Blackbear

Early life

Musto was born on November 27, 1990 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Musto resided in Palm Coast, FL. He was discovered as promising talent from an early age as a rock-leaning singer-songwriter, who grew up playing in garage bands, such as signed band Polaroid. Musto earned his GED while on tour. He was discovered in 2008 by talent manager Tabari Francis and later connected with manager Mister who runs Compound Entertainment, an artist incubator started by recording artist Ne-Yo. Musto then moved to Atlanta, Georgia at age 18 and spent two years developing his sound and learning from songwriters like Sam Hook, Maejor and Ne-yo.

At 20, Musto moved to Los Angeles and re-invented himself as a rapper and R&B oriented singer.

2012–2014: Early career

blackbear co-wrote Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend", a number two hit on the Billboard 100 in early 2012. Intent on pursuing a career as a rapper and R&B singer, blackbear released his debut mixtape "Sex" with collaborations from fellow "Boyfriend" co-writer Mike Posner, James Blake and Maejor Ali. He also appeared on MGK's Lace Up. He released his second EP, The Afterglow, on April 20, 2014. This landed blackbear as number four on Billboard's Uncharted listing of releases from upcoming artists.

In 2014, Blackbear became the first independent artist to monetize off Soundcloud.

2015: Deadroses and Help

blackbear made waves with his first full-length album, Deadroses, a self-released set of 10 tracks. 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. The second single, "90210", featuring G-Eazy has over 11 million streams on Soundcloud and over 9 million streams on Spotify. Deadroses was soon followed by an EP, Dead, which features acoustic versions of Deadroses tracks, as well as one new track.

He released his second full-length album, Help, on November 27, 2015. The album features tracks such as "Different Hos," "Verbatim," "Help," "Where Was U?," "Nervous," "Slide Thru," and "Don't Stop." "Different Hos" has been featured on celebrity Kylie Jenner's Snapchat several times. blackbear's music video for "Slide Thru" caught significant attention on Twitter and Youtube for its Wes Anderson vibes through its whimsical, colorful videography.

2016–present: Drink Bleach, Cashmere Noose, and other projects

blackbear released his fourth EP, Drink Bleach, on April 20, 2016.

In 2016, blackbear joined Hoodie Allen's 'Happy Camper' tour with Super Duper Kyle & Tinashe's "Aquarius" tour.

blackbear's track "NYLA" was featured in Hot Girls Wanted on Netflix produced by Rashida Jones.

blackbear released an EP titled Cashmere Noose on August 2, 2016 via Soundcloud. Production was entirely handled by blackbear through his production collective beartrap records. The project has 6 tracks and includes a feature from Mod Sun.

He was featured in Olivia O'Brien's 2016 single "Root Beer Float".

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.

Upcoming projects

Blackbear's "Over You" Part 1 tour will begin December 2 in DC, December 3 in NY, December 6 in Boston and December 9 in Philadelphia.

Blackbear is currently working on Mansionz, a soulful hip hop project with spoken word influence. This is a collaboration with Mike Posner and recently signed to Island Records. They've dropped two tracks called "rich white girls", released on February 2nd, 2017 and "stfu" ft. Spark Master Tape. The full-length album is set to release in 2017.

Linkin Park has brought on Blackbear to add extra production to their newest album. The release date has not been set.