Before his knockout performances headlining Reading and Leeds last month, Post Malone and his team held a listening party for his third project: ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’. In a velvety room usually used for burlesque – with a surplus of Bud Light and food – a handpicked crowd sat down to listen to the rapper’s most emotional album yet.
Slouching into a two-seater couch as he waited for the tracks to load on his manager Dre London’s phone, intimate tales of the stories behind the songs on the record were duly revealed.
With the record out today, here are the five most notavle moments from Post Malone’s ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’.
Hollywood’s Bleeding
The album’s opener and title track, ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’ is a folky cut that sees Posty’s vocals shine. Lyrically, it sees him ruminating on the negative side of Hollywood life. One of the messages Malone intended on getting out there was that there’s so many people that work hard to get into Hollywood, but when they get there they find they can’t fight to get to the top. Many people would die to be in Hollywood, and to be in Malone’s shoes, and he wanted to acknowledge this struggle to get to the top on the title track.
Would you die for Posty?
‘Die for Me’ is a genre-bending pop track featuring both Halsey and Future – it’s an unusual mix, but Posty makes it work. This “smash” (as Dre London called it) which combines pop, rap and a little EDM, shows Malone’s versatility. This flexibility is continuously showed across the album, which he’s referred to as “weird” over and over again. This song about wanting more out of a relationship is one many can relate to, with Malone and his collaborators questioning if anyone would die for them.
Ozzy Fucking Osbourne
To start with, the highly-anticipated ‘Take What You Want’ (featuring none other than Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott) didn’t have Travis on it. At the listening party, Malone asked his team: “Have the Travis vocals come in yet?” pricking every ear up in the process. They sure did arrive in time, and add yet another layer to this already bustling track.
Fuck the Internet…
The album’s 13th track ‘Internet’ has lots to talk about. Around the time Kanye West and Post Malone were working on ‘Fade’ back in 2016, the two made one song Posty was just dying to have. ‘Internet’ was originally a song he wanted on his sophomore album ‘Beerbongs and Bentleys’ but it didn’t end up being ready in time. Now the track, first called ‘Fuck the Internet’, finds its home on ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, arriving in the form of a piano-driven pop ballad.
No really like, Fuck it
Posty wanted to present a positive message for the youth on ‘Hollywood’s Bleeding’, hoping to encourage kids to “be whatever the fuck you want to be”, and letting them keep hold of their inherent weirdness. This mission statement comes to the fore on ‘Internet’, a song that debates the role of social media is in our lives. Undercut with a rebellious tone, the track encourages us to say “fuck it” to the pressures that an online life can present. Amen to that.