Who is Yolo Bear?

DJs choose to wear the cloak of anonymity for many reasons, but mostly because being mysterious is sexy. Whatever. Our job in Who Is _____ is to sleuth around until we unmask their identities. Because men should not be afraid of the light.

Name: DJ Yolo Bear
Age: Unknown
Gender: Unknown
Location: "Somewhere between the deepest trenches of the ocean and the furthest reaches of outer space"
Genre: Jersey club
Associations: LuckyMe, RinseFM

Think of Yolo Bear as the DJ world's inside joke. Sure, his naughty, Jersey club-inspired singles like "Make U Touch My" and "Bring That Ass To The Table" have been making blog rounds, and he's recently appeared in mixes from top DJs like Brenmar and Cashmere Cat. But the Internet Illuminati isn't giving up up any clues about the man (or woman) behind the mask. Or, in this case, behind the bucket hat-wearing bear who perpetually looks like it wants to give you a big hug.

When questioned, DJs just throw their hands up and say "it wasn't me!"—so I decided to take my investigatory skills to Twitter and the darkest corners of the blogosphere for clues.

The first mention of Yolo Bear on the WWW dates back to almost a year ago when Doctor Jeep, a frequent collaborator and member of Yolo Bear's shadowy cabal, mentioned the Bear in a tweet:

This mention was likely in reference to the duo's collaborative song, "Cupcake No Filling," which was recorded under Jeep's other alias, Bark Lee, a year before the track was released on his Soundcloud. But "Cupcake Filling" wasn't the first sighting of Yolo Bear--he reportedly DJed an illegal basement rave at Brooklyn's Apostrophe way back in December 2012. The first Yolo Bear tracks emerged at the same time, when New Jersey-based producer Mohegan Son dropped four of Yolo's tracks in his mix for the Freshmore label. That mix has since been taken down—probably due to assassination threats from the Illuminati—but you can check the tracklist here. 

One of the tracks on Mohegan Son's mix was "Make U Touch My," which resurfaced two weeks later, on January 1, 2013, as part of a song giveaway from the LuckyMe label, called "Twelve Days of LuckyMe." As far as I can tell, this marks the first official release of any Yolo Bear material.

After the LuckyMe release, Yolo Bear slipped away into hibernation. But freshly-minted fans responded to his brief appearance with showers of praise.

Yolo Bear didn't care. He didn't emerge from his cave until March 7, when he graced London-based community radio station Rinse FM with a mix for their LuckyMe label show.

During the show, host and LuckyMe mainstay Eclair FiFi became the first to ever give an on-air description of the creature, saying, "I'd interview him but he doesn't really have a mouth." (Creepy.) Doctor Jeep also provided some clues in an interview last week, saying, "I don't think he's ever actually stepped foot in New Jersey but I could be wrong." Jeep also "revealed" that Yolo Bear "lives on a strict diet of bamboo and purple drank," and lives in an apartment "located somewhere between the deepest trenches of the ocean and the furthest reaches of outer space." Jeep continued, saying, "He is a transient being with no one home, but merely a series of swag pads from Atlantis to Brooklyn to Mars and beyond." Very helpful hints, obviously.

Matters became even more complicated when Mohegan Son disclosed in this cryptic tweet that Yolo Bear is, in fact, a lady:

With conflicting reports of gender, possible homelessness, and an apparent lack of mouth, the facts on Yolo Bear seemed to become murkier the more I dug into them. Then, on May 21, BBC Radio One host (and another LuckyMe member) Eclair Fifi tweeted this picture of her wearing Yolo Bear's scarf:

What did this all mean?! Fifi responded nonchalantly, "I stole his scarf." Doctor Jeep was slightly more open: "The scarf is his source of his power," Jeep said, "Without it he is simply Yolo Cub." But even without his accessory-of-power, Yolo Bear seems poised to make a comeback. On July 8 the LuckyMe Twitter account finally replied to one of my inquiries:

While "LMW003" might look like gibberish, it was actually my biggest scoop. LMW001 is the vinyl catalog number for Machinedrum's single, "Alarmaa." LMW002 is the number for Baauer's record "Dum Dum." Put two and two together, and it looks like Yolo Bear is next in line to be pressed to vinyl.

CONCLUSION

Yolo Bear could be a multi-gendered, mouthless bear living in a cosmic swag pad, but all signs point to him being a dude. He's also very likely part of the LuckyMe family, and a frequent visitor or resident of Brooklyn, New York. And we're crossing our paws for a proper Yolo Bear release on LuckyMe's white-label 12" series very soon. Big shoes to fill, little bear!