Post
Malone – ‘beerbongs and bentleys’
3
summers ago, little-known Texas rapper Austin Post released what would become the
trap-single of the warm months with ‘White Iverson’. Post was then rapidly
thrusted into the spotlight and became an easily identifiable outlier in a
Black-dominated genre. His first album ‘Stoney’ was viewed by many prior to its
release as a way of Post attempting to challenge his critics perceptions of him
as a ‘one-hit wonder’ and, despite it’s critical panning (Pitchfork when
reviewing ‘Stoney’ stated that “Post Malone releases a 68-minute album that
shows exactly why he should have never released a 68-minute album), ‘Stoney’
was a colossal commercial success and it allowed Post to gain an enormous
following across the globe. Since the release of his first album, Post has
become a self-proclaimed ‘rockstar’ with him now being seen by man as the ‘face of rap music’. Now that his
long-awaited second release ‘beerbongs and bentleys’ has been released, it’s
time to see whether he can confirm himself as the new type of ‘rockstar’ or
whether it’s all just self-indulged tripe.
The
album opens with ‘Paranoid’ which with its snarling lyricism and ropey, even
somewhat all-guns blazing Western, vocals, the tone is firmly set for this record.
It’s going to be a depressing one. Post slurs “Sometimes feel like I got no
friends; Can't trust a soul like I'm Snowden”, sounding like it’s straight out
of Liam Fray’s awful metaphors catalogue (available now for just £9.99!) and
this again creates another common theme that overall just transcends this
sophomore record; catchy hooks, awful lyrics. Take ‘Spoil My Night’ for
instance. An alright sounding song with an infectious chorus, but when you
actually take the time to analyse it, the lyrics are the scrawling of a
pubescent sex-mad teenager; “I ain’t even see the face, but she got beautiful
boobies (Wow!)”. Inspiring stuff Mr Post, truly inspiring stuff.
It’s
rather funny that on my first listen of ‘beerbongs and bentleys’ I was
completely underwhelmed, but then by my second listen I was beginning to enjoy
it and sing along, and that’s where the key of Post’s success lies. He is
somehow able to hook you in with an infectious chorus and a simply put-together
trap beat that has 15 year old girls who think Drake invented rap on their
knees preaching to the gods, but once analysed, the cracks on Post’s record are
soon there for all to see. This is not to say that ‘b&b’ is an awful album,
because it’s not, it’s just nowhere near as ambitious as I was expecting from
an artist who has the world at his feet.
The
album’s strong points certainly lie within its production values and its hooks.
The production, done mostly by up-and-coming producer Louis Bell and Post
himself, is good; in fact, it’s really good, polished even. The beats are
decent and they certainly create a dark mood to the album with their consistent
down-beat nature that spreads itself like some sort of contagious disease over
the 18 tracks of ‘b&b’. The production also aids Post’s vocals, a variety
of textures are developed via the work of Bell and this adds another layer to
the record to produce a range of vocals that range from high-pitched auto-tune
(‘Rich and Sad’) to hard-faced, almost menacing stuff (‘rockstar’). The
choruses on this record are certainly one of the most beneficial components for
Post’s credibility. From listening to the record in full, you instantly can
remember the catchy songs due to their contagious style that draws you in
initially. And for club nights and house parties, they certainly won’t be out
of place, but for hard-core music fans, it just isn’t enough.
We
live in one of the most important musical eras of our generation, certainly for
rap music. Black Lives Matter, Trump, drugs, school shootings etc are all extremely
important topics that this genre often focuses on in order to spread the
message to as wide of an audience as possible. Artists like Kendirck Lamar, J
Cole, Childish Gambino are utilising their artistic method to help change the
world for the people associated with their genre for the better. Yet, on
‘beerbongs and bentleys’, you’d be lucky if you found even the slightest
subliminal message to any of these themes on just one of the tracks. And that’s
what annoys me most about Post Malone. He refers to himself as a ‘rockstar’,
has millions of fans around the world, is probably one of the most recognisable
faces on the planet for our generation, yet he continuously shies away from
facing these topics or even offering his opinion, and for someone with a platform
like his, it just doesn’t sit right with me. Malone could be so influential for
so many young people, but he instead decides to brag about his money, his ‘bitches’, his drinking and smoking
ability and just his general lifestyle. Not something that is particularly
helpful to the rest of us, cheers mate!
The
irony is that Post brags so much and tries so hard to present himself as some
gun-cocking drug-slinging gangster throughout this album that you begin to
question the legitimacy of the ‘emotional’
themes that are occasionally actually presented on ‘beerbongs and bentleys’.
It’s like the weirdest version of the ‘boy
who cried wolf’ ever. For instance, the track ‘Stay’ could be so beautiful,
but it ends up making me laugh somewhat because I just feel like “Naa, this
didn’t actually happen did it lol”. It’s hard to describe thinking about it, but
essentially Post has created this fake persona of a thug that he now can't shift
away from and when he attempts to, it doesn’t feel genuine.
Overall,
‘beerbongs and bentleys’ is a decent enough album for a quick listen when you
want something easy to listen to but if you’re looking for something deep and
thought-provoking, you couldn’t be further from the truth. The beats are
polished, the hooks are catchy, the guest spots are decent enough, but this
record is just far too long and far too underwhelming to gain much credibility.
In my opinion, Post Malone could be one of the most over-hyped artists of the
21st century. Yep. Harsh, I know.
Overall Rating – 6/10
Fave Tracks- Rich and Sad, Psycho, Same Bitches, Candy Paint,
Sugar Wraith
Least Fave Tracks- Spoil My Night, Zack and Codeine, Better Now
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