Post Malone Is Proud To Get His Debut Album ‘Stoney’ Off His Chest

Post Malone takes advantage of the brief time he has at his new home in Los Angeles, but alas, the hustle continues even if he does it from his couch. The Republic Records artist’s newly released debut album, Stoney is already winning over new fans. Yet, there’s a few things on his mind that tend to distract him from his mission — like wishing he could’ve attended Art Basel in Miami.

“Miami is always super, duper lit. Art Basel is coming up, and I’d like to head out to that,” Post said over the phone a week before the madness in Miami began.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to make it out the 305 this year, and with good reason. After performing at a handful of Tours with Justin Bieber and Fetty Wap, he realized that his fans truly have faith in his ability to create enticing music, which in turn rejuvenated his self-confidence about his career.

READ: Post Malone Delivers His Debut Album, ‘Stoney’ Feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, 2 Chainz & More

Earlier this summer, Austin Richard Post had to fend for himself against the media when certain outlets doubted his dedication to hip-hop. Rumors began to spread about him ditching hip-hop to pursue Country. Before the end of 2016, Post is making it clear that he doesn’t have limit himself as a musician no matter what the critics may preach.

Post is out to show the world that not only is he dead set on embracing his passion for rapping, but he also wants to dominate all genres while flexing his guitar-playing skills — and working with producers like FKi First, Metro Boomin, Pharrell, and plenty more revered beat makers. The 20-year-old musician aims to establish his longevity with his first LP after going through a slew of changes throughout the process.

After releasing his August 26 mixtape over the summer, the “White Iverson” rapper was expecting to deliver his debut studio album on Aug. 26, but failed to produce the LP. “I couldn’t deliver on my word. There’s no excuse, I needed everything to be perfect for y’all and I fucked up somewhere along the way,” Post said in an Instagram post shortly after his album was due.

The autotune loving crooner is done apologizing, though. Months after he posted his heart-felt public apology, the Syracuse, New York native is more than excited that his introductory studio album, which dropped Dec. 9th, is picking up steam. There’s plenty more music in his stash that has yet to be released, but he wants the fans to enjoy his first offering before he hits them with more. Before the album dropped, we chopped it up about the making of Stoney, his low points while dealing with the album changes, and of course all the high times on his grueling tour schedule.

VIBE: You were touring for a good half of 2016. Talk about that. I know you were on the road with Justin Bieber. What were some things you learned from the experience?
Post Malone: Being on tour with Justin as opposed to doing my own tour or Fetty’s tour was crazy. Justin is like worldwide crazy, and maybe the most famous person in the world. Performing in front of 20,000 people is a lot different than 2,000 so coming out there I was super nervous. I was scared they weren’t going to like me and were going to be like ‘Who’s this hobo on stage?’ I came out there and they were really supportive. If Justin likes you then they usually like you. So we had a lot of fun and chilled out. He taught me a lot of about saying healthy on the road and taking care of business. It was a really great time man.

2016 has been full of ups and downs even on your end. How has your sound changed over the last year? What’s changed since releasing “White Iverson”?
Well, I feel like being in the music industry changes a lot. You’re exposed to so many different types of sounds and so much different type of stuff. Once you have an established song, you can really come out of your shell and experiment with the sound you want to make. I think whenever that song (“White Iverson”) hit as hard as it did I tried to keep on rocking and see what else I could do. I worked with other producers and a lot of talented people to try and make some music.

I spoke with FKi 1st earlier this year about his influence on your last mixtape August 26. Talk about your working relationship with him and how he’s affected how your sound is today.
Well, (FKi) 1st really put me on game about the whole music, how everything works, how deals work, and how everything goes. He was like the first producer that I worked with coming into L.A. He really taught me a lot of producing tricks and he made some dope beats for me. We started building our friendship and kept on working together. Now we’re just trying to make cool music and figure life out.

I know he has been a major help in your career thus far. Also earlier this year, you had got some hate online after a rumor circulated that you weren’t pursuing hip-hop anymore. At the moment, what direction are you taking your music?
Well, I’m really excited to put out this album. It’s taken way too long and there was a lot of confusion and treachery going around and weird stuff going on. We just had to work through it. Then we finally figured it out. I am still making hip-hop music. I am still turning up. I am still having fun. I’m enjoying life. I’m trying to make music that I like, and I love hip-hop. At the same time, I love guitar. I love rock and everything. I’m trying to bring a little bit of every type of sauce into one type of sound. Something that’s really fresh. It’s so hackneyed and so trite in today’s hip-hop. It’s all the same. So I want to just bring something that’s going to separate myself from others. People might mistake that because people just want to make it such a genre-based thing, but music is music at the end of the day.

I could tell you’re into multiple genres when your last mixtape in the summer. Back then we were anticipating Album Of The Year, but now it’s clear things have changed. How did you come up with the new album title Stoney?
Here’s the deal with that. I was thinking about it. I called the mixtape August 26 because that’s when the album was supposed to come out, but it didn’t come out. To call it “Album of the Year” was kind of like cursing myself. So I just called it Stoney (laughs).

What was the moment when you realized that you didn’t want to curse yourself?
I feel like the moment when that happened was like dooms day. It was like impending doom. I just thought that it wasn’t a good feeling to let my fans down and everyone else down. I don’t want to make that mistake again so I just decided to kick it into high gear and really give the people what they want to prove what I’m made of. I think everybody on the team delivered and went in. We really have a dope piece of work man.

Let’s talk more about the album. I’m sure you were in the studio with Justin (Bieber) a lot of the time. Who else came through to collaborate?
We got bunch of stuff that hasn’t been released yet, but “De Va Ju” is on the album. There’s 18 songs on the deluxe version. So much new material and a lot of new flavors. There’s plenty of dope producers like Metro Boomin’, Pharrell, DJ Mustard, and me. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on and I’m really excited for you all to hear it.