Kodak Black

In May 2016, he was featured on French Montana's single "Lockjaw", from French Montana's 21st mixtape MC4, which reached a peak position of 23 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In August 2016, Kapri's single Skrt reached number 10 on Billboard's "Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles" chart. In June 2016, he released his fourth mixtape, Lil B.I.G. Pac, which became his first mixtape to chart on Billboard, reaching number 49 on the "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" chart and number 18 on the Heatseakers Albums chart.

In June 2016, Kapri was named one of XXL magazine's "2016 Freshman Class".

In August 2016, Kapri was criticized when a studio session video was released showing him ridiculing dark-skinned black women with lyrics which implied those women were less attractive than light-skinned black women, which is considered a type of misogynoir—anti-Black hatred towards women.

In 2016, Kapri released the song "Can I" while he was in jail.

On February 17, 2017, Kapri released the single "Tunnel Vision". The song debuted at number 27 and peaked at number 6, becoming Kapri's first top 10 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the Canadian Hot 100.

On March 31, 2017, Kapri released his debut studio album Painting Pictures. The album reached 3 on the Billboard 200 and sold 71,000 equivalent units first week, a record for Kapri. While discussing rappers and fellow 2016 XXL Freshmen, Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty, Kapri created controversy when he insulted them whilst conducting a livestream on Instagram. Lil Uzi Vert replied stating that he was not bothered by the insult and that he still "fcked with" Kapri. He released the follow-up to Project Baby, Project Baby 2, on August 18, 2017. In November 2017, Kapri released a deluxe version of Project Baby 2 titled Project Baby 2: All Grown Up. The single from the deluxe version, "Codeine Dreaming", peaked at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In January 2018, Kapri was arrested following a raid on his Florida home. Kapri later released the Heart Break Kodak mixtape on Valentines Day.

On December 14, 2018, Kodak released his second album Dying to Live. The album was led by the successful single "Zeze" which featured rappers Travis Scott and Offset, as well as "Take One", "Calling My Spirit", and "If I'm Lyin', I'm Flyin'". The album also featured rapper Lil Pump on "Gnarly", and paid respects to the late rapper XXXTentacion. "Zeze" peaked at #2 on the Hot 100, then "Calling My Spirit", also from the album, peaked at #46. Dying to Live as a whole was on the Hot 200 chart for 15 weeks, and peaked at #1 for a week.