Gabriel Black emerged in the late 2010s from Los Angeles with a singular fusion of emo-rock and hip-hop that quickly drew listeners in. Tracks such as “Sad Boy” and “Fuck Up” highlighted his unfiltered, emotionally charged songwriting centered on battles with depression and solitude, while his parallel work as a visual artist further distinguished him through self-animated videos rendered in a loose, hand-drawn aesthetic that offset the weight of his words with playful simplicity. Following the 2019 Help Me, I’m Flying EP, he sustained momentum via additional releases including the 2021 singles “King of the Nosebleeds” and “Molotov.”
New Jersey-born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Black first encountered music through his mother’s selections of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Marvin Gaye; he later branched out on his own to artists including Kid Cudi, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, and Immortal Technique. Concurrently, his father—an artist—instilled an affinity for visual media by instructing him in drawing, so that by adolescence Black divided his hours among composing, lyric writing, and filling sketchbooks. Only after leaving college in Boston did his path accelerate.
He initially relocated to New York and took a position at Viper Records, then shifted to Los Angeles for an internship with singer Imad Royal. Amid ongoing struggles with depression and self-doubt, Black settled in Monterey, California, where he retreated to his apartment and poured those feelings into new material.
He began posting the resulting songs online and created animated clips for “Pine Trees” and “Sad Boy,” featuring a cartoonish self-portrait executed in a rough, low-fidelity style. The videos spread rapidly, propelled by his active social-media engagement and willingness to interact directly with fans, including the public sharing of his personal phone number. In 2018 he issued his debut seven-track EP, Beautiful Life, which contained “Pine Trees,” “Sad Boy,” and “Light My Fire.” The following year he paired with rapper Phem for the single “Dead Yet,” then released his second EP, Help Me, I’m Flying. In 2020 the duo reunited on “Punisher,” and Black’s 2021 single “King of the Nosebleeds” achieved notable streaming success before he followed it with “Batman” and “Molotov.”
