On “rockstar,” Post Malone compares his habits to the “live fast, die young” rock and roll lifestyle. Along the way, he references real events in rock history, name-drops Bon Scott and Jim Morrison, and highlights rockstar traditions like throwing TVs out of hotel windows.

Post previewed the song in December 2016, nine months before he released it, by posting a video of himself jamming to it in the studio. The preview received thousands of retweets on Twitter over the course of the year, so the track was highly anticipated by the time it finally dropped.

In late December of 2017, it was also revealed that Joey Bada$$ had co-written the track as well as penning an extra verse after Music Mafia leaked the original version of the song. This version also contained a verse from T-Pain, which he confirmed, in place of the 21 Savage’s contributions that ultimately appeared on the final version of the song.

On January 9, 2018, “rockstar” broke the record for holding the number one spot on Spotify’s Global chart with 108 days spent on the top of the list. The previous record holder was Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You.”