2009–2010: Early releases Blake began his music career by releasing his debut 12"
record,
Air & Lack Thereof in the United Kingdom during July 2009, while being persistent in recording songs in his bedroom. Having been released on the record label Hemlock, the extended play became a favourite of
BBC Radio 1 DJ
Gilles Peterson. Soon after the release of the record, Blake was invited by Peterson to do a special mix on his international show, including an exclusive
Mount Kimbie track. June 2011 A third EP, entitled
CMYK, was released through
R&S Records during 2010. The title track, "CMYK" was selected by
BBC Radio 1 DJ
Nick Grimshaw as his
Record of the Week and also received airplay from other DJs. On 29 September 2010,
Zane Lowe selected Blake's
cover version of "
Limit to Your Love" as his "Hottest Record in the World". The song was written and originally recorded by
Feist and appeared on her studio album,
The Reminder. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 28 November 2010, where it debuted on the
UK Singles Chart at number 47.
2011: Self-titled album Blake was nominated for the
BBC's
Sound of 2011, an annual poll that highlights the forthcoming year's likely successful musicians. He placed second ahead of fellow shortlisted acts
The Vaccines,
Jamie Woon and
Clare Maguire. On 15 December 2010, Blake was runner-up behind singer-songwriter
Jessie J at the
Brit Awards' "Critic's Choice". In January 2011, Blake was awarded Single of the Year (2010) for "CMYK" at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards. Blake's work found itself on numerous 2010 year-end best-of lists, with "CMYK" ranking 24th on
Frontier Psychiatrists top 40 songs of the year,
the Bells Sketch/
CMYK/
Klavierwerke EPs ranking 8th on
Pitchfork Media's top 50 albums of 2010, and "I Only Know (What I Know Now)" ranking 8th on Pitchfork's top 100 tracks of 2010. Blake revealed in late December 2010 that his album would be self-titled, and the 11-track
James Blake was released on 7 February 2011. Only days after the original announcement was made, the album was leaked onto the internet. On 9 January 2011, "
The Wilhelm Scream" was trailed as the album's second single ("Limit To Your Love" was also included on the album). In February 2011, Blake first appeared on the cover of the publication
The Fader, in its 72nd issue. Blake debuted a collaboration with
Bon Iver called "
Fall Creek Boys Choir" in August 2011 and during the next month, the
BBC released an exclusive mix by Blake, which included 10 of his unreleased songs. These included "Deeds", "Olivia Kept", and "Evening Fell Hard for Us". During the final weeks of 2012, Blake performed three "intimate" shows where he debuted new songs. Later that year, Blake released both the
Enough Thunder and
Love What Happened Here EPs in 2011. These EPs, noticeably more structured than his previous releases, featured R&B-tinged work as opposed to the experimental electronic style found on
CMYK.
2012–2013: Overgrown Early in 2012, Blake spent time with American rapper
Kanye West (who named Blake as his favourite artist) and singer
Justin Vernon. Later that year, Blake announced a new collaborative non-single release under the moniker Harmonimix with British rapper
Trim; the single "Confidence Boost/Saying" was released on 24 September 2012. Also in 2012, Blake and friends (including Foat, Nick Sigsworth, and touring musicians Rob McAndrews and Ben Assiter) secured a residency at the club Plastic People as the collective
1-800 Dinosaur, hosting a series of impromptu dance nights. His second album,
Overgrown, was released on 5 April 2013. The first single from the album, "
Retrograde", was debuted the same day on BBC Radio 1, and was released on 11 February. On 25 February, the track listing and album art were revealed. It was selected as Variance Magazine's Album of the Year as of December 2013. The album features guest appearances from noted electronic music producer
Brian Eno and rapper
RZA of
Wu-Tang Clan. The release received critical acclaim and was awarded the 2013
Mercury Prize. Blake revealed to
Hot Press that falling in love had influenced the warm
nu-soul sound on the album, as opposed to the experimentalism found on his self-titled effort. A remix featuring
Chance the Rapper, of a track from
Overgrown, "Life Round Here", was released on 11 October alongside a music video directed by
Nabil Elderkin.
2014–2017: The Colour in Anything In an interview with
Spotify, Blake revealed that a day prior to the release of
Drake's single "
0 to 100 / The Catch Up", he received an email asking whether a beat from one of his older tracks could be used on the single; he refused and asked Drake's label to remove the sample. Blake's publisher later approached him and asked him about his decision. Blake in return asked how much money he had lost by turning down the offer and reportedly spat out his drink when he found out. In December 2014, during his BBC Radio 1 Residency, Blake announced that his third studio album would be titled
Radio Silence and would be released in the first half of 2015. He later confirmed that the album would feature
Bon Iver and
Kanye West, as well as feature guitar work from
Connan Mockasin. Blake received a
Grammy Award nomination in 2014 for
Best New Artist. On 11 February 2016, Blake premiered a new song entitled "
Modern Soul" during his BBC Radio 1 residency. On 14 April 2016, Blake revealed during a surprise hosting spot on BBC Radio 1 that he'd finished the album, and that it was 18 tracks in length. He stated that it includes one track that stretches to 20 minutes in length. Later in the broadcast he premiered a new song titled 'Timeless', though did not say whether it would be included on the album. In a May 2016 interview with
BBC Radio 1, Blake stated that he began work on the album in England, and after "running out of steam" went to the United States to complete the recording at Shangri La Studios with producer
Rick Rubin. Blake produced and was featured on the song "Forward" from
Beyoncé's 2016 album
Lemonade. He also co-wrote the album's opening track, "Pray You Catch Me". On 28 April, social media posts by Blake and his label, 1-800 Dinosaur, reposted photos of a mural by children's novel illustrator Sir
Quentin Blake (best known for his work with writer
Roald Dahl) that hinted at the new album title
The Colour in Anything; this was confirmed as the title of his new album several days later. The album was released on 6 May 2016. Blake collaborated with
Jay-Z on his album
4:44, handling the production on two of the three bonus tracks off the album and was also featured on the bonus track "MaNyfaCedGod". He also handled production on
Kendrick Lamar's song "
Element" as the original version of the track sounded "a little too jazzy". On 2 September 2016, Blake released a remix of "Timeless" featuring
Vince Staples which had already been leaked on the internet earlier. In December 2017, Blake released a cover of the song "
Vincent" by
Don McLean alongside a performance video shot in the studio.
2018–2020: Assume Form On 11 January 2018, Blake co-wrote and performed alongside
Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, and
Future on the single "
King's Dead" from Rock's album
Redemption and the soundtrack
Black Panther: The Album. The song was commercially successful, reaching number 21 in the United States and number 50 in the United Kingdom; later, the song (alongside
Anderson .Paak's "
Bubblin") would receive the
Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance at the
2019 ceremony. Blake also appeared on another track from the
Black Panther soundtrack album, "Bloody Waters", which Blake co-wrote alongside Lamar,
Mark Spears,
Robin Braun and
Ab-Soul. Blake's second solo single of that year, "
Don't Miss It", was shared on 24 May alongside a
lyric video and was released the next month. Despite receiving acclaim from music critics, a less positive review by Kevin Lozano of
Pitchfork described the track as "sad boy music" prompted a response from Blake, who said "I can't help but notice, as I do whenever I talk about my feelings in a song, that the words 'sad boy' are used to describe it. I've always found that expression to be unhealthy and problematic when used to describe men just openly talking about their feelings." Blake mixed and worked on additional production on the ninth album by American electronic musician
Oneohtrix Point Never, titled
Age Of, which was released in June 2018. He also co-wrote and was featured on the track "
Stop Trying to Be God" from
Travis Scott's third studio album,
Astroworld, and made an appearance in the song's music video. In December 2018, Blake announced that he would be embarking on a tour of North America in February/March 2019. People who had purchased tickets for the North America tour also received a copy of his forthcoming album. Later that month Blake teased new material with
André 3000 during a show in
Brooklyn, his second collaboration with the artist after "Look Ma No Hands" on which Blake provided the piano part, which was released earlier that year. In early January 2019,
Amazon.fr accidentally leaked details of Blake's fourth album,
Assume Form, including its track listing and a list of features including collaborations with André 3000, Travis Scott and
Metro Boomin. Soon after,
LED billboards appeared in
London and
New York promoting the album. The album's release date was later confirmed to be on 18 January 2019 due to advertising in the
London Underground. The day prior to the album's release, Blake released the tracks "
Mile High" featuring Travis Scott and Metro Boomin and "Lullaby for My Insomniac", respectively. Following the album's release, the tracks "
Barefoot in the Park" and "Mulholland", the latter of which is only included on the vinyl version of
Assume Form, were released as singles on 4 and 26 April respectively, the former accompanied by a music video. Blake released several new tracks throughout 2020, including "
You're Too Precious", as well as the
Before EP in October.
2021–2023: Friends That Break Your Heart and Playing Robots Into Heaven Blake released his fifth album,
Friends That Break Your Heart, on 8 October 2021, following a delay due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. A mostly stylistically traditional release, the record was followed-up by an
ambient album titled
Wind Down on 18 March 2022, created with German
artificial intelligence media company
Endel to help listeners fall asleep. The following year saw Blake collaborate with several
hip hop artists, such as
Kanye West,
Flatbush Zombies,
JID and
Don Toliver. Blake released his sixth album,
Playing Robots Into Heaven, on 8 September 2023. The album features
electronic,
dance, and
experimental music and was seen by critics as a return to his musical roots. The lead single, "Big Hammer", was released on 28 June 2023. A heist-themed music video was directed by Oscar Hudson and follows around three robbers in white tracksuits.
2024–present: CMYK Group and Trying Times In 2024, Blake left Polydor Records and formed his own production house and record label, as part of his brand CMYK Group. In May 2024, he released his first single as an independent artist, "Thrown Around". and
Bad Cameo, a collaborative album with
Lil Yachty. Blake contributed "Séance", a track created with
Ludwig Göransson, to
the Sinners (2025) film soundtrack after Göransson (the film's composer) approached him and offered to collaborate. On 23 January 2026, Blake released the song "
Death of Love" as the first single from his seventh studio album
Trying Times, which was released on 13 March through independent label Good Boy Records. ==Personal life==