He began a musical career of his own with
Motown in the mid-1980s. His debut
self-titled album was released in 1986 and featured the hit single "Talk To Me" (No. 21 US, No. 7 R&B). The album peaked at No. 90 on the
Billboard 200 and released a follow-up single "The Girl Next Door" which charted on the R&B chart. Two years later, he released a second album with Motown,
Kiss Serious that included the hit R&B single "Rainy Night" (No. 18 R&B) plus "I've Been Watching You" (No. 43 R&B) and the title track (No. 53 R&B). However, he was imprisoned for
drug charges not long after and served time in prison for drug trafficking. After his release in the mid-1990s, DeBarge returned to Motown to continue his musical career under the auspices of
Kedar Massenberg and his
neo-soul pioneering label imprint Kedar Entertainment. His third album
Long Time No See was released on November 18, 1997, to critical acclaim and was preceded by the single "Iggin' Me" which garnered considerable airplay. The album would spawn three additional singles: "Love Still Good," "No Guarantee" (a collaboration with
Joe) (No. 18 R&B Airplay) and "Virgin" (No. 97 R&B). A non-album single "Superman" followed and was heard in the 1998 romantic comedy film
Woo starring
Jada Pinkett Smith and
Tommy Davidson and was released on the
movie's soundtrack album. "Superman" peaked at No. 55 on the R&B chart. His fourth album
The Game was released on October 26, 1999, and peaked at No. 41 on the
Billboard 200. The lead single "Give You What You Want (Fa Sure)" gave him one of his biggest hits (No. 71 US, No. 11 R&B) to date, and had a remix featuring rapper
Trina released. The follow-up single "Listen To Your Man" (reuniting him with R&B singer
Joe) peaked at No. 41 on the R&B chart and at No. 33 on the R&B Airplay Chart. A third single (which did not appear on the album), "Playa Hater" was released in 2000. He later moved to the
independent record label,
Koch Records, where he released 2003's
Free (which peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart). It featured the single "Home Alone" which garnered some airplay. DeBarge released his first single "Not 2 Gether" on December 17, 2002. In 2005, DeBarge contributed a song to the
Beauty Shop movie soundtrack called "Hard Times." In 2008, Chico DeBarge appeared in the video for Joe's single, "We're Family" off the
Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins soundtrack. His sixth studio album
Addiction was released in July 2009 under Kedar Entertainment Group (since 1997) and included the single "Oh No" which peaked at No. 76 on the R&B chart. On October 2, 2010, DeBarge performed with
Glenn Jones,
Lenny Williams and
Regina Belle at the Performing Arts Center in
Tampa, Florida. In March 2017, he announced he was at work on a new studio album in addition to doing some work on a forthcoming
DeBarge family album due in 2018. In September 2017, he released his first new single in eight years called "Feel Good" featuring Jim Jones and Capone Noel. Additionally, his 2003 album
Free was remastered and re-released (as
Free Remastered) to include 6 additional tracks. In December 2025, Debarge embarked on his Long Time No See Tour. ==Personal life==