Biography
Singer Mike Posner launched his career at Duke University, where he balanced his undergraduate studies in sociology and business with his musical habits. Like fellow undergrad Asher Roth, Posner began making melodic pop-rap songs for the college crowd, filling his music with references to fraternity culture, dorm life, and young adulthood. He also compiled several mixtapes, one of which (A Matter of Time) topped the iTunes charts during the summer of 2009.
After signing with J Records, he finished his degree, graduated with a 3.59 GPA, and released his full-length debut, 31 Minutes to Takeoff, in the summer of 2010. The album featured the worldwide hit “Cooler Than Me.” J Records would dissolve soon after and Posner was bumped up to the parent label, RCA, but only after some legal wrangling which was referenced in the title to his 2011 mixtape, The Layover. His career with RCA would begin officially late that same year.