Florida born musician Matthew Tyler Musto, known to many by his moniker, blackbear, has actually had quite an influence on the music industry, despite being more of a behind the scenes actor. Working with artists such as Ne-Yo and co-writing Justin Bieber’s Billboard Hot 100 #2 hit, “Boyfriend”, Musto is no stranger to the industry. His catalog is quite extensive as well, as he dropped out of high school in 9th grade to pursue a career in music. Mixing alternative, punk, pop, hip-hop, R&B, and more, blackbear’s music defies many of the rules of genre. Below are his projects, best to worst:

 

#1 – digital druglord (2017)

Right from the opening track, “hell is where i dreamt of you and woke up alone“, it is easy to tell the tone of the album. The track’s somber piano riff accompanied by the dark first lines (“My nose is burning / too much cocaine), denote that digital druglord is an album for a post-breakup, angry at your ex, doing whatever it takes to help the hurt kind of mood. Throughout the album, blackbear doesn’t hold back on those who have wronged him. On the track “i miss the old you“, he sprinkles insults to his ex lover alongside hints that he liked her before she listened to artists such as G-Eazy, Migos, and 21 Savage. One track later, on “do re mi” blackbear is back on his horse, proclaiming that he is well over his ex and wishing that if he “could go back to the day we met / I probably would just stay in bed”. This track received the most attention off of the project, being remixed several times. The mellow and absorbed track “juicy sweatsuits“, features Juicy J and radiates a late night, post night-club sound, while criticizing the girl that blackbear was once down for, realizing how her habits and cheap sweatsuits are only holding him back now. Perhaps the most powerful track on the album, “if i could i would feel nothing” dives deep into the pain that blackbear feels, and as the title suggests, the fact that he would rather feel nothing at all. The wavy and distorted melody compliment his vocoder, a tool that blackbear quite frequently brings into play. “if i could i would feel nothing” effectively demonstrates the overall tone of the album, one that involves putting on a front to hide the bad feeling, as blackbear says that even though he wears designer when he goes out, “underneath it all, the truth is that I really feel like sh*t”. digital druglord was monumental for blackbear. This album really established his sound and demonstrated his impressive ability to generate a very specific mood within the listener despite mixing so many different elements of music.

 

#2 – The Afterglow (2014)

Released before any of blackbear’s full length albums, The Afterglow is a very unique and experimental project. Each track flows into one another, and if you played the whole EP through without looking at what song was on, there would be times when you could not tell when one song had ended and a new one began. Other than this extremely slick styling of the album, the tracks themselves are very good. “N.Y.E.” opens up with distant fireworks, followed by a powerful entrance by blackbear himself, mixing extended synth keys with quick hi-hats, the first track proves a very good opener. The track then fades into “Valley Girls“, which utilizes a melody ridden with vibrato and guitar strings saturated in reverb. This song then bleeds into “Califormula” on one of the smoothest transitions on the album. The lyrics also bleed over: “Valley Girls” ends with the repetition of the phrase “I’s just lookin’ for drugs”, and “Califormula” begins with “I just bought some drugs”. “Grey L.A.” then makes an entrance, the loud and unusual track that provides a different sound than the rest of the album. The entirety of the lyrics are delivered in a distorted voice, with some white noise in the background of the beat. While this project is extremely unique, this track is very different even for this project, which says something about blackbear’s originality. “The Lobby” follows, which brings the audience back down after the preceding track and acts much like an interlude, with no lyrics and the focus being on an electric guitar. The EP reaches its close with “Hotel Andrea“. The vocals are extremely raw and the lyrics are a very fitting cap to the project as a whole, as blackbear reminisces on an old relationship and how his ex still burns within him. In The Afterglow, blackbear is very successful in his attempt to create a new and different project. While exploring a new frontier stylistically, he maintains quality and hearty tracks.

 

#3 – Cashmere Noose (2016)

Cashmere Noose was one of blackbear’s earliest successes. As one of the first EP’s he released, it peaked at number one on the iTunes R&B charts and number six on the overall iTunes Charts. blackbear singlehandedly produced and recorded the entire project. In a world where ghost-writing and massive production teams dominate the music industry, this EP is especially impressive for that reason alone. blackbear demonstrates his mastery on six tracks which run for seventeen minutes. “Sniffing Vicodin in Paris” is a happy-go-lucky remembering of old times doing drugs in a foreign city that includes cheers of children in the background, only adding to the uniqueness of the track. The mood is brought down two tracks later on “Sometimes I Want 2 Die“. With heavy use of the vocoder, blackbear laments over his unwillingness go to on, despite how sad it might be. His habits are still there though, as he sings “And if I die before I wake up, I pray to God there’s whiskey and a chaser”. The listener is not kept in this mood for long, as the very next track is a funky proclamation of how blackbear is no good for any girl, warning them to stay away. This track relies on very different synth keys as well touches of autotune. The project is wrapped up with “Wanderlust“, a track in which blackbear tackles the culture of materialism and too many people following trends just because they are popular. The beat has a Flume sound to it, and lyrically the song is very well executed. Cashmere Noose is demonstrative of the fact that blackbear is not dependent upon anyone to produce his own music. While he completed this EP entirely solo, he did so with precision and talent.

 

#4 – everything means nothing (2020)

blackbear’s most recent project was released as a two-part LP. The first half of the album released on one date, and the second half about a month later. This is just another example of blackbear’s experimental touches. The first three tracks on the album were all pre-released as a promotion of the project. Similarly, all three tracks share similar elements, relying heavily on guitar chords and organic vocals. One of note is “me & ur ghost“, on which blackbear discusses the nostalgic feeling of remembering an ex, as he is stuck only with memories of her. The next three songs, “i feel bad“, “i feel 2 much“, and “i felt that” were all written in row, in only a week. The best of the three is “i feel bad“, an indifferent realization that blackbear does not feel good. The girl he wants only makes him feel terrible, as he adds “everything that I love, is bad for me and it sucks”. After this trilogy — which is very well constructed and takes the reader through a rollercoaster of emotion — comes the track “sobbing in cabo“, one of the best on the album. Beginning with soothing flute notes, this track was written about blackbear’s current girlfriend and mother of his child. The story behind the song is actually very interesting, as this woman called bear from Cabo, saying and telling him she wanted to be with him so bad. He realized that she was literally “sobbing in Cabo” and immediately put his pen to the paper and wrote this song. Near the end of the album, “why are girls?” is a glimpse of blackbear awe-struck at the beauty, heartlessness, and mysteriousness of girls. everything means nothing was a huge success for blackbear. I would argue that its tone (much cheerier than that of digital druglord or The Afterglow) made it palatable to a wider audience, as this album reached its peak as the #1 pop album in the world on Apple Music. This album demonstrates blackbear’s growth as both an artist and a person, as he has overcome many of his demons.

 

#5 – cybersex (2017)

One of blackbear’s longer projects, cybersex runs for 51 minutes, containing fourteen tracks total. This album was preceded by the single release “playboy shit“, which is the third track on the album and watches as blackbear brags about his new lifestyle of designer clothing and beautiful girls. The next track “e.z.” features Machine Gun Kelly and opens up with drumline-like percussion, which is then layered with blackbear’s voice, at times masked by a vocoder. Machine Gun Kelly’s verse adds a rap element to the song, as MGK delivers bars about his purely carnal relationship with a woman. Later, on the compound track “thursday/froze over (‘interlude’)” blackbear sings about how his lavish lifestyle of having multiple women is “just another Thursday”. One track later, blackbear is cursing his ex on the track “i hope your whole life sux“, as he hopes that he is the reason that she won’t be able to sleep at night, because she is certainly the reason he has “been up for days, thinkin’ ’bout you”. Near the end of the album, he gives the listener another heartbreaker on “g2g ttyl“, which features R&B duo, THEY. The melody is very simply, with the focus on a finger style guitar and the snapping of fingers. blackbear’s vocals pair extremely well with THEY., as the artists go back and forth about the lengths one will go to not see an ex and what the dating scene is like in California. After feeling down on himself, blackbear brings the listener to a euphoric feeling on “candyapple“. This distorted, drugged up, hazy song is marked by its indescribable melody accented by very high pitched guitar strings. While cybersex did not receive the attention that many of blackbear’s other albums did, it still is a great listen with many hidden gems.