Why does everyone hate mike posner

I couldn't go out in public without makeup on. Between and , he recorded two albums, but RCA shelved them.

Ironically, two of those songs -- "Boyfriend" and "Sugar" -- became big hits for Justin Bieber and Maroon 5 , respectively. Posner, who readily cops to not looking or dressing pop-star "perfect," says he was told that he wasn't "artist material" and should concentrate on songwriting. He asked to be dropped, the label agreed, and he fell into a deep funk.

That was a major shift. You've got to pursue your music! Newly invigorated, Posner returned to Los Angeles and signed with Island Records, where he proceeded to make what he wryly dubs his "whitest music yet": gentle folk-pop with few nods to his hip-hop sensibilities.

You can never question his authenticity. They have so much substance -- that's what defines him as an artist. But even artists needs to remain financially viable. It worked, and now they hope to repeat the trick with his new album, which features 12 largely earnest, quarter-life-crisis laments and six EDM remixes, all approved by the singer, he says, "because they are giving my songs a second life.

Posner insists he is adjusting to success better this time around. Perhaps being away from Los Angeles helps: He recently relocated to Detroit to be with his family; his father has cancer. I'm trying to get back into the world and bring my metaphorical mountain in Utah with me. This article was originally featured in the May 28 issue of Billboard. Search term. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In.

Top Artists. Top Charts. My time out of the spotlight, between the first album and now, I learned to be happy without attention for the most part. It stings a little less when I read that.

Because I know if no one knows who I am, I can figure out a way to be happy. Not happy percent of the time, but I can enjoy life still. When you were a little kid, did you want to be famous? I remember I wanted to be an athlete. When did it hit you that you were? But I do remember when I started to get noticed a little bit, I wanted more.

I wanted to be the most famous. The mystique of it was gone. Did you worry about being forgotten? I worried about it all the time at first. But then, slowly by surely, I just grew to view myself — I know this sounds corny — not as a singer but just a human. You know? You learn to describe yourself with adjectives that are less temporary.

Has it been hard to get back into shape for this kind of intense schedule that comes with being back in the spotlight? It was a challenge that I asked for. Because if I look back six months ago, I was living in a van. I really got tired of L. I went to Utah. How long did you live in the van? I was out of the house like five months.

It kind of became posh vagabonding. Because I have too many rich friends. Here are the keys to my condo! I went to Burning Man with the van. Did people recognize you? One person. My thing was, you go with something to give. And at first I had these scarves to protect people from dust and stuff. You have it. You gotta do music, man! All day. And it was a great exercise for me, because in normal society, I get rewarded for what I do.

But what I found was, Hey, I still really love being a musician. That was healthy for me. Does it feel like a long time ago, the first time you were famous?

A long time ago. This is something I had to deal with a lot. Because, as a musician, I really stunk then. I was a good writer and good at making beats and a good producer. And he did suck. Because you should always be getting better.

Where, as much as I like to deny it, before my goals were mostly to stay afloat. To stay where I was. Treading water. Stay afloat how? Because I had made a considerable amount of money, but I wanted to know, am I spending too much or not?

Do I have to keep doing a lot of shit? Why am I here? It depends how you want to live, you know? Because if I wanted to go live in my van, I could stop right now. The ones that did become hits were all ones that we just thought were cool. How do you feel about it? When I started out, I was an underground artist for a while.

And then I had a song that did really good on the radio. And it was the same song; it was on my mixtape before I got big. And then when it became popular, all of a sudden it was like it was no longer cool. But it hurt because — and a lot of people have said this about my first album — it sounded a lot different than my mixtape.

I was changing and I was growing older.