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Beyoncé · S9 E4
LEVII'S JEANS
Post Malone, genre-blurring, and what it means to make a pop song that refuses category
Post Malone used to be a rapper who secretly loved country music. Beyonce put him on Cowboy Carter and made it everybody's problem.
"LEVII'S JEANS" ft. Post Malone, live at the NFL Christmas Halftime Show (December 25, 2024). The collaboration that made country purists and hip-hop fans share a dance floor.
LEVII'S JEANS (2024)
"LEVII'S JEANS" shouldn't work. A Beyonce country song featuring Post Malone sounds like a boardroom pitch, not a musical decision. But neither artist adjusts for the other: Post Malone sings in the country register he's been developing for years, and Beyonce doesn't simplify. The production splits the difference between both artists' worlds. The beat has the shuffle of a country two-step but the low-end weight of a pop production.
TAP TO REVEAL: What was Post Malone doing before rap made him famous?
“I've wanted to make a country album my whole life.”
— Post Malone, various interviews, 2024
What was Post Malone's first viral hit, the song that launched his career in 2015?
II MOST WANTED (ft. Miley Cyrus)
"II MOST WANTED" pairs Beyonce with Miley Cyrus, another artist who grew up between pop and country and got criticized for every crossover. Together they sound like two women who stopped asking permission a long time ago. If "LEVII'S JEANS" is the party, this is the slow dance.
The collaborations proved Cowboy Carter could bring anyone to the table. Next: why claiming country music as a Black woman in 2024 started a culture war that Beyonce won without saying a word.
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