Post Malone has been on a musical journey through the majority of his career, cycling through releases that have spanned hip-hop, pop, rock and alternative over the past several years. And on his latest release, F-1 Trillion, he shifted focus again — this time to country, putting out an album full of top-shelf collaborators like Morgan Wallen, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton and Hank Williams, Jr., among many others. And the result has been one of the highlights of his career: accepted by the Nashville community, Post delivered an album that became his first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in five years, and his first-ever Country Albums No. 1, racking up 250,000 equivalent album units this week.
But it wasn’t easy — the feat was the result of years of work ingratiating himself into the sometimes insular world of Nashville, with its entrenched traditions and long-held customs. But Post was willing to put in the work, making appearances at the ACM Awards, CMA Fest, the Grand Ole Opry and the Bluebird Cafe, all staples of Music City’s circuit, while his high-profile list of writers and collaborators are testament to the embrace he was able to achieve. And with the chart-topping success of F-1 Trillion, his label Mercury Records’ executive vp Alex Coslov is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Coslov discusses the work put in by Mercury — which has a partnership with Big Loud Records for Wallen, and also has 2024 Grammy best new artist nominee Noah Kahan on the roster — on the Post album, as well as the four albums by Post, Wallen and Kahan that are in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 this week. “Mercury Records is a place where we support our artists’ vision and are passionate and committed to each and every artist we work with,” Coslov says. “We’re a close core team that understands what it takes to break an artist in today’s climate, while acknowledging our strategies need to constantly change and evolve.”
This week, Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 250,000 units, his third No. 1 and first in five years. What key decision(s) did you make to help make that happen?
First and foremost, we have a phenomenal team at Mercury Records under the leadership of president Tyler Arnold and GM Ben Adelson. A lot of credit needs to go to my partner in crime Tyler Arnold, who signed Post nearly 10 years ago. When we began talking about F-1 Trillion, he was already spearheading the music and set the goal in stone that we needed to make a statement with this album by bringing Post back to No. 1.
Alongside Post’s management team, we collaboratively formulated the F-1 Trillion plan. Our core strategy was built around showcasing the authenticity of Post’s entry into country music by highlighting his time in Nashville while writing and recording this album with an incredible list of collaborators both old and new. We built out a world of Post Malone’s Nashville that centered around the music through key moments curated to engage his current fan base while respectfully winning over new country music fans. Post’s performance of “America The Beautiful” at the Super Bowl was a great start, but then activations such as the writers’ round at the historic Bluebird Cafe, his Grand Ole Opry debut, the ACM Awards performance, the CMA Fest moments, the superfan underplay, etc., helped drive it all home. All of these moments were captured by our partners at Trenches, which we then used for strategic content and social moments.
Republic Corps was also instrumental, with executives like Jim Roppo, Gary Spangler and our CRO, Kevin Lipson, working alongside us. Kevin’s commerce team is the best in the business and absolutely integral to achieving the 250,000 number with their innovative strategies, physical music expertise, incredible partner relationships and relentless ideating on how to achieve our goals.
Post dropped a second, deluxe part to the album with nine additional songs, all solo, hours after the main album. What’s the strategy behind doing that? Is there a tradeoff at all with putting out so much material at once?
Post was having so much fun writing and recording this album with his core collaborators — the geniuses Louis Bell and Charlie Handsome — that he wanted to work right up until he had to stop for us to deliver the album. The collaborations were great, but the solo songs were frankly fantastic. Knowing that we had these in our back pocket, we wanted to give fans a surprise and time to fully enjoy both. It also showed that Post could carry any country song by himself.
Most notably, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Hot Country Albums chart, fittingly his first entry there for his first country album. What was most important about this pivot to country that you guys had to get right?
Our main priority for this project has always been, how do we be as respectful to country culture and Nashville as possible? From the first meeting with Post’s management team, we agreed how important it was to all of us, Post included, that he ingratiate himself as much as possible into the Nashville community. Post is a prolific songwriter and country music historian, so Nashville embracing him meant a lot to him. In many ways, Nashville has become a new home for Post, so these moments are certainly not over just because the album is out.
Post’s recent albums spanned hip-hop, rock, alternative and pop. What’s different about the country genre, and how did you guys have to move differently for this release? And what have you learned from your partnership with Big Loud that may have helped?
Seth England and Big Loud have been incredible partners and advisors to us throughout this process as well. It goes without saying that their executive vp of promotions, Stacy Blythe, and her team have absolutely smashed it with historic stats at country radio with “I Had Some Help” and “Pour Me A Drink” (currently Top 10) and “Guy For That” climbing the Country Airplay chart currently.
Between this Post Malone album and albums by Morgan Wallen and Noah Kahan, Mercury artists have four of the top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 this week. How have you guys been able to achieve that in such a relatively small amount of time?
Mercury Records is a place where we support our artists’ vision and are passionate and committed to each and every artist we work with. We’re a close core team that understands what it takes to break an artist in today’s climate, while acknowledging our strategies need to constantly change and evolve. We’re invested in building long term trust and relationships with our artists for the duration of their career.
The Wallen and Kahan albums in particular have stuck around the top echelon of the charts for an extended period now, something that is happening more and more lately. Why do you think big albums have such staying power these days, and how do you keep fueling their continued success?
Morgan builds unparalleled bodies of work that combine his powerful voice, his unique sense of melody with some of the best written songs of the modern era and the brilliant production of Big Loud partner/producer Joey Moi. The seemingly endless stream of singles from both Dangerous: The Double Album and One Thing At A Time are proof of Morgan’s musical prowess — he hears things no one else does. Major credit of course to our partners on Morgan, Seth England and his team at Big Loud, who lead on his campaigns and have been instrumental in the historic success of the last five years.
With Noah, he has truly built a world around his Stick Season album and fans relate and feel seen by his lyrics. The personal connection fans feel to him is beyond special and like nothing I’ve ever seen. The Stick Season (Forever) collaborations only added to the fan excitement by highlighting Noah as an artist’s artist. The outpouring of support from his peers led to even more discovery, engagement and critical acclaim.