If you’re at all familiar with the PC Gaming world or the hip-hop industry, Post Malone is most likely a name you’ve heard once or twice before. Just in case you haven’t, I’ll quickly fill you in on who he is before we get into the meat of this Post (pun intended). Post Malone is a rapper from Texas. However, when asked about how it feels to be a young rapper with success, he frequently tells interviewers that he would rather not subscribe to any particular genre as an artist, although it’s clear that he leans toward hip-hop in delivery. However, in his debut album, Stoney (Released Dec. 9, 2016) he has at least one completely acoustic track (“Feeling Whitney”) that sounds more like something you would find on an indie musician’s first album than a rapper’s. With smash hits “White Iverson” and “Congratulations” Stoney was an overnight success and has since risen to Double Platinum status, meaning it’s sold more than 2 million copies. But what does any of this have to do with PC Gaming? I’m glad you asked.
As a newly successful rapper, Post obviously spends a lot of time on the road promoting his album and touring with giants of the music industry like Justin Bieber, but what do rappers do in their downtime? Apparently, at least in Post Malone’s case, they spend their downtime gaming. That’s right. When he’s not flying privately to a gig or doing meet and greets with swarms of adoring fans across the country, Post likes to kick back and relax with a little PC Gaming (and a Bud Light or two, or three, or seven). He may be the first rapper to come out as a frequent gamer, but he’s far from the first celebrity to announce his interest in the gaming world. In fact, actor Terry Cruz recently asked the online community for help with suggestions on a custom PC build that he hired JayZTwoCents, a YouTuber with a PC-related tech channel, to build. So, naturally, Post saw this and reached out to JayZTwoCents and they are now in the middle of a custom collaboration that promises to be the stuff of legends. Unfortunately, the official design is yet to be revealed. Here’s what we DO know.
First off, the build is supposed to be inspired by Post’s upcoming album, Beer Bongs and Bentleys. From the album art that has been released so far (and the few design consults they’ve filmed and posted), we can expect a few things from this build. One of those things is a Spectre case by Singularity with a tempered glass face that doubles as an integrated water cooling block. Absolutely beautiful, and that’s good because it costs almost $1000 alone. Another thing we can expect is the color yellow to be prominently featured throughout. The album art is primarily yellow, with barbed wire and a black snake, so we can probably expect those elements to somehow be integrated into the design as well. As if this doesn’t already sound like the makings of an amazing piece of gaming machinery to you, listen to this. As an homage to the title of the album the build is designed after, (Beer Bongs and Bentleys) the color of the coolant will be designed specifically to match that of Post’s favorite beverage (and sponsor) Bud Light. To top it all off, one side of it will have a custom Bentley grill attached to it. Not to mention what’s inside. Talk about luxury. Especially for someone admittedly new to the world of PC Gaming.
You read that right. He’s got a roughly $7,000 build going on and he’s still new. Ah, the life of excess sure does sound sweet right about now. It’s no surprise that he’s new to PC Gaming, though (he was a fan of consoles for years, and said switching to a mouse was hard for him). In fact, it’s no surprise that he’s new to the rap game either. He’s young. At only 22 years old, he’s barely out of school, let alone established in any kind of long-term career path (although his future looks pretty promising at this point). Another no-brainer is that an up and coming young rapper likes to game in his free time. It makes perfect sense. Although it may not seem like it at first glance, hip-hop and Gaming have a lot of parallels. They’re both relatively new. They have both had meteoric rises to mainstream popularity (not unlike Post Malone himself). Also, they are both primarily enjoyed by young people. Post said he switched to PC from consoles when he saw his friends playing PUBG. Since his switch, he has also started to dabble with streaming his gameplay on Twitch. Starting with Call of Duty and moving onto Skyrim, Fallout, etc.
His Twitch stats are impressive for a relatively new user with a limited amount of streams under his belt. At 331,000 followers and more than double that in views alone, he’s well on his way to building a strong presence on the popular streaming platform. While it’s not much compared to his over 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, like I said, he’s new. Crossover fans of both PC Gaming and hip-hop music may be lucky enough to find themselves randomly gaming alongside one of their favorite musical artists. That alone is a unique way to build a fan base in a way no other rapper is currently taking advantage of. If you ask me, it sounds like a smart idea (as well as a fun one). Even though Post Malone is fairly new to both PC Gaming and rapping, if his newest hit single “Rockstar” debuting on the Billboard Top 100 list is any indication of the future for him, I think it’s safe to say that he’ll be around for a long time to come.
Between touring with Bieber, writing new albums and singles, recording, producing and featuring on other artist’s tracks, it’s hard to believe that somebody Like Post has any free time to speak of at all. What’s cool is learning that the guy in the videos, riding on top of the all-white Rolls Royce with gold on his teeth and pretending stacks of cash are cell phones (why do rappers always do that?) is a normal person too. Sometimes, at the end of a hard day’s work, the only way to unwind is to turn on that monitor and inject yourself into another world for a while. Although it would be hard for me to imagine a scenario in which the lavish lifestyle of a rich young rapper would in any way become mundane. However, that’s coming from the perspective of a person who can barely make bus fare at 26, let alone sit behind the wheel of a hand-made, $450,000 Rolls at the tender age of 22. The grass is always greener, isn’t it?
By Bill L. Wallis