Post Malone’s been on quite the journey since he debuted a decade ago rapping over trap beats with a voice soaked in laconic charisma and Auto-Tune (a lot of Auto-Tune). He’s duetted with Ozzy Osbourne, he livestreamed Nirvana covers for charity during lockdown. Now, on latest album F-1 Trillion, he’s gone country, explaining the preponderance among the audience of Stetsons and cowboy boots, doubtless getting their first airing since Beyoncé’s Country Carter shows here in June.
Tonight, Malone ricochets with chaotic panache between rock, trap and twang, never making a big deal out of it. To create this patchwork of supposedly divergent elements in a moment when the culture war is using such divisions to break America apart, feels almost political. His hand-picked opening act – fellow chart-topping rap-to-country convert Jelly Roll – references those divisions explicitly, offering his music as “medicine” and promising, on breakthrough hit I Am Not Okay, “it’s gonna be alright”.
