Post Malone has been tapped to cover the new spring/summer issue of GQ Style. To complement a photo spread by Jason Nocito, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter sat down for a telling interview centered around his place in hip-hop, mental health, and his infamous face tattoos.
In speaking on his body art, specifically the tattoos on his face, Post reveals they're primarily a defensive strategy.
“I'm a ugly-ass motherfucker,” he says. “It does maybe come from a place of insecurity, to where I don't like how I look, so I'm going to put something cool on there so I can look at myself and say, ‘You look cool, kid,’ and have a modicum of self-confidence, when it comes to my appearance.”
Elsewhere in the interview with GQ, Post Malone touches on the process of making music. “I wake up and I'm so sore and sluggish,” he begins. “But that's the beautiful thing about music—for me at least. Something strikes a synapse and then you want to go and sit down at the fuckin' computer and make a beat, and then you make ‘White Iverson,’ or you make fuckin' anything. And that's all it takes. I don't know. I'm not, by far, the most inspirational dude. But if I can do it, you can do it fuckin' too.”
Coming up out of high school, Post idolized the likes of Mac Miller, Travis Scott and A$AP Rocky, who were already wildly popular at the time. Malone tells GQ, “I so badly wanted to be like Mac [Miller] and Travis [Scott] and [A$AP] Rocky. Finding my own identity in the whole thing was—I don't want to say difficult, but it was a process for me.”
Still, at the young age of 24, he has already worked with a long list of high profile collaborators ranging from Kanye West to Ozzy Osbourne. He opens up about one of his collaborations in particular, "Goodbyes" with Young Thug, for the new issue of GQ Style, before transitioning into past issues with mental health.
“This song is about sad times, and crying and shit, and heartbreak and shit," he reveals. "Middle school, I would cry myself to sleep every fuckin' day. High school, the same thing. I tried to drink some beers to get rid of that shit, but it just never goes away. And I don't think that's anybody's fault; it has to do with something predisposed in you.”
For more on Post Malone and the new issue of GQ Style, follow here.
