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Post Malone’s Headlining Set at Gov Ball: Not Much Country, But Tons of Hits


Post Malone's headlining set at New York's Gov Ball festival was filled with hits, but not much country music.

On one hand, he’s coming off the two most-difficult, least-successful albums of his career — the last of which, 2023’s Austin, failed to even generate a single top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit, marking a clear commercial low point for the pop-rap gold-spinner who was surpassed only by Drake in terms of consistent chart success for the second half of the 2010s. At some point in the middle of the set, the mix of loud, chunking guitars with rapping — largely about being angry at girls — inspired me to write in my notes: Has Post Malone been nu-metal this whole time? It was the only song performed from the 2023 album — he played four times as many from 2016 debut Stoney — but it landed just like any of his bigger, longer-established hits, sounding much fuller live than on record, and making for a perfectly resounding closing number for the evening.

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