blackbear

blackbear Bio

Born Matthew Tyler Musto in Daytona Beach, FL on November 27, 1997, blackbear grew up playing in garage bands. He dropped out of high school at age 16 when his punk band was signed and Musto earned his GED while touring. He soon broke away from the group to release solo work via MySpace, where he was discovered and invited to join Ne-Yo’s artist incubator, Compound Entertainment. Musto moved to Atlanta where spent 2 years under the tutelage of such songwriters as Sam Hook, Maejor Ali and Ne-Yo, himself.

In 2012, he moved to Los Angeles and co-wrote Justin Bieber’s 2012 smash hit “Boyfriend,” with Mike Posner. The song debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts and made Musto a millionaire by the age of 21. He went on to write with other artists like Pharrell Williams, Rivers Cuomo, Machine Gun Kelly, and Childish Gambino before becoming a genre-blending solo artist.

Blackbear independently released Foreplay, his debut EP, on April 20, 2012. His debut mixtape, Sex, followed on October 31, 2012. Both featured collaborations with Mike Posner and producers/songwriters James Blake and Maejor Ali. EP, The Afterglow, followed in 2014.

2015 saw the release of acoustic EP Dead, along with blackbear’s first full-length album, Deadroses, which featured the popular single “IDFC.”  Second single “90210” featured rapper G-Eazy. Help, his second full-length set soon followed. In 2016, blackbear released two more EPs, Drink Bleach and Cashmere Noose. That same year, he formed the alternative hip-hop/R&B duo Mansionz with frequent collaborator Mike Posner, releasing single “STFU”.  Their eponymous debut album was released in March 2017.

In April 2017, blackbear released his third full-length album, Digital Druglord, which debuted at #14 on the Billboard Hot 200.  Single “do re mi” (ft. Gucci Mane) peaked at #6 on Billboard’s R&B Streaming Songs chart.