Smash that like button if you are a fan of that epic
intro. Post Malone has
had a meteoric rise to fame. Shortly after starting out on soundcloud and
building a buzz with his single “White Iverson,” Post Malone has become one of the biggest
superstars in modern music. Whether you know him for his face tattoos
or for his hit records, the name Post Malone rings a bell for music fans of all ages. And the man is only on his third album. But as much as it may have looked like it
happened over night, Posty’s success was built over years of experimenting with different
sounds and all types of music. Before the fame, he was living in Texas and
playing in a metal band! Then living with a group of Minecraft YouTubers
trying to shop a mixtape no one would to give a listen. In this video we’ll walk through his EPIC
journey. What’s going on guys? It’s your boy Michael McCrudden here for
you on Before They Were Famous, documenting the life and career of Post Malone prior to
fame, this time, hitting you with an EPIC version, in honor of his new album, and how
far he’s come in his career. We’ve done other Epic’s on Lil Uzi, Cardi
B and Drake. We only do these for those who have truly
achieved GOAT status. Like our other series, it's up to you guys
to tell us who deserves the next EPIC Before They Were Famous video. Alright, let’s get into the video! Post Malone was born Austin Richard Post on
July 4, 1995 in Syracuse, New York and was raised by his father Rich Post, yes that’s
his real name, also his stepmother Jodie. Little did Rich know that his son would one
day become the Richest Post in the family. Music had always been in the family with his
father having worked as a DJ for local events where he would play music of all genres. This influenced Austin to love all different
types of music everything from Bob Dylan, Kanye West, Biggie, Hank Williams and everything
in between. And no, not Little Hank Williams: The family moved to Grapevine, Texas when
he was 10 years old because his dad got a new job. Grapevine has a population of around 50 thousand
but like it says on their official website, “it’s always a great time, in grape vine!” Austin’s father got a job working as the
assistant director of food and beverages for none other than the Dallas Cowboys football
team at AT&T Stadium. Of course, the job came with some perks for
his son like free tickets for Cowboy games, and who can forget the unlimited food and
drink. Austin’s birthmother also moved to Texas
to be close to her son. In his teenage years, before playing a real
instrument, Post fell in love with Guitar Hero. He mastered the expert level on every song
so he decided the only logical next step was to pick up a real guitar. Post’s mom got him a guitar for Christmas
and he began to learn. But it wasn’t as easy as he had hoped. His dad told him that if he could stick it
out for 6 months, then he would officially pay for his guitar lessons. So that’s what Post did. He would watch YouTube tutorials on how to
play and he taught himself the basics. And he became pretty good: Post won his 8th grade talent show where he
performed a metalcore cover of Rihanna’s smash song “Umbrella.” He was doing open mic night covers of Guns
N’ Roses and playing any show that he could. Post wanted to take his musical dreams to
the next level and decided to try and join a band. At just 15 years old, he auditioned for a
band called “Crown The Empire” in 2010. Here’s one of the members of Crown talking
about Post Malone: The
band ended up winning battle of the bands but long story short their guitar player left
the group. So in need of a new member, they went searching
and held open auditions. So being friends with Post, he suggested to
come to
the auditions: Post was ready to perform but unfortunately
during his audition, one of his guitar strings broke. Seems like fate to me. Needless to say, he didn’t get the gig. And Crown The Empire ended up becoming a huge
band in their own right. But things worked out just fine for Post Malone. After his failed audition, he did start performing
with a metalcore band in high school and we found an old video from one of their performances. Ya, it's much different than the soft melodies
you hear on his albums today. But after a short stint in metal, he then
transitioned into making softer rock music. Post wanted to mix his unique ability to create
melody and his love for guitar with trap drums to create his own sound. He began learning how to produce on an illegally
downloaded version of FL Studios and recorded his first song on Audacity. Post said his dad liked his beats! So Post shared his first song with his classmates
who thought it was good. Post graduated from Grapevine high school
but was still focused on his initial dream of being a professional musician. While he attended Tarrant County Community
College in Texas, he was constantly writing songs. And his focus shifted so much onto the music
that he dropped out of college to chase after his dream full time. At 18 years old, he moved from Texas to Los
Angeles. Post was planning on showing his mixtape to
anyone who would listen when he got to LA.- He told Young and Recklass: I moved to LA from Dallas to win some godamn
Grammys. Post moved out to LA with one of his close
friends Jason Probst, who was a Minecraft YouTuber and had a channel called “TrueMU,”
which stands for Minecraft Universe. He was also a part of the Minecraft Team called
Crafted. But Jason was no small time YouTuber, he had
already accumulated over 1 million subscribers. So Jason and his fellow Minecraft crew members
had some money to spend on a nice place in San Fernando Valley. Jason was planning on renting a place with
some of the other members, and knew how badly Post wanted to make it in the music industry,
so he let him tag along. And if you’re thinking, there’s no way
gamers had that much money. Post mentions in a later interview that Jason
had a private jet when he was only 17: When they got out there, the group would make
content online. In some of the videos, Post would cover songs
for their audience: He was also in some of their skits: He even performed on stage with them, like
this epic Coldplay cover about Minecraft: And at some point, he created this video that
is now kind of legendary: Plus, Post was just joking around when he
made that video. But Post wasn’t making any money while he
was crashing with his pal. And nothing really happened for Post in his
first year out there. Post’s guitar was even stolen one day: Post was anxious to start recording his real
tracks and wanted to make a new kind of music that he was actually proud of. He was working with a group of friends who
knew someone at a studio, so finally he got some studio time. And that is where he was first introduced
to 1st from FKi. 1st heard Austin’s voice and knew that Post had a lot of talent. The two ended up becoming good friends making
a lot of music together. But Post needed a direction for his music
and an image. He got his hair braided, got some gold grills
and some ice after being inspired by AI. Post wanted to model his look after one of
his heroes, NBA superstar Allen Iverson. In terms of his name, at first he said he
just came up with it because it sounded cool but he later admitted that the name actually
came from a random name generator. I decided to use the same generator myself
and got Ol McCrudden, Michaeladonna & Dirtyface Michael. It could have been a worry that nobody would
take him seriously as a white boy with corn rows and gold teeth. But the music spoke for itself. Post Malone now with a new name, wrote the
song “White Iverson” and FKi made the beat at 7am and recorded it with Post. White Iverson was the first song Post Malone
ever released to the world under his new name. It was uploaded onto his soundcloud account
in February of 2015. And to say the song blew up would be downplaying
it. The song got an initial boost from 1st posting
it on his soundcloud, but people really caught on and loved the song. White Iverson had 7k streams over night, but
before long, the song had hundreds of thousands of plays and then soon, it had millions. Complex and Pigeons and Planes posted his
work early on and directed a lot of traffic to his page. And then Post had celebrities like Wiz Khalifa
and Mac Miller telling him how much they loved his music. He woke up to all of this one morning. Post went to SXSW and made a name for himself
within the industry. But the next step was to shoot a music video
for his hit. He wanted to shoot a video for “White Iverson”
but only had 5 thousand dollars left in his bank account. So he borrowed some money… and a Rolls Royce
from a friend to shoot the video in the desert. The song, the timing, his look and his talent
all clicked perfectly and today the video now has close to a billion views on YouTube. Safe to say he made his $5K back. He ended up performing at Kylie Jenner’s
birthday party later that year, and James Harden knew all of the words to the song. He also met Kanye west at that same party,
which lead to him being on Kanye’s “Life Of Pablo” album. Post Signed with Republic Records and toured
the world with Justin Bieber, even stirring up some controversy when they got into a little
scuffle on the road: But the two later clarified that they were
just joking around! Post has of course had to deal with some controversy
regarding cultural appropriation. But Post seems to want to just keep to himself
and make the music he likes to make. Since his initial hit, Post Malone has gone
on to become one of the biggest stars in music. His stats speak for themselves with 7 top
10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and 3 number one singles on the chart with Sunflower,
Psycho and Rockstar. The latter became his most successful single
yet going 8 times platinum. And with his new album I’m sure only more
hits will come. His tattoos have also increased a lot since
his success, tatting “Always Tired” below his eyes. As for Posty’s love life, he seems to be
in a happy relationship, but recently asked fans not to post about who she is and to respect
their relationship! What a guy, he found fame and fortune and
kept the same girl by his side on the come up. I'm not sure if their still together but he
has made some close ties and lasting relationships with a few other influencers including H3H3
and Nelk. Who knows, maybe one day I'll get to kick
it with Post. We have the same jeweler for our Grillz after
all. Toronto Grillz. Aright, I'm getting off topic so we are gonna
wrap this one up! But as for the rest of the story, well, we’ll
have to wait and see because this is Before They Were Famous.
