POST MALONE

“I can’t touch you, so I had to wheel it out,” joked singer and host Kelly Clarkson at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, while pushing a cart towards Post Malone that carried eight trophies.

- VERUS FERREIRA

Post Malone was the big winner at the awards, taking home nine trophies including Top Artiste. The three-hour ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. While many artistes performed in person, there was no live audience due to Covid-19 restrictions. Malone also won Top Rap Artist, Top Male Artist and Top Rap Album.

The hip-hop star was born Austin Richard Post on 4 July 1995 and started playing guitar at the age of 14 because of the popular video game Guitar Hero. Malone was raised by his father, Rich, and his stepmother, Jodie. His father, a DJ in his youth, introduced Malone to different genres of music. When Malone was 9, the family moved from Syracuse, New York to Grapevine, Texas.

His first foray into professional music began when he was in a heavy metal band, later transitioning to soft rock as well as hiphop, remembering the music his father had played to him as a youngster. Around this time, Malone decided to drop his long name and adopt a shorter more expressive one that many would remember. The name Post Malone was rumoured to be a reference to professional basketball player Karl Malone. While ‘Post’ was his last name he used a “rap name generator” to get ‘Malone’.

Malone cites American folk musician Bob Dylan as one of his musical influences in whom he became interested around the age of 15. Though what Malone raps and sings is totally different from what Dylan actually does. But Malone could be a Dylan fan as he has a tattoo of Dylan.

While at Grapevine High School, Malone created his mixtape Young And After Them Riches, which was well-received by his peers who voted him the “Most Likely to Become Famous”, a tag he initially dismissed, not knowing that a few years later, this would come true.