Everything in Post Malone’s world right now is “bussin’,” to borrow one of his favorite words of late. He is currently on tour, which is a blast, though he spent the last week healing from a gnarly fall sustained during a recent show. He and his fiancée welcomed their first child, a daughter, four months ago. “I’m so happy and I’m so ready to kick some ass,” Post tells me, speaking by phone from Detroit this week, where he’ll be performing this weekend. Tumbles aside, life is good.
He also has a new winter-wear collaboration with Moose Knuckles, the self-consciously kooky Canadian outerwear label (the brand name and logo is, indeed, a play on those moose knuckles) that’s recently partnered with cool New York brands like Telfar and Eckhaus Latta, and tapped Pete Davidson, Emily Ratajkowski, and Adowa Aboah to star together in a David LaChapelle-shot campaign. In true Posty fashion, the 10-piece, gender-neutral capsule features lots of fuzzy sherpa and freaky golden-yellow Realtree camouflage, and comes in both adult and children’s sizes—Post’s idea, and a vestige of planning the collab while expecting his daughter. They shot the campaign at his place in woodsy Utah with a modeling assist from his friend and creative director Bobby Greenleaf’s young son Jaxon. Post, who admits he only has two go-to poses—“hands in pockets” and “a peace sign”—was happy to follow Jax’s example. “We got dabs, we got everything. He’s way cooler than me,” Post says. “I’m old now, I’m just trying to keep up. I’m 27 now. I’m still doing my best.”
GQ: First off, we’ve all been thinking about you. How are you feeling today?
I’m feeling good. I think what happened [was] the first Boston show was good, but maybe I danced a little too hard and I woke up and my ribs cracked and I couldn’t breathe. I was breathing super shallow, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do the show. But then I went to the hospital and then we decided not to do the show. We took a good three days off, we started healing up. They gave me good medicine, all the lidocaine patches and everything, so I’m feeling a whole lot better. We just did two shows in a row. Now, I got two days off and I’m ready to keep kicking ass. We’re going to go back to Boston and redo the show and just keep rocking and rolling.
That’s great. And maybe, also, dancing a little more gently.
Well, I know. Everything I do, I go super hard, even my dance moves—and I’ve been working on those for a long time. It’s important that I go full force, but I kind of laid back a little bit, and now I think we’re ready to go.
I’d love to hear about your new collaboration with Moose Knuckles, and I’d love to hear about what Realtree camo means to you.
I’ve always been a camo guy. I’ve always loved a good camouflage. It’s the most flattering fabric [because] like, you can’t see my belly underneath camo. It’s beautiful. And always, as a kid, running around outside everybody loves a good camo. It’s cool to have that yellow camo on the pieces. It’s super unique. It’s super fun. It’s just a fun play on something I’ve loved forever.
You also had the idea to include children’s styles in this collection. Tell me more about that.
I thought it would be fun for parents and their kids to be able to match—and, I guess, kids be swaggy, in general. I recently had a baby girl, she’s four months old. I’m trying to get a size for her—she’s a little bit too tiny, but she’ll grow into it. I just thought it was a fun thing to do, especially with the baby on the way at the time we were working on it. Everybody should be able to be drippy and somewhat bussin’, you know what I mean?
For sure. Speaking of, how is fatherhood treating you?
It is great. It’s really tough not being able to see her, but she’s coming out more often now. She’s huge, she’s super tall, and she’s such a legend and I’m just happy to see her. But it is heartbreaking having to leave and not be able to be with her all the time.
Of course. Does she like your music? What kind of music does she dig?
I can’t tell yet. She hasn’t cried whenever I put my music on so far, which I think is a good sign, but we’ll wait and find out. I got to let her decide. I tried to play her some stuff but I can’t really tell what she’s into right now. She’s going to have to like my music, I think, [or] she’s going to get used to it—I know everybody at the house plays it for her and hopefully, they’ll get stuck in her head. Kids love my music for some reason, which is awesome, so I’m hoping that she just goes with the flow on that one.
Plus it’s her dad’s music.
Exactly. But that’ll probably make her hate it though: she’ll be like, “Dad, you suck. Just go away.” I love playing her lullabies. They make lullabies of my songs. Those are nice to listen to. Sometimes we’ll even put it on and I’ll have to guess what song it is and I just forget all the melodies. I’m like, “What song is this?”
Maybe you should try playing a Kidz Bop version.
Exactly. We got a Kidz Bop of “Congratulations,” and it’s absolutely a bop. They know what they’re doing.
It’s true. So, what’s the craziest thing about being a dad so far?
The blowouts. She will blow out sometimes and it’ll come right outside of her pants. The poop will just be dripping out and I’m like, “What the hell happened?” That’s how I know it definitely is my daughter—not that I have blowouts, but that I know my way around a toilet.
One hundred percent. [Post laughs] So, you were saying your daughter is too tiny just yet to wear the Moose Knuckles collab, but is she decked out in Realtree? What’s her swag situation?
She’s so swaggy. We got her overalls, Realtree camo everything, some nice hoodies, some zip-ups. She’s so cool. She’s way cooler than me but she definitely took a little inspiration from me.
The proximity helps, I’m sure.
Swag by proxy.
Do you spend much time in cold-weather places? Do you like winter?
I love the winter. I love the winter so much. These pictures were taken at my house in Utah. We have a little space around the back where we can run around and it’s super pretty, it’s super relaxing. I love being in the cold. I love the cold because you get to wear cool shit like the Moose Knuckles collab. And I’ve never been a guy for sweating, so I prefer the cold weather. It’s a hot take, but I like the cold weather. Hot take, cold weather. That’s nice. I didn’t even mean to do that.
You did a little phrase.
Yes, ma’am. You can have that one.
Thank you. We’ll trademark “swag by proxy” and “hot take, cold weather.” So what do you like to do in the woods in Utah in the winter?
I like riding my four-wheelers. I like going out drinking beers, staying warm. Go to the studio, make some beats, just hang out. There’s something about cold air: whenever you breathe it, it hits you a little bit different. It feels a little bit better. It’s refreshing and it makes me just want to run around.
How else have you been relaxing on tour?
I watch literally every episode of Modern Family every single day. Every day, I start on season one, episode one, and then by the time I go to bed... Because I just leave it on as background noise, as well, whenever I’m not even deliberately watching. But by the time I fall asleep, I’m done with season eight already. I’m like, “Where does the time go?” I don’t understand.
Where does the time go? That’s the eternal question.
Where did it go? [Singing] Where did it go?
This interview has been edited and condensed.
