Michael Posner, known as Mike, is an American singer-songwriter, poet and record producer who hails from Southfield, near Detroit, Michigan.
Starting out as a producer working alongside fellow Southfield resident Big Sean on his first mixtape, Posner's own mixtape
A Matter of Time was released to industry praise in 2009 and released through Small Town Records at Duke University. The release was most notable for being available for free via iTunes U, a channel designed for educational content.
The attention over his first mix tape and unconventional release saw Posner sign a deal with J Records - part of RCA and Sony - in July 2009, while he was still a student at Duke. His next mixtape -
One Food Out the Door - was then released in October 2009, followed by a debut alum
31 Minutes to Takeoff in August 2010. The album spawned hit single "Cooler than Me", which reached number 6 on the US Billboard Top 100, and appearances at Bonnaroo and on the 2010 Warped Tour.
Once J Records disbanded, Posner moved to join RCA Records to begin work on a second album and released new single "Looks Like Sex" on digital platforms in December 2011, followed by his third mixtape
The Layover. He took a brief break from music, however, after admitting he was uncomfortable with being in the spotlight and that he was suffering from depression.
After some time writing and producing for other artists 0 including Maroon 5, Justin Bieber and Pharrell Williams - Posner announced that a new album
Pages would be released in Summer 2013. Another tour followed in 2014, during which time he played a more acoustic, organic set of shows, before revealing he had signed a new deal with Island Records, with a new album shortly following and
Pages abandoned for the time being.
In 2015 Posner released a new single
"I Took a Pill in Ibiza" via YouTube, adding that a new EP titled
The Truth would be released that June. A remix of the track by Norwegian duo SeeB gathered around 750 million Spotify Streams and hit number 2 on the Global Top 50 Chart.
His second album
At Night, Alone came out in May 2016 featuring both versions of "I Took a Pill in Ibiza". It received positive reviews from most critics.
In 2017, Posner turned his attention to poetry, publishing a collection called
Teardrops and Balloons in March and collaborating with spoken word artists on several new projects. He also featured on Nick Jonas' 2017 single "Remember I Told You" alongside Anne-Marie. He announced a new poetry album called "I was born in Detroit on a very, very, very, very, very, very, very cold day," which is set to be released on January 26, 2018.
