After appearing in a Rudy Mancuso sketch last week, pop megastar Justin Bieber is once again collaborating with digital creators in the Shots Studios family. Writer/performer Poo Bear and Bieber — who is an investor in the photo app-turned-digital studio — have tapped Shots creator Hannah Stocking to star in the lyric video for their new single, “Hard 2 Face Reality,” which also features the rapper Jay Electronica.
“Hard 2 Face Reality” hails from Poo Bear’s forthcoming debut album, Bearthday Music. The multi-hyphenate, né Jason Boyd, is best known for penning the Bieber smashes “Where Are Ü Now” and “What Do You Mean?,” and also guested on Mancuso’s debut single, “Black & White.” In the lyric video for “Hard 2 Face Reality,” Stocking is cheated on by her boyfriend, comforted by two of her friends (played by fellow digital luminaries and Shots creators Lele Pons and Inanna Sarkis), and then finds new love. Fueled by a combination of digital and traditional star power, the one-week-old clip (below) has already amassed 11 million views.
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Stocking, who rose to fame on Vine and whose YouTube channel now counts 3 million subscribers, is an emerging actress who has also appeared in Boo 2! A Madea Halloween and YouTube Red’s Fight Of The Living Dead. She most recently signed a deal with social video producer ATTN for a short-form science series.
This isn’t the first time that Shots has tapped digital creators to appear in a lyric video for bold-faced musicians. In December, Pons shared the lyric video for “Downtown” by Anitta and J Balvin on her YouTube channel. The clip, co-starring fellow creator Juanpa Zurita, has clocked a staggering 200 million views to date. (Brazilian singer Anitta is also signed to Shots).
