[4] In fourth grade, he became interested in music through Rancid, Blink-182, and bands his babysitter introduced him to, such as New Found Glory and Alkaline Trio.

He put out the Christmas song "I Hate the Holidays" with Tyler Carter, then-member of the band Woe, Is Me in late-2010, shortly followed by a new single, "Douche Bag" in early-January 2011.

Both releases were under the name Blackbear, and Sex featured collaborations from fellow "Boyfriend" co-writer Mike Posner, along with producers, singers, and songwriters James Blake and Maejor Ali.

[21] On April 20, 2016, Blackbear released his fourth EP, Drink Bleach, which featured appearances from "Boyfriend" collaborator Mike Posner as well as American hip-hop recording artist and The HBK Gang co-founder P-Lo.

[22] Throughout the year, Blackbear collaborated with other artists such as American rock band Linkin Park as well as Jacob Sartorius and Phoebe Ryan.

He also toured with Hoodie Allen, whose 2016 track and Happy Camper promotional single "Champagne and Pools" also featured Blackbear.

[26] He also released the track "If I Could I Would Feel Nothing", a freestyle originally posted on his Twitter that eventually became a promotional single for his upcoming third studio album.

[27] In late 2016, Blackbear formed the alternative hip-hop duo Mansionz with frequent collaborator and singer-songwriter Mike Posner.

[28] On January 29, 2017, he posted the track "Make Daddy Proud", which was a remix of Jeremy Zucker's "Heavy", on his SoundCloud page.

[30] In an interview with Vice's music channel Noisey, he revealed that he wrote Digital Druglord while in the hospital based on his experiences with alcohol and drugs.

He states that the cover art for the album, a woman with pill bottles attached to her chest, is not to glorify the use of pharmaceuticals, but because he now has to take prescription drugs to stay alive due to his illness.

[31] On June 22, 2017, he signed a 10 million dollar distribution deal with Interscope that gave the label the rights to Digital Druglord and the following studio album and their respective singles.

The track was written and produced by Good Intent and Blackbear and it would later appear in Cybersex as a two part interlude titled "Thursday/Froze Over".

On October 6, 2017, a song titled "Playboy Shit", which features rapper Lil Aaron, was released on Blackbear's PornHub account and confirmed to be a part of the project.

On April 26, 2018, Blackbear was featured on Mike Shinoda's song "About You" from his album Post Traumatic, dealing with the death of fellow Linkin Park bandmate Chester Bennington.

[39] On November 13, 2019, he released the one-off single "Tongue Tied", with American producer Marshmello and English singer Yungblud.

On March 13, 2020, Ellie Goulding's single "Worry About Me" featuring Blackbear was released from her album Brightest Blue.

[45] On May 21, Blackbear released the single "Jealousy" alongside Mansionz partner Mike Posner, the first track in 4 years following the duo's self-titled debut album.

[46] On June 4, 2021, Blackbear released the song "U Love U" with Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae, as the lead single from his seventh extended play, Misery Lake.

On July 14, Blackbear announced its tracklist alongside a tweet that the EP would be delayed to August 13 as a result of Sony Music Entertainment acquiring Alamo Records.

On July 9, 2021, Blackbear released the song "Memory" alongside American country singer Kane Brown.

On May 27, 2022, Blackbear released the song "GFY" with Machine Gun Kelly as the lead single from his sixth studio album In Loving Memory.

The album features appearances from pop-punk bands The Used, New Found Glory, and Bayside and production from Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.

He has collaborated with numerous musical artists such as Justin Bieber, G-Eazy, Mike Posner, All Time Low, Nick Jonas, Machine Gun Kelly, Ellie Goulding, Cam'ron, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Mod Sun, Rivers Cuomo, Linkin Park, Billie Eilish, Pharrell Williams, Miley Cyrus, Mike Shinoda, Charlie Puth, Tiny Meat Gang, and Maroon 5.

[54] He co-wrote "Boyfriend" by Justin Bieber, alongside Mike Posner, which debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.