[AP IMAGES]
Thanks to a Facebook post by the homie Ryan Peters (Spose), I watched this video that I’ve only heard about in urban legends and from passersby around the campfire. There are only 19k views on the video at the time of writing this. However, the official music video for the chart-topping song now has close to 186 million (seen at the bottom of this post). Here is what Spose had to say about it:
“I met this dude Mike Posner a bunch of times when our songs were both popular on pop radio in 2010. We played a bunch of radio spring festivals together that year and spoke a few times while we ate the catering. Cam Groves and Jaw Strodumus Seize-Futures were there, too. Mike always was cool and humble and played keyboards and sang. He ended up having huge success with a song called “Cooler Than Me.” Put out and an album, did really well. Then he got shelved after his singles sold successively less. A few years later I wondered what happened to him (probably not unlike how some might “what happened to that “‘I’m Awesome’ guy.”) In 2015, kinda out of the blue, he sent me a DM on Twitter just to say what’s up and I told I hoped he was doing great. I looked up what he had been doing and found this video. It was him performing a new song he had wrote on an acoustic guitar for like 20 people in a park in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was like “Damn, what a good, clever song.” I noted, however, that there were only like 20-30 people there, in park, with no mics. As somebody myself who’s played some big shows but also many shows for like 20 or less people (I once played for literally 4 people on a Sunday night in Iowa City), I found it kinda inspiring that he was still out there getting it and still making great music and BEING PERSISTENT. Not giving up. Months later, that song he played in the park on acoustic guitar for 20 people is massive hit song called “I Took A Pill in Ibiza.” I don’t really know Mike Posner well. He’s an acquaintance I’d met a few times but I find his story amazing. He is really an awesome example of persistence paying off. His big second break is hugely inspiring and wholly his own doing. Just write another song, keep trying. Tenacity combined with some musical talent is hard to keep down. I’m so happy his success and the success of everybody who tries hard and doesn’t quit.”
Now peep what the song became:
