D4vd got his start in the early 2020s while live streaming video games, and in interviews credited Fortnite with exposing him to The Neighbourhood, Arctic Monkeys and other alternative artists. Prior to that, D4vd said he strictly listening to gospel music growing up. After some time on Fortnite, he made his first songs under the D4vd moniker titled “Run Away” and “You and I.” He used the latter song for gameplay montage videos, and noticed that people started taking it and using it in their own montages.

“…I was like, ‘Okay, this could be something,’ so I kept making songs,” D4vd told VMAN in 2022.

D4vd released two singles in 2022 to get fans ready for his debut EP, Petals to Thorns. The first single was “Romantic Homicide,” which dropped in July 2022 and went viral on TikTok, eventually peaking at No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single was “Here With Me,” which also went viral online and hit No. 60 on the chart.

The song’s success led to D4vd being contacted by Darkroom and Interscope Records, leading to him signing with the label in September 2022.

D4vd was announced as one of the openers on SZA’s blockbuster SOS tour, which kicked off in February 2023. D4vd was one of three openers, joining Omar Apollo and Raye.

“I’m SZA’s biggest fan. I’m super grateful to her,” D4vd told Rolling Stone at the time. “When I got the news I was locked in for the tour, I was in a recording session and I jumped up, threw my headphones and was just going crazy.”

Days later, the body found in the Tesla registered to D4vd was identified as a missing 15-year-old girl named Celeste Rivas Hernandez. She had been last seen in April 2024, and had been reported missing. Officials announced that her remains weren’t intact and she had been dead for an “extended period of time.”

The next day, a home in Los Angeles where D4vd had previously stayed was searched by police.

The musician was arrested for suspicion of killing the teen whose remains were found in the trunk of a car registered to him. The LAPD said D4vd was being held without bail.

His legal team insisted on D4vd’s innocence in a statement shared the same day. “The actual evidence in this case will show that David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez and he was not the cause of her death,” they said. “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case and no criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion. We will vigorously defend David’s innocence.