This week, Justin Bieber dropped his single “Boyfriend,” marking his first step toward making more mature-sounding pop tunes. Co-producer Mike Posner told MTV News that Bieber’s upcoming Believe album displays how far he’s come since the sugary sweet ditties of his My World days.

“I think our goal was to make something that me and my friends could listen to in the car,” Posner explained. “I think we’ve all known Justin since he was 13, and that’s not the kid I was in the studio with anymore. He’s an 18-year-old. He skateboards with Lil Wayne and hangs out with Lil Twist. Those are his homies. And he listens to hip-hop and he’s a really cool kid. He’s not like a corny guy.”

“So I wanted to make something that reflected who he is now and who he is going to continue to be,” Posner added. “We’re still working more on the project and it sounds really incredible. I think people have been waiting [for] when he’s going to turn that corner, and the time is now.”

Believe isn’t going to change just Bieber’s career, but all of pop music, Posner added. “He’s kind of bringing soul back, and rhythm and blues back and definitely hip-hop into his music. I’m really excited to see how it’s going to change the landscape, and I know a lot of artists are going to have to go back to the drawing board.”

“Boyfriend” is the lead single off Believe, which will drop later this year. A video is currently in the works, but no release date has been announced.

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Justin Bieber dropped his bumping new single “Boyfriend” on Monday (March 26), teasing his next album, Believe. It’s a grinding, midtempo song that hears Bieber proclaiming all the ways he can make a girl happy (swag and fondue included!).

Co-produced and co-written by “Cooler Than Me” singer Mike Posner [and also Mat “Blackbear” Musto], the song shows growth from Bieber’s “Baby” days. When MTV News caught up with Posner last week, he told us what it was like to hit the studio with Bieber (and co-producer and co-writer Mason Levy) for the track.

“I’ve known [Bieber's manager] Scooter [Braun] for a few years, so I actually ran into Scooter at a Clippers game and told him I would love to work with Justin,” Posner said. “I got the opportunity to write with Justin. I didn’t really know what to expect at first, but he’s an incredible, incredible writer and amazing vocalist.

“Because I’m an artist myself, I can be pretty selective on who I produce for and who I make beats for … and really what I’m looking for is an amazing vocalist, somebody that can sing better than I can,” he continued. “And the other thing is somebody that’s willing to not try to make something that succeeds within the matrix of what pop music is now, but makes something that moves that matrix to where it is, and Justin was willing to take that leap with me.”

Bieber spoke to Ryan Seacrest on his radio show hours after the song’s world premiere Monday, explaining why this was the perfect track to kick off the Believe era.

“It was a really hard choice. I mean, we had so many songs, so many uptempos we could release, [that] I thought, ‘Let’s slow it down,’ ” he said, adding that there are already plenty of fast songs all over the radio. “It’s just something a little bit more mature, but it’s also something I think I’m ready for.”

While fans and industry insiders had been wondering what a more grown-up Bieber would sound like, he said he tried to block out all the noise when making the track. “There’s so many people that are going to give me opinions, but I’m the only one who can ultimately make those decisions, because I’m going to have to live with my career for the rest of my life. So I thought this was the perfect single,” he said, adding that this song “was me all the way; it is a representation of me.”

And Bieber said “Boyfriend” perfectly sets up what’s coming next. “It’s kind of classic,” he said of the album. “The songs, I feel, won’t get old. The music is very fresh, but it’s also — I’m taking a lot from old-school music, a lot of Michael Jackson, a lot of old R&B, a lot of old pop. It’s pretty special.”

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Here is a behind the scenes video of how the single was made, which features Mike Posner in the studio with Justin Bieber.

Listen to the full song here:

Purchase the track on iTunes now.

Don’t Sleep: Necessary Notables
Mixtape: The Layover

Key Cameo: “Rocket Man” (featuring Bun B)
Essential Info: Mike Posner is in touch with his rap side. On his new mixtape The Layover, he enlists the help of noted spitters like Bun B, Big K.R.I.T., Twista, Slim Thug, Cyhi the Prynce and Machine Gun Kelly — not that the “Cooler Than Me” singer lacks hip-hop swag, though.

“I’m kind of like a rapper trapped in a singer’s body,” Posner told Mixtape Daily. “That was the whole idea of me starting to sing in the first place. It took me a long time to stumble upon a sound, and I figured out I wanted to kinda sing rapper’s lyrics.”

Maybe it’s his smokey voice or the way he intertwines slang into his lyrics, but the seemingly poppy Posner is a definite product of the hip-hop generation. Doubters need look no further than the recently released Layover. For much of the tape, Posner takes classic records like Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and adds his own swag.

On “Henny & Purple” the Detroit crooner dedicates an entire song to getting high and drinking drank; for “On Fire,” he and Machine Gun Kelly revisit Posner’s 2009 track “Drug Dealer Girl” and deliver a well-equipped sequel. Things get even dustier when Mike enlists former Slum Village lyricist Elzhi to jump on “Mittens Up.”

On the bouncy track, Mike borrows from 50 Cent’s “Wanksta” when he sings, “Damn, homie, in high school you was the man, homie,” but it is Elzhi who has the tape’s most densely packed lyrics.

“That’s why I make mixtapes, that’s why I work with Don Cannon, that’s why I work with Big Sean,” Posner said. “Even though I don’t rap, I got love and acceptance in that community, and that’s something that I really take seriously and hold close to my heart.”

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Direct Download: The Layover – Mike Posner

Don’t let Mike Posner’s pop success fool you: The boy is as hip-hop as they come.

Before he cracked the Billboard top 10 with his debut single “Cooler Than Me,” the Duke grad was slinging free mixtapes like rappers do. On Sunday, the raspy-voice singer is going to return to what he knows when he drops his Layover mixtape.

Since his first album was 31 Minutes to Take Off and his spring 2012 follow-up will be titled Sky High, Mike figured The Layover would be the perfect title for an in-between project.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that I came up doing mixtapes,” Posner told Mixtape Daily. “My first mixtape was with [DJ Don] Cannon that I made in my dorm room when I was a student at Duke, and ‘Cooler Than Me’ was a song on that mixtape that I recorded in my dorm room.”

So even with all his success, Mike still has love for the mixtape grind. “It is incredibly important for me to reach back to my roots, and kind of do what I came up doing again,” he said.

Posner once again recruited Don Cannon to help him put the tape together, and this time out, he’s collaborating with Big Sean, Big K.R.I.T., Bun B and Twista too. “I really took it back to the basics with this tape,” he explained. “I brought Cannon back in, Big Sean’s on the tape, Big K.R.I.T.’s on the tape, and I’m doing the remixes of songs and kind of like hip-hop-ifying classic non-hip-hop songs.”

One such song is Elton John’s 1972 classic “Rocket Man.” Posner threw new synths and pulsating drums under the classic melody. While he adds his own swag to Elton’s lyrics, Mike also enlisted Bun B to add a verse for a 2011 upgrade. That’s not all: On “Wonderwall,” the Detroit singer/producer redoes Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and adds Big K.R.I.T. to the mix.

All in all, it’s a refreshing, genre-bending take on some classic music.

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“Strawberry Uncrustables” – Mike Posner

2011 ASCAP Pop Music Awards
Los Angeles, CA
April 27th, 2011

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• Mike Posner and Eric Holljes Awarded at the 2011 ASCAP Pop Music Awards for “Cooler Than Me”