The world’s biggest recording artist in the first half of 2018 was Post Malone.
We know this because the Texan singer/rapper – real name Austin Post – was Universal Music Group’s biggest act in the six month period; and Universal, in turn, was the globe’s biggest recorded music company.
Malone’s second album, beerbongs & bentleys, became a phenomenon after being released in April, smashing worldwide (and US) Spotify records for day-one and week-one streams.
Since then, history has continued to be re-written: Malone’s debut album, Stoney, recently surpassed its 77th week in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, beating Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the longest all-time run.
As you’d expect, this level of fame wasn’t always writ large in Malone’s future.
Four years ago, he was sharing a house in Encino, L.A crammed with professional video game streamers and other wannabe entertainers.
And it was here that Dre London walked into his life.
London’s own journey to this point had been a bumpy ride: the south London-born exec landed in New York on a plane from Heathrow in 2008 with dreams of making it big – but he had to wait his turn.
The entrepreneur started making his name by representing the likes of French Montana and British rapper Cerose in NYC, but nothing quite clicked like he envisaged.
London eventually wound up in L.A, where he met Post Malone at a “mansion” – where the rent was largely being covered by a semi-professional YouTube commentator of build-’em-up video game Minecraft.
London knew that he’d bumped into stardom, and he wasn’t going to let go. The Brit professionally pursed Malone and, within a few months, the feeling became mutual.
“I think he saw that I had the hustle, as well as the passion and belief in him – what it would take to make it,” says London. “Because that’s really what it takes to get to the top of the game today – it takes a magnetic, non-stop energy.”
