"Just do whatever the fuck you want"
This was the renowned rapper Austin Richard Post, mononymously known as Post Malone, at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena in London last Wednesday night. Austin sold out 2 nights at this venue. After finishing his world tour, he will then headline Reading and Leeds Festivals at the end of the summer. At the age of 23, Austin has already worked with the likes of Kanye West, Lorde, and Ty Dolla Sign, and sold over 60 million copies of his latest LP...what’ve you done lately?
Amidst the hazy mist engulfing the numerous screaming fangirls and hipster men of the South-East London crowd, arose Post Malone - valiantly standing as the deified source of entertainment beneath the blackened crucible of frenetic lights. Commencing the evening with the cinematically-western track ‘Broken Whiskey Glass’, Malone offered the first inklings of his “melting pot of country, grunge, hip-hop and R&B”. Exemplifying the current public’s infatuation with trap music tinged with heartfelt lyrics, the crowd deafeningly sung back “I don’t wanna die too young” within the follow-up track from his debut LP of 2016, Stoney. Combining onsets of empowerment and fragility within his catchy musical repertoire, this quickly became an apparent factor for Malone’s grand appeal on the big stage of this sold-out midweek show.
The true-blue bangers exuding his "laconic vocal skills" came in the form of such tracks as ‘Better Now’, and his latest single ‘Wow’ - the former conducting a wholesale crowd-workout to the bassier beats underlining his emotionally-churned rapping, and the latter self-referencing his ability to incessantly churn out hits, “made another hit cos I got bored now (yup)”. Which, even at this early stage in the set, is difficult to refute.
The highly-energetic inception to Malone’s set soon transcended into the solo-oriented tracks from his latest LP of 2018, Beerbongs and Bentleys, with ‘Psycho’ and ‘Stay’. Whilst his emotive lyrics may have ventured into the corniest of corn flakes, his versatility in pulling together transgressive trap beats with an anguished folky facade was second to none. The raw emotion underlying these tempestuous tracks went uncompromised as Malone roared his way through the cavernous O2 Arena with his folk-ridden blues surging to the fore.
As we submerged ourselves into the depths of the mid-section, however, Malone’s hit-strewn discography began to wain. Excavating various tracks from Stoney, the swift uphill trajectory of Malone’s career since its release became highlighted as the immense disparity between his two LPs were unveiled. The fleeting pertinence of Malone’s first commercially-successful single, ‘White Iverson’, eventually gave way to another handful of tracks which ultimately lacked the same intensity, passion, and hooks behind their offerings.
Needless to say, for this ‘rockstar’ no encore was needed. Rather, the two closing tracks of the evening marked an ultimate pinnacle for those seeking to get their money’s worth from the all-but-cheap tickets. Smouldering himself in the rich influences of the early-00s nu-metal scene, Malone conducted vehemently crunching guitars as well as a screaming vocal delivery. Reminiscent with the likes of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Malone personified the latest interpretation of these seminal metal tropes for the current trap scene. Topping this off with sporadically rupturing pyrotechnics illuminating his ritualistic guitar-smashing, brought back many-a-memory for a metal-enthusiast such as myself which duly complimented the raw power and emotion engulfing the song.
Whilst the final track of ‘Congratulations’ couldn’t compete with the burgeoning force of its predecessor, Malone imparted a pertinent note as an apparently sagacious man. Encouraging the teenage fangirls and hipster 20-year-olds to “do whatever the fuck you want” in life, Malone proved to be a product of his own words. Following his self-belief imbued by his genre-crossing and emotive music perfectly captured the sentiments and ubiquity of today’s trap culture against the struggling rock scenes. At the peak of his powers, Malone has impressively fought the odds as an “outsider” of the trap genre and briskly risen the ranks courtesy of his unique style of emo rap - somewhat stretching the notion of trap music as we know it. In a fog of dry ice and fading lights, the 23-year-old departed the stage having resoundingly imprinted his name into the minds of the beloved 20,000-odd Londoners and 'cheers'd' along with them. So I’ll ask again - what’ve you done with your life lately?
8/10
Post Malone's latest LP, Beerbongs and Bentleys, is out now and can be found here.
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