Here, we examined the role of CXCR2 in melanocyte tumorigenesis and observed that targeted deletion of CXCR2 in tyrosinase-expressing melanocytes reduced melanoma tumor burden in Braf/Pten and NRas/Ink4a murine melanoma and modulated the expression of melanocyte stemness and differentiation markers, despite the presence of chimerism in our knockout tumors. Here, CDKN2A is linked to melanoma.