Post Malone shared snippets of some new collaborations with Doja Cat, Roddy Ricch, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and The Kid Laroi during an Instagram Live last night (April 23).
The rapper – whose real name is Austin Post – is expected to return soon with his fourth album, ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’, and gave fans previews of some of its collabs and other tracks.
Post started a livestream around 3am PT (11am BST) last night and played a handful of songs throughout it. “I would love to play this entire record and I just want to say hey to everybody that’s hanging out,” he told fans who tuned in. “Honestly, I’ve been working so fucking hard and I would love to play y’all a couple more records if y’all got time. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff going on.”
Speaking about the song ‘A Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol’, which features Pecknold, the star said it detailed his “struggle with alcohol”. “I just hope it touches somebody out here,” he said, before adding of Pecknold: “He’s the most beautiful fucking vocalist, the most epic fucking guy. Fleet Foxes is one of my favourite bands.”
@PostMalone teasing his song “a love hate letter to alcohol” ft. Robin Pecknold off of his upcoming album. i’ve struggled with addiction before & im so scared imma end up drinking next. i respect him sm for acknowledging it’s a internal fight not just a “cool” party lifestyle ✊ pic.twitter.com/oMULwWRkk1
— juliet ceballos (@supitsjuliet) April 23, 2022
The Kid Laroi appears on a track called ‘Wasting Angels’, which Post described as being about “a celebration of life and a human spirit to be able to fight no matter what and just go with the punches and just say, at the end of the day, life is fucking crazy and it’s a beautiful, beautiful gift that we’ve all been given”. “This is like another game I can’t explain / This is like a summer flame that got away,” he sings at one point on the track.
Wasting Angels by Post Malone Feat. The Kid LAROI pic.twitter.com/YEgfhj2hxO
— Laroi Talks (@LaroiTalks) April 23, 2022
The musician confirmed that ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’ will feature 14 songs and thanked his fans for their continued support, despite the delay with the album. “It took a minute especially to get my mind correct and my mind wasn’t correct,” he explained.
“I know there’s thousands, millions of people dealing with their own everything. I just wanna say it’s OK to reach out to people and it’s OK to take that time for yourself. It’s more than OK and if you need that time for yourself, that is the most beautiful thing. I know it’s hard and I just wanna send so much fucking love to each and every one of y’all. I know I’m rambling. It’s OK because there is someone who loves you more than fucking life itself and that’s something I had to take a second to learn.”
🚨 | “HAPPY” POST MALONE FEATURING DOJA CAT !!!!!! pic.twitter.com/9UtIOw1lBV
— Post Malone News (@NewsPosty) April 23, 2022
He then introduced a song featuring Doja Cat called ‘Happy’. “I’m so blessed and honoured to have worked with her,” he added. During the stream, he also previewed a track with Roddy Ricch called ‘Cooped Up’.
post malone and roddy ricch comin with a heater 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/ghaAmUjlU0
— ladidai 🇳🇬🗽🌴 (😈,😇) (@ladidaix) April 24, 2022
The final song Post previewed was called ‘Wrapped Under Your Finger’ and did not appear to feature a collaborator. “I’m getting in trouble right now,” he said after stopping the clip, closing out the livestream with a message to his fans.
“I just wanna let y’all know that I’m so honoured and so blessed to be able to make music and for a second I lost my passion to make music,” he said. “You have a passion and then it becomes your job and then all of a sudden it becomes very different. Just to everyone, so much love and I’m so grateful and I’m so happy. For once in my life and a long time, I’m a happy man. And I just wanna say thank you so much for the patience, for everything.
“There’s so much going on and I just want to say spread love to everybody that you know, spread love to everybody that you meet. Take that extra time out of your day because it makes a difference to someone else. You’re not alone. No matter what you’re going through, you’re not alone and there’s people there. Reach out if you need help. Take care of yourself. I love you. I don’t know who’s watching but I know that I love you more than I could ever explain and that’s important to spread onto the next person.”
He added: “My name is Austin Richard Post and I can’t wait for this record – honestly, honestly. Maybe I’ll ramble a little bit more. Honestly I’m so excited for you to hear this record and I think that it’s so cool to be – and I can only speak on behalf of having created it – but I think it’s so cool and it’s so interesting to listen to it the whole way through. I don’t know dates, I don’t know anything, I just do what they tell me to do. I just want to make music and I just want to spread love. I’m so honoured.”
In an Instagram post shared earlier this month, Post’s manager suggested the new record would be arriving imminently. “@postmalone album coming next month!” Dre London wrote in an Instagram caption. “What u want in life results or excuses!!”
The post followed London claiming earlier this year that Republic Records and Universal Music Group weren’t “ready” to release the album. “Posty fans no more need to press me anymore we did our part!!” he told fans on Instagram. “Now it’s time for the label to get the business right before we drop BIG Album!”
In an interview at the start of 2022, Post gave an insight into ‘Twelve Carat Toothache’. “I’ve made a lot of compromises, especially musically, but now I don’t feel like I want to anymore,” he told Billboard. “I don’t need a Number One; that doesn’t matter to me no more, and at a point, it did.”
He also described the record as “super raw”, said it has “a life of its own – it has feelings and emotions” and “serves its purpose as an expression of who I am”. Although the record will have fewer songs than might be expected, the ones on the tracklist will “speak more to life [and] how I’m feeling at the moment: the ups and downs and the disarray and the bipolar aspect of being an artist in the mainstream”.