Blackbear (musician)

In high school, Musto was the singer of Florida-based pop punk band Polaroid. They released one album, Paint The Town; one EP, Inside And Out; and one demo, The Cure Demo. During Musto's freshman year of high school, the band signed to Leakmob Records.[7] Musto dropped out of school in the 9th grade to focus on music.[2] As Polaroid progressed, their music became increasingly influenced by emo. By 2008, Musto had also begun to write his own solo music.[7]

After leaving Polaroid, Musto began a solo career when he moved to Atlanta to work with Ne-Yo.[8] He put out his first EP entitled Brightness in 2008, followed by Contrast in 2009, and Exposure in 2010. He put out a Christmas song with Tyler Carter, then-member of the band Woe, Is Me in 2010, shortly followed by a new single, 'Douche Bag'. In July 2011, Musto released his Year of the Blackbear EP. In fall 2011, he decided to take his nickname of Blackbear and use it as his pseudonym for making music. The first song to be released with the Blackbear moniker was Mike Posner's song, 'Marauder Music' in November 2011.[9]

Musto co-wrote Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend",[10] a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 2012. Intent on pursuing a career as an R&B singer, Musto released his debut EP Foreplay on April 20, 2012, and his debut mixtape Sex on October 31, 2012. Both releases were under the name Blackbear, and Sex featured collaborations from fellow "Boyfriend" co-writer Mike Posner, along with producers, singers, and songwriters James Blake and Maejor Ali.[11] He also appeared on MGK's End of the Road from the Lace Up album. Blackbear released an EP, The Afterglow, on April 20, 2014.[12] This landed him as number four on Billboard's Uncharted listing of releases from upcoming artists.[5]

In 2014, Blackbear became one of the first independent artists to monetize streaming on SoundCloud.[13]

Blackbear released his first full-length album, Deadroses, a self-released set of 10 tracks, on February 14, 2015. The album received favorable reviews, one of which stating that the album had "pleasantly mixed together a plethora of genres, sounds, and emotions to create a completely cohesive and unique project."[14] The lead single, "Idfc", charted on Billboard's R&B Hot 100 and held a spot on the Billboard R&B charts for over a year. The track has earned millions of streams on both SoundCloud and Spotify. It has been streamed over 22.5 million times on SoundCloud and Idfc (Tarro Remix) has over 192 million views as of June 2019. "Idfc" shot Blackbear to the top 20 of the Billboard charts.[15] The second single, "90210", features G-Eazy and gained over 11 million streams on SoundCloud and over 9 million streams on Spotify.[16][17]

In May 2015, his track "NYLA" was featured in the documentary Hot Girls Wanted on Netflix.[18]

Deadroses was followed by the EP Dead, which featured acoustic versions of four Deadroses tracks, as well as one new track, "Weak When Ur Around".[19][20]

He released his second full-length album, Help, on November 27, 2015.[21]

On April 20, 2016, Blackbear released his fourth EP, Drink Bleach, which featured appearances from "Boyfriend" collaborator Mike Posner as well as American hip-hop recording artist and The HBK Gang co-founder P-Lo.[22]

Throughout the year, Blackbear collaborated with other artists such as American rock band Linkin Park as well as Jacob Sartorius and Phoebe Ryan. He also toured with Hoodie Allen, whose 2016 track and Happy Camper promotional single "Champagne and Pools" also featured Blackbear. Mid-year, he joined Super Duper Kyle and Tinashe on their tours.

On August 2, 2016, Blackbear released his fifth EP, titled Cashmere Noose, through SoundCloud.[23] He handled the EP's production entirely on his own through his production collective Bear Trap Records. The EP originally included a feature from American rapper Mod Sun on the track "Spent All My Money On Rick Owens Cargo Pants"; however, this track was removed from the EP's final cut and replaced with "Wanderlust" and "Flirt Right Back".[24] The original version of Cashmere Noose, however, can still be found on Blackbear's SoundCloud page.[25] The final version of Cashmere Noose peaked at number one on the iTunes R&B charts and number six overall on iTunes, just behind Beyonce's Lemonade and Drake's Views.[26]

Blackbear was also featured in Olivia O'Brien's single "Root Beer Float", released September 15, 2016.[27] He also released the track "If I Could I Would Feel Nothing," a freestyle originally posted on his Twitter that eventually became a promotional single for his upcoming third studio album.[28]

In late 2016, Blackbear formed the alternative hip hop and R&B duo Mansionz with frequent collaborator and singer-songwriter Mike Posner. Mansionz have been active since 2016 and are based out of Los Angeles, California. The duo released their debut single, "STFU", on December 9, 2016. The song features rapper Spark Master Tape. Mansionz released two more singles in early 2017, "Rich White Girls" and "Dennis Rodman", the latter of which features the basketball player Dennis Rodman. Both of these singles, along with "STFU", were featured on Mansionz' self-titled debut album which was released on March 24, 2017, and features guest appearances from G-Eazy, Soren Bryce, CyHi the Prynce, and Snoozegod.[29]

On January 29, 2017, he posted the track "Make Daddy Proud", which was a remix of Jeremy Zucker's "Heavy", on his SoundCloud page. The track was later confirmed to be the next promotional single for his third studio album Digital Druglord. On March 17, 2017, Blackbear released the lead single for the album, titled "Do Re Mi".[30]

On April 2, 2017, shortly before the release of Digital Druglord, Blackbear released a short acoustic EP titled Salt on his SoundCloud. Digital Druglord was released on April 20, 2017, featuring the single "Do Re Mi" along with promotional singles "If I Could I Would Feel Nothing" and "Make Daddy Proud".[31] In an interview with Vice's music channel Noisey, he revealed that he wrote Digital Druglord while in the hospital based on his experiences with alcohol and drugs. He states that the cover art for the album, a woman with pill bottles attached to her chest, is not to glorify the use of pharmaceuticals, but because he now has to take prescription drugs to stay alive due to his illness.[32]

On June 22, 2017, he signed a 10 million dollar distribution deal with Interscope that gave the label the rights to Digital Druglord and the following studio album and their respective singles.[2]

On August 18, 2017, Blackbear announced his next project, a mixtape named Cybersex. The name Cybersex comes from Blackbear's infatuation with the internet. In an interview with Pigeons & Planes, he talks about how the internet is why he is here and how cybersex was the first form of sexting. He states how he finds the internet interesting and how you can now fall asleep with your loved one in another country, due to technology.[8] He released a song on SoundCloud in September 2017 titled "froze over". The track was written and produced by Good Intent and Blackbear and it would later appear in Cybersex as a two part interlude titled "thursday/froze over". On October 6, 2017, a song titled "Playboy Shit", which features rapper Lil Aaron, was released on Blackbear's PornHub account and confirmed to be a part of the project.[33] On October 20, 2017, Blackbear released the single "Bright Pink Tims" featuring Cam'ron. This day also marked the first day of his tour in support of Fall Out Boy's Mania Tour, running until November 18. On November 27, 2017, Musto's 27th birthday, Cybersex was released.

On April 26, 2018, "About You", a song written by Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda regarding the death of his bandmate Chester Bennington, was released featuring Blackbear.[34]

On August 23, 2018, Blackbear released his single titled "the 1", produced by FRND.[35]

In February 2019, Blackbear said he would be releasing a single per week until April 26, which is when his fourth studio album would be released. On Valentine's Day 2019, he released his single "1 SIDED LOVE". On February 20, he released his single "HIGH1X". On March 13, he released his single "SWEAR TO GOD" during Zane Lowe's transmission on Beats 1.

April 26, 2019, he released the full album, Anonymous.[36][37] This album is his longest album yet, containing 18 tracks lasting a total of 51 minutes. Along with the release of this album, he posted a photo on Instagram with a caption discussing his gratefulness of a second chance after his health complications at age 27, and he discusses how meaningful this album is to him.

On August 23, 2019, he released the lead single "Hot Girl Bummer" from his upcoming fifth studio album Everything Means Nothing.[38] On November 13, 2019, Blackbear released the one off single "Tongue Tied", with American producer Marshmello and English singer Yungblud. On January 16, 2020, he released the album's third single "Me & Ur Ghost".

On March 13, 2020, Ellie Goulding's single "Worry About Me" was released featuring Blackbear.

On April 3, 2020, he was featured on the All Time Low song "Monsters" from their album Wake Up, Sunshine.

On July 5, 2020, Blackbear tweeted the release date of the coming album, stating it would be a "2 part LP", with the first part releasing July 17, 2020 and the second part releasing August 21, 2020.[39] On July 9, 2020, he released the album's first promotional single, "Queen of Broken Hearts". On July 17, 2020, he released the first part of the album consisting of three new singles and the three already released, with new songs "I Feel Bad", "I Feel 2 Much", and "I Felt That". The tracklist for part two of Everything Means Nothing was also released, with songs "Sobbing In Cabo", "Clown" with Trevor Daniel, "Half Alive", "If I Were U" with Lauv, "Why Are Girls", and "Smile Again".[40]

On August 7, 2020, Machine Gun Kelly's single "My Ex's Best Friend" was released featuring Blackbear. And on October 16, 2020, G-Eazy's single "Hate the Way" was released featuring Blackbear.