Blackbear

Matthew Tyler Musto (born November 27, 1990), professionally known as Blackbear (stylized as blackbear), is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

He has released six studio albums, six EPs, one mixtape and two collaborative albums.

Musto is also a member of the alternative hip hop duo Mansionz with singer-songwriter Mike Posner.

Musto was born on November 27, 1990, in Daytona Beach, Florida, and moved to Palm Coast as a child.

His father is of Italian descent.

He has stated that many of his family members are from Pittston, Pennsylvania.

In fourth grade, he became interested in music through Rancid, Blink-182, and bands his babysitter introduced him to, such as New Found Glory and Alkaline Trio.

In high school, Musto was the singer of Florida-based rock band Polaroid.

They released one album, Paint The Town; one EP, Inside And Out; and one demo, The Cure Demo and have been variously described as being a pop punk, punk rock, and garage band.

During Musto's freshman year of high school, the band signed to Leakmob Records.

By 2008, Musto had also begun to write his own solo music.

After leaving Polaroid, Musto began a solo career when he moved to Atlanta to work with Ne-Yo.

He put out his first EP entitled Brightness in 2008, followed by Contrast in 2009, and Exposure in 2010.

Musto dropped out of school in the 10th grade to focus on music.

As Polaroid progressed, their music became increasingly influenced by emo.

He put out the Christmas song "I Hate the Holidays" with Tyler Carter, then-member of the band Woe, Is Me in late-2010, shortly followed by a new single, "Douche Bag" in early-January 2011.

In mid-2011, Musto released both the Gone for Good EP and the Year of the Blackbear EP.

In fall 2011, Musto decided to use his nickname Blackbear as his pseudonym when making music.

The first song to be released with the Blackbear moniker is Mike Posner's "Marauder Music" in November 2011.

Musto co-wrote Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend", a number 2 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.

He also appeared on Machine Gun Kelly's "End of the Road" from the Lace Up album, released October 9, 2012.

On April 20, 2014, Blackbear released The Afterglow EP, which landed him number four on Billboard's Uncharted listing of releases from upcoming artists.

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

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."

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 550 million times on SoundCloud and Idfc (Tarro Remix) has over 255 million views as of January 2022.

"idfc" shot Blackbear to the top 20 of the Billboard charts.

The second single, "90210", features G-Eazy and gained over 55 million streams on Spotify.

In May 2015, his track "Nyla" was featured in the documentary Hot Girls Wanted on Netflix.

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".

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

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.

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.