We're going to talk about a couple of artists here, one being Mr. Post Malone and one being Mr. Jack Harlow.

We love Jack Harlow, we love Post Malone, but as you guys may be aware, within the last few years, both of them went from being what could pretty cleanly be categorized as hip-hop artists... Okay, look, maybe not all of us were categorizing them solidly as hip-hop artists, but at least some people were. The mainstream was.

Jack Harlow recently went in kind of a neo-soul direction with his new record, as he attested to in a New York Times podcast interview. He "got blacker," as he said.

"John's saying you didn't retreat into a whiter genre. In fact, you arguably went into deeper into black music."

Harlow: "I got blacker."

"Deeper into blackness"

And Post Malone, if you guys have been living under a rock for a minute now, has been going full country. He's just straight up making country records, just straight up making country music, has really committed to the country bit.

But you guys might be surprised to hear where their music is at now currently, because it kind of sounds like they're going back to what they are most comfortable with.

Okay, that's Jack Harlow's new clip.

And we have Post Malone over here, who was performing at the World Cup final with a new bit, a new track. This is where Post Malone is at right now, sonically, even with his denim jacket and his cowboy hat.

Did he just say "All my gang affiliated gonna walk to this?" [laughing]

Is he telling me the crips are going to put this song on and are going to crip walk to this? Is that literally the claim that he's making right now?

[Anthony yodels]

Yes, as a white person, I can just do that. I can just do a yodel. I can just do a descending melodic yodel. All white people come pre-installed with that. Don't check me on it. Um, wow.

Okay, that's where Post Malone and Jack Harlow are at currently. Now let's kind of analyze this in a broader sense because, obviously, there's been a lot of dialog around artists like this as of late in terms of, like, starting out in hip-hop music, making their name off of it, building their career on it, and then sort of switching up, as it were, when the time comes. And while I do think there is an element to that, there's also a little bit of nuance here as well that I think we should dive into.

Jack Harlow, while it is true he did switch up and gravitate away from hip-hop music I will say like in his defence, as cringe as his last album cycle was, and as unsuccessful as it was, he didn't completely veer away from music that has a very deep and clear root in black culture. I don't think he sort of started rebranding himself as an artist who appeals purely to a white audience in the way that some white former rappers have when going pop-punk, or going country, or whatever.

I mean, sure, he did it in the worst and most cringe way I can imagine – and also the music wasn't good. The music on his latest album cycle just was not good. Even if all of that hullabaloo around getting blacker and so on and so forth, and the hats... if Jack Harlow didn't have any crazy hats for this past album cycle, if all of that never happened, I still think the record would have fallen flat on its face, because the music just simply was not there for that sort of like neo-soul style.

Not only does it not hold up to the classics, but it doesn't even hold up to modern albums in that lane. Like there are far better records that you could be listening to that scratch a similar itch, be it the new Gena record, be it the new Jill Scott record. There's lots of options out there when it comes to modern records in that style that are far superior to the Jack Harlow, frankly.

So honestly, as you know, cynical as this turn to making straight up rap songs might be, and as much as some people might roll their eyes at it at this point, really, you do have to ask yourself, what do you expect Jack Harlow to do? Like, he essentially got the signal from his audience, from his haters, from the music industry at large, this new direction, the sound, whatever it was, we don't want it.

We don't want it. Nobody's interested in it. Nobody asked for it. Nobody was wondering what if. When it comes to Jack Harlow doing soul and R&B nobody was curious as to like, "Oh man, Jack Harlow. It seems like underneath all of that nonchalance and swagger there's, like, a hidden R&B talent in there that he's just hiding away from us. If only he would come out and introduce himself to the world."

So I mean, again, as annoying as this switch back to just making rap songs might be to some, what else was Jack Harlow going to do? If anything, this is the sensible option. Like, just start making rap songs again, because that's what you were known for. That's what you were successful for. That's what you're successful with. And no one ever said "Put on that new Harlow." Well, not with the last album anyway. There are some people who do listen to Jack Harlow unironically. You can't be too brutal about it. You can't lie to yourself that much. Don't delude yourself. There are Jack Harlow listeners out there, even if a lot of them are casual.

But, still, with that being said, there are people out there listening to Jack Harlow and, you know, if he is going to try some new stuff and experiment with a new direction, maybe it makes the most sense to kind of like work it in on a song or two here or there and see if it just kind of miraculously takes off, within the context of a larger record.

I don't fault Jack for wanting to go back to his roots as an artist, because he tried something new, he went in a different direction, and it blew up in his face. I feel like going back to what works just kind of is the move to make for somebody who's kind of in his mainstream position. He received the signal. At least he sort of took the criticism in stride and didn't get too butthurt over it. He's doing what his fans want him to do.

As far as Post Malone goes, this is a bit of a more interesting case, in my opinion. Post Malone has, obviously in his most recent cycles, gone full country, but I think he has changed so hard and so aggressively I don't think we're going to see that complete switch up, back to like a straight kind of hip-hop aesthetic or presentation. I think he's committed to the bit too hard and it would seem a little bit too obvious – a little bit too on the nose, I guess I will say – for him to go right back to, like, the "White Iverson" era. I don't think we're going to see that. This is my prediction that I'm making here.

I think with Post Malone sort of like having done so well and being invited into the country space in the way that he has been, seeing a lot of positive reception and streams. But then, what I feel like Post Malone has struggled with in recent months is, as some headlines have indicated, he hasn't been doing as well in terms of ticket sales. Like, he's still got that mainstream success and popularity and acceptance, but the ticket sales haven't quite been there in the way that they were when he was at his pop, hip-hop mainstream peak.

So I think what he is going to try to do going forward, he's going to continue sticking to this country aesthetic. You are going to continue seeing this man in a cowboy hat, in jeans, in boots, rocking it like a rhinestone cowboy. But because it's there in his roots, in his tool belt, he's going to start working more hip-hop flows and aesthetics into his pop and into his country tunes. And you're probably going to see like this really garish, annoying fusion of pop and singer-songwriter music and country and hip-hop, all kind of getting fused together into like one big abortion creative voice.

Honestly, as cynical and as weird and as annoying as that sounds in concept, if he can manage, like, a couple of crossover hits with it, that'll be enough for him. That's what he's looking for. He's looking to create a sound that is going to appeal more widely in a pop sense, like he used to have when he first broke onto the scene with tracks like "Rockstar," for example.

Well, I mean, that wasn't when he first broke onto the scene, but when he was at his peak commercially. Because as good and as well as he has been doing in the country space, and he's most definitely taken advantage of that wave of hype and mainstream acclaim that country has been having as of late, it still doesn't have the same kind of cross-cultural appeal that pop and hip-hop and trap fusions did during kind of the Beerbongs & Bentleys era.

So I think he's still kind of fishing for something that's going to keep buoying him in that major mainstream sense. So maybe not completely abandoning the country thing, and working in more pop elements and working in more rap flows. [reading from chat] "He's never going to make critically acclaimed stuff. He doesn't have it in him at this point." Yeah, I think he's purely trying to make algorithm and Spotify slop. "Is this an all time low for Post Malone?" I think he's made worse music. I think, like, his self-titled record, and that butterflies record was honestly more of a low for him. I think he was making comparatively worse stuff when compared to this.

I think the song that we just heard – again, as cynical as we are being and criticizing it because of the way it's kind of switching up stylistically – I think it's an okay song. Some of the bars are corny, obviously, but I do think it is, like, listenable. Do I be cranking that post Malone? Now I do like the Beerbongs & Bentleys era, I do. I am very pro Beerbongs & Bentleys era Post Malone. I think there's lots of bangers on that record. The Beerbongs & Bentleys era from Post is solid. There's lots of great tracks on that record. The problem is, after that record, he tried to go kind of rock, and then after that he wrote more of a pop and singer-songwriter record. And then it got more mellow and more singer-songwriter, and he just got worse and worse and worse. Then he's, like, fuck it, I'm just going to go country at this point.

But again, as much as he has saturated the country market, there's still limitations, and I feel like it's almost kind of taken him away a little bit from his older audience. And I think he's trying to find a way to sort of break his way back into that space, at least a little bit. Maybe not in an overt way, because I don't think he's going to go full "White Iverson" ever again. I think that era is over. I think that time is over. Also, I don't think it's kind of in the tea leaves where the mainstream trends are moving.

But with him going fully country there are going to be audiences that he's kind of closing himself off to, and I think we're probably going to see some more kind of pop motifs, and we're going to see some more rap flows and we're going to see him referencing his "gang affiliated" in the lyrics of his songs as a means of trying to drop these little seeds here and there. To kind of like, I'll say patronize and kind of try to signal to everyone all at once. "Oh, hey, this is this is for me? This song references me?"

So, look, as far as doing that sort of thing and still appealing to a country audience, I think Post Malone has the ability to do it again, not only because like he does some of that stuff pretty well, as evidenced by earlier releases, but a lot of these country fans have been getting sort of exposed to rap motifs and R&B motifs, the whole snap beats thing, in their mainstream country hits for a while now, hearing these elements of popular black music getting watered down and gentrified and put into these country hits. Why not have somebody who actually used to make hip-hop music do it for themselves on a new record?

Is this going to be kind of like a "smart move" from Post Malone? Will this actually lead to more hits that are as broad and as popular and are as viral as "Rockstar"? I don't know. But I think between the ticket sales and between the limitations that he's probably finding just sticking to country music now, it's clear that he's looking to broaden out and he's trying to find ways to appeal to as wide an audience as he once did.

So, we will just have to see where he goes from here. But yeah, definitely, some switch ups from the white guys who used to just be straight hip-hop on the horizon for sure.