billboard Hot 100, it also broke the record for most weeksinside the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart’s top 10.
Posty’s vulnerability endears him to fans going through similar situations, which he’s packaged into commercial concoctions. Here, he cooks up another heartbreak bop and invites an unlikely collaborator into the fray as Young Thug puts his heart on ice. It’s fitting that Thugger and Posty connected for an undeniable anthem, since they both embraced their genre-blending influences to change hip-hop’s mainstream aesthetic — and would’ve been denied entry by rap gatekeepers had they arrived five years earlier.
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