Post Malone's very first mixtape, August 26, just showed up on Spotify and Apple Music for the first time ever. It landed on August 26, 2026, exactly ten years to the day after he first put it out for free back in 2016. This isn't new music. It's an old tape from before Post Malone was a household name, finally catching up to how everyone actually listens to music now. Here's what the mixtape is, the songs worth hearing, and why it's a bigger deal than it sounds.

What Is "August 26"?

August 26 first came out on May 12, 2016, through Republic Records, right after Post Malone got signed. Back then, it only lived on mixtape sites like DatPiff and scattered YouTube and SoundCloud uploads, it was never officially available on Spotify or Apple Music until now. The tape has 10 songs and runs about 37 minutes. Its name comes from the date Post Malone originally planned to drop his debut album, Stoney, though that album ended up coming out later, in December 2016.

Sound-wise, this is early Post Malone: hazy, moody beats, half-sung and half-rapped vocals, long before he became known for pop hooks or, more recently, country songs. It features 2 Chainz, Lil Yachty, Jaden Smith, Jeremih, Larry June, and a few other names from that era.

Top 5 Songs from the Mixtape

  1. "Money Made Me Do It" (feat. 2 Chainz) — the actual #1 by streams, with over 222 million plays on Spotify. It got a head start on the rest of the tape because it was also added to the deluxe edition of Stoney, so it's had almost a decade to rack up streams while the rest of the mixtape sat off streaming entirely.
  2. "Never Understand" (feat. Larry June) — the opening track, and one of the most frequently cited fan favorites from the tape.
  3. "Git Wit U" — a woozy, low-key standout that shows up on almost every "best of the mixtape" list.
  4. "Hollywood Dreams / Comedown" — built around a sample of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," and often singled out as proof Post Malone could blend genres even this early on.
  5. "Lonely" (feat. Jaden Smith & Teo) — a moodier, more downbeat cut that's held up as one of the tape's strongest features alongside "Money Made Me Do It."

Listen to the #1 Song

There's no official music video for "Money Made Me Do It," just the official audio, which is exactly where most of those 222 million streams have come from.

The official audio for "Money Made Me Do It," the most-streamed song from Post Malone's "August 26" mixtape.

Post Malone's Genre Journey

Listening to "August 26" today is like hearing the rough draft of an artist who'd go on to try almost every genre in mainstream music. This tape is cloud rap: murky, downbeat, built for late nights. A few months later, Stoney turned him into a pop-rap-rock crossover star. By 2022's Twelve Carat Toothache, he'd leaned further into rock and pop. Then in 2024, he flipped the script entirely with F-1 Trillion, a full country album made with Nashville's biggest names. He's now teasing his next album, The Eternal Buzz, a massive 40-track double album said to mix hip-hop and country side by side. "August 26" is the starting point for all of it.

Why This Matters Now

Releases like this are becoming more common as the mixtape era of the 2010s hits its 10-year mark. A lot of hip-hop's most important early work only ever lived on sites like DatPiff, which shut down years ago, so getting projects like this onto real streaming platforms is basically an archiving effort as much as a release. For anyone who only knows Post Malone from country radio or a viral TikTok clip, this is a real first listen to where he actually started, before any of the pop or country reinvention.

VibeSynced Particles That Match This Mixtape

"August 26" is all hazy, late-night trap production, so it pairs best with VibeSynced's darker, moodier particle scenes. Tap one to jump straight into the app with that particle already running.

Listen to "August 26" on VibeSynced

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