On July 15, Meta will host Post Malone‘s Twelve Carat Toothache: A VR Experience, Billboard has exclusively learned.
The 40-minute concert film, in which the superstar will perform his latest studio album Twelve Carat Toothache, will premiere in Venues within Horizon Worlds, a free online video game that fosters social virtual reality experiences, as well as Meta Quest 2. (And for fans who don’t own a VR headset, the experience will be available on Post Malone’s Facebook and Instagram).
“What really appealed to me was Meta being a great partner and allowing us to go absolutely nuts to create some of the most epic s–t ever,” Post Malone tells Billboard. “It’s just a really cool, really different way to experience the album.”
There will be some familiar aspects, though, including special guest appearances from some of the album’s biggest features, such as The Kid LAROI (“Wasting Angels”), Fleet Foxes (“Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol”) and Roddy Ricch (“Cooped Up”). Plus, as Post Malone says, “We got to light some things on fire too” — a staple of many of his performances.
Twelve Carat Toothache debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 following its June 3 release. But, as Post Malone told Billboard in his January cover story, “I’ve made a lot of compromises, especially musically, but now I don’t feel like I want to anymore. I don’t need a No. 1; that doesn’t matter to me no more, and at a point, it did.”
That line of thinking is exactly what appealed to him about partnering with Meta — nothing felt off limits. He says it was particularly wild to see how an entire conceptual world based on his music and ideas was built from the ground up in such a short amount of time. The 180-degree concert experience was directed by Lewis Smithingham and produced by Westbrook and Media Monks.
Following the July 15 premiere, the film will be available in Horizon Worlds until Sept. 30.
“Opening and listening to a new album had always been an experience for me,” says Post Malone, “and now with VR and what Meta is doing, it’s taking the meaning of an album experience to another level.”
