Everybody wants to see a rockstar — at least, one billion people and counting do. Post Malone and 21 Savage‘s 2017 music video for their hit single “Rockstar” has surpassed a billion views on YouTube, becoming the former’s third and the latter’s first to reach the milestone.
Shot through a slightly blurry camera lens, the Emil Nava-directed visual features Posty and 21 Savage rapping about the rockstar life’s abundance of girls and drugs, while battling a harrowing set of enemies using samurai martial arts. The two rappers eventually come out on top and triumph over their opponents, with the video’s closing shots showing them staring into the camera with their faces and white clothing covered in thick blood.
Of the four Post Malone tracks to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Rockstar” has had the best run thus far. The lead single off the rapper’s 2018 sophomore album Beerbongs & Bentleys, it stayed atop the chart for eight weeks and maintained a spot on there for 41 weeks total.
Prior to the release of Beerbongs & Bentleys, Post — whose music videos for “Sunflower” and “Congratulations” previously joined the billion views club — spoke to Billboard about how “Rockstar” came together in the studio. “We were at Quad Studios,” he began. “Some kid came in, and I guess he was in the session next door and he was like, ‘Hey? Can I play you some beats?’ I’m like, ‘I guess so.’”
“You know, I’m a nice guy, I like music,” he continued. “I’ll listen to your beats. He played the beat and it was incredible. We were just vibing on it and the melody was sick. I finished my part and sent it off to [21] Savage … I feel like he has a lot of attitude. You know, he’s really got his own lane and he really doesn’t care about anything, so I figured that embodied it perfectly. He snapped on the record, and I don’t think it could have came out any better.”
Join one billion others in watching Post Malone and 21 Savage’s “Rockstar” music video below:
