Post Malone’s ‘F-1 Trillion’ Is Too Big to Fail
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“Rap is like country music,” said the always visionary Ice-T way back in 1993. “They both sing to their own neighborhood, they wear jeans and hats to the Grammys, they sing in their own language, to their own people, and they sell millions of records and everybody wonders who bought ’em.”
More than three decades later, Ice’s words ring out louder than ever, with one big difference. The outsiders are now insiders; once considered fringe subcultures, these working-class, story-driven genres now run the show. Just look at this week’s Billboard charts, where even during peak Brat Summer, seven of the top 20 songs feature country singers, three are hip-hop tracks, and Shaboozey—with roots in both—sits in the number-one slot.
So it’s no longer much of a shock to hear that Post Malone’s new album, F-1 Trillion, is a full-on country project. Though he’s one of the biggest rappers in the world by any measure, Postie has always been enthusiastically genre-fluid—sampling Fleetwood Mac, shouting out AC/DC and Jim Morrison, taking a more overtly pop lane on mega-smashes like “Circles” and “Sunflower.” But it’s still impressive how committed he is to this detour into Nashville, and how consistently effective the music turns out to be.
Though it follows the disappointing sales of last year’s Austin album, his version of “going country” isn’t the simple trend-chasing cash-in we’ve seen from Steven Tyler or Jon Bon Jovi. The Dallas native has been teasing this move since 2015, with the oft-quoted all-caps tweet “WHEN I TURN 30 IM BECOMING A COUNTRY/FOLK SINGER.” Since then, he’s sung with Dwight Yoakam, Blake Shelton, and Keith Urban; brought Luke Bryan and Wynonna onstage with him; hung out with Kane Brown and Carrie Underwood; and performed a Joe Diffie medley at last year’s CMA Awards. Prior to the new album’s release, he headlined the Stagecoach Festival and, last week, made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry.
F-1 Trillion was announced as a collection of all-star collaborations, teased with several singles including “I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen, which spent five weeks at number one on the pop charts. In the end, 15 of the 18 tracks feature guest vocalists from country music’s elite. (In the latest example of an annoying trend, a few hours after the album came out, the “Long Bed” version was released, with an additional nine songs, all of them from a solo Malone.) The duets are expertly curated, representing six decades of Nashville royalty—legends (Dolly Parton, Hank Williams Jr.), foundational nineties icons (Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley), current pace-setters (Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs), rising superstars (Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson), and young, left-of-center critics’ favorites (Billy Strings, Sierra Farrell).
The fact that Post Malone can navigate this range of voices and styles without seeming like a guest on his own album is a real accomplishment. His team made the wise choice to stick with his usual producers, Louis Bell and Charlie Handsome, while recruiting some of Nashville’s A-list songwriters (Ashley Gorley, James McNair, Josh Thompson); ERNEST has writing credits on ten songs, including his own duet “Devil I’ve Been,” and Combs co-wrote five and sings on two. At their strongest, the results are the best of both worlds, with a sleek pop sound and rock-solid, concise song construction and clever turns of phrase.
In truth, many of these songs are more likable than they are memorable, built around familiar country themes—whiskey, heartbreak, trucks, more whiskey, and of course country music. The more interesting tracks, like “Nosedive” with Wilson and “California Sober” with Stapleton, play around with less conventional structures. Hopefully, the contributions from bluegrass phenom Strings and stunning alt-country vocalist Farrell will help expose their talents to a bigger audience.
The tracks that come up short, like “Hide My Gun” with HARDY, aren’t actual duds, just a bit paint-by-numbers predictable. The (main album) closer “Yours,” one of the cuts without a guest, ends things on a slightly creepy note; a musing on his young daughter’s future wedding day, it’s meant to tug at the heartstrings but comes off as a father oddly and aggressively competing with his prospective son-in-law. No surprise, though, that Saint Dolly Parton knocks it out the box with a hilariously saucy verse on “Have the Heart.”
Though the “surprise drop” gimmick is silly, the nine songs on “Disc 2” of F-1 Trillion are genuinely distinct from the rest and in some ways more interesting than the too-big-to-fail lineup they follow. They lean hard into more personal themes and more old-school sounds—the honky-tonk piano and Western Swing-style fiddles and pedal steel recall an era much further Pre Malone.
Are these solo tracks the album Postie really wanted to make? Did assembling the ultimate Music City, U.S.A. guest list liberate him enough to experiment without pressure? Regardless, the ease with which he slips into these classic styles, the fact that his signature Auto-Tune vocals grow a bit exhausting over ninety minutes but don’t clash with the time-traveling arrangements, speaks to his sincerity and unexpected versatility.
F-1 Trillion doesn’t break much ground, but it’s not trying to—it’s a love letter to a genre and an endearing flex of star power. Post Malone defers to country-music tradition, meeting the biggest stars and songwriters on their terms and setting out to prove he belongs. You can’t help but contrast this with the year’s other “superstar goes country” album, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. Other than spoken-word blessings from Parton and Willie Nelson, she brought in no Nashville personnel, attempting to demonstrate that she has a claim to the country community—indeed, a place in the chain of American music—through her own experience. Where Post’s is an inherently conservative project, his fellow Texan Beyoncé’s intention is something more ambitious.
Not that either approach is right or wrong. Remember, Post Malone appears on Cowboy Carter, in a duet on “Levii’s Jeans.” Alongside his hits this year with Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, he’s worked with the three biggest figures in 2024 pop of whatever genre. Obviously, people just like the guy—which should help F-1 Trillion meet its very clear goals as a commercial juggernaut. Country radio, CMA and ACM awards, stand back and stand by.
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