How Camper Became Victoria Monét, Kehlani’s Go-To R&B Producer
Over the previous 12 months, Camper you’ve quietly been steering the sound of latest R&B. The producer, whose actual title is Darhyl Camper Jr., has sat behind the boards for tracks from Justin Bieber, Coco Jones, Mary J. Blige, Ty Dolla $ign and Victoria Monét, amongst many others. So when it got here time for him to launch his debut album “Campilation” in early January, it got here as no shock that the tracklist learn like an R&B fever dream, touting options spanning Stevie Wonder and Jill Scott to Tank and Brandy.
How precisely did Camper turn into your favourite R&B artist’s favourite producer? “At the end of the day, I’m doing all this work and I know I have the work ethic. I know that I’m equipped to do the job,” he explains. “I just needed just to connect the dots and have a year that I’m having. I didn’t plan on it. I put in the work and it’s starting to all happen for me now. And I’m just very grateful and humbled that I’ve lived long enough to see this type of shift.”
For almost twenty years, Camper has regularly constructed out his discography on R&B’s foremost stage. Just this 12 months, he produced Scott’s “The Math” on his comeback album “To Whom This May Concern,” helmed Monét’s newest single “Let Me” and, final week, popped up within the liner notes of Kehlani’s eponymous fifth album for his work on “Still.” But it was with “Campilation” that he took his first actual step into the highlight, pulling collectively a slate of tracks he recorded alongside the way in which and contributing his personal vocals to songs like “Love Me” that includes Wonder on the harmonica.
The 35-year-old explains that his solo foray was a matter of timing, the place he may have continued producing for different artists or tapped into the sources sitting in entrance of him. He started asking collaborators to return the favor after they had been within the studio, and began to amass what would turn into a full physique of labor. “Everybody that I work with wants to see me win,” he says. “I’m just happy that I get to pay it forward and show them that. And the response that I’m getting with the album is surreal. Even with Stevie Wonder, I’m still pinching myself.”
That standout function took place when Camper was on the Los Angeles radio station 102.3 KJLH, showing on host Tammi Mac’s present. He credit it to kismet: Mac requested him who was on his dream checklist of collaborators and proper as he talked about Wonder, the legendary artist occurred to stroll via the door. “I’m like, is this fucking really happening right now?” he says with fun. “I know God works fast, but I ain’t never seen him work that fast before.” Wonder joined the dialog they usually exchanged info, resulting in a session the subsequent day. “I was probably crying for like a month straight” after they hit the studio, he says.
What distinguishes Camper, a minimum of musically, is his deference to basic R&B signifiers with out kowtowing to pastiche. His manufacturing feels timeless but crisp and acquainted, a mode he is refined through the years in working with artists. “Music can start anywhere. That’s the special thing about it,” he says. “The keyboard’s up and running, you start playing chords, something might hit you right there and then boom.” Or, he says, it blossoms from a dialog with an artist about their present frame of mind. “Just jamming out with my musician friends, I might hear a loop or something or a sample like Stevie before the studio. It doesn’t matter. I draw inspiration from anything because anything and everything inspires me in some way, shape or form.”
If 2026 feels just like the 12 months of sudden ubiquity for Camper, it wasn’t with out a lengthy street to get there. Camper grew up in New Jersey and fell into music after his grandmother and father pressured him to take piano classes. He regularly warmed as much as the instrument and commenced enjoying in church, the place he met Jordan “Infinity” Suecof, who had labored with Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. Together, he secured his first placement on Bow Wow and Omarion’s “Hoodstar” and continued to contribute to data from R. Kelly and Backstreet Boys.
Camper cut up off from Suecof and went solo, producing tracks for Mariah Carey (“Dedicated” that includes Nas), Keyshia Cole (“Trust and Believe”) and Elle Varner (“Refill”), the latter of which earned him a Grammy nomination. Since then, he is labored throughout style traces to collaborate with HER, Mary J. Blige, and Ye and Ty Dolla Sign, contributing to a 3rd of their “Vultures 1” challenge.
At this level, Camper is conscious that he has the posh of being choosy as a producer, a freedom that many musicians fail to realize. These days, his litmus take a look at for working with an artist is that “I would have to believe you. If I don’t believe you, I’m not doing it.” And whereas he tends to work with artists for a couple of songs on a challenge, he is exploring full-length collaborations following the discharge of “Campilation,” noting that he is producing the whole lot of Monét’s upcoming album.
But for now, his foremost goal is to steer the sound of R&B in a brand new route, nonetheless he can. “We need to push it forward. I get sampling and all of that, but 2026 needs a fresh sound,” he says. “I just know what R&B means. And the more that I grow, the more that the cure gets to spread if we’re in a world filled with viruses.”
