By Laura Marie
Scrolling through social media, it’s common to stop on a viral video, be it a cute animal or a heartwarming scene of kindness. These days, though, you might recognize the surroundings if you see a video of musical artist and rapper Camren “Camo” Conerly, a 12-year-old who has videos with millions of views. He’s a Hamilton native and has filmed his videos in a variety of spots around town.
His musical journey started a long time ago, though, according to Camren’s mom, Amber Conerly.
“We always knew that Camren had something musically going on since he was about 2 years old,” says Conerly. “He was obsessed with Michael Jackson. He always had a really good rhythm, and he would pick up things really fast.”
Throughout childhood, Camren would learn dances and lyrics for fun. When he turned 10 years old, he started expressing that he wanted to write and record his own music like his dad, Chris. Their father-son bonding turned into a joint project to write and produce a song. Camren also started auditioning for acting, singing, and dancing roles; he found it fairly easy to pick up new lines and moves, which helped him with his first successes as an actor in advertisements.
“Chris showed Camren how to put words and rhyme together, and taught him the ropes,” explains Conerly. “He gets better and better. We did a few remakes of popular songs, but his main thing is original music.”
As his songs amassed views online, his fame spread from his hometown here in Hamilton; talent agents in both Atlanta and Los Angeles are now working with Camo. Over the past few months, he’s been finishing up an EP to release his music called Welcome to Camilton.
“We ask him all
the time whether he likes it still,” says Conerly. “He always says yes, he
loves singing and dancing and making music that people like.”
Their family has had to
make some commitments, given that he is still 12 years old and has his regular
life in the 7th grade. His parents handle his social media presence, rather
than having him get involved intensely with online media too young, and they
focus on lyrics that any child can listen to.
“It’s really important for us that the lyrics be clean and age-appropriate,” says Conerly. “He’s very much doing his music, and then going back to doing his 12-year-old boy life.”
One meaningful moment the family can clearly recall was when Camo’s remake of “Bounce” by kid musical group Kris Kross went viral on Facebook, and the father of Jermaine Dupri, producer of the original Kris Kross group, gave Amber and Camo a call.
“It was so emotional for him that we created the video as a tribute,” says Conerly. “He said ‘we are watching, it was amazing, thank you so much.’ It was an honor to hear from him. I knew we were doing the right thing.”
Camo hopes to share good messages in his songs, like an upcoming song on his EP all about positivity. Everything from his Michael Jackson style moonwalk to his excitement to star in music videos portrays his enthusiasm and joy.
“Hamilton has been a huge supporting factor; he named his first EP after this town because this is where he’s from, where he started,” says Conerly.Keep an eye out at this year’s Operation Pumpkin event for a chance to see Camo perform live. You can watch his music videos on YouTube and follow his journey through his Facebook & Instagram page. All under Camo513.