Darryl Pearson

Darryl "Day" Pearson is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for writing and producing "It's All About Me", a Mya/Sisqó single that peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Part Time Lover" (a Top 10 R&B Hit for group H-Town from the 1994 Above the Rim soundtrack), as well as "Trippin' ", a collaboration between Total and Missy Elliott that climbed to #7 on the Hot 100 in 1998.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} His 1998 contributions to albums from Total, Mya, and others resulted in a top 10 placement on Billboard's "Hot R&B Producers" 1998 Year-End Chart.^[6] Pearson has also produced or written songs for Usher, Beyoncé, and Sam Smith, among others.^[7]

Motivated to enter the music industry in the early 1990s, Pearson began producing demos for friends sending music to record labels in hopes of securing deals. This practice developed into a writing and production partnership with R&B group Jodeci.^[8] He relocated to both Teaneck, New Jersey and Rochester, New York to work with DeVante Swing's Swing Mob collective, which evolved into R&B/Hip-hop production team and Elektra Records label imprint Da Bassment Cru with the addition of producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley. Over the next five years, Pearson would be credited with creating music for various affiliated artists including Missy Elliott (as well as her group Sista), Mary J. Blige, K-Ci & JoJo, Dru Hill, Ginuwine (via an unreleased 1995 debut album for Da Bassment/Elektra), Timbaland & Magoo, and the eponymous debut album of LaFace/Arista Records artist Usher, among others.^{[9][10][11][12]}

In 1996, Pearson began working closely with ByStorm Entertainment CEO Mark Pitts on the creation and sound formulation of R&B Band Born In August, discussed in-depth in a July 1996 Billboard article.^[13] Pearson would produce, arrange vocals, and play all instruments on their debut single "April" released in August 1996, lauded in a Billboard review for his ability to "pair the perfect track to the group's melodic vocal inflections... result[ing in] a light, airy, and exciting track worthy of a hot summer release."^[14] Their completed, 15-track debut album Timeless Journey was later shelved indefinitely by parent label Universal Records.

In 1997, Pearson joined forces with singer and songwriter Blandinna Melky Jean from group Melky Sedeck to create R&B duo Melky & Day, and released single "I Got A Love Jones For You" for Columbia Records/Sony on the 1997 Love Jones soundtrack alongside duo Refugee Camp All-Stars. The single was a remake of the hit Brighter Side of Darkness single "Love Jones".^[15][16]

In 1998, Pearson co-wrote and produced hit single "Trippin'" from Total album Kima, Keisha, and Pam, and was also a major contributor to Mya's eponymous 1998 debut album for University/Interscope Records, producing and/or writing 7 of the 13 tracks that appeared.^{[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]} These included Top 40 single "Movin On" and Top 10 single "It's All About Me".^[24][25][26] Also in 1998, Pearson contributed to Mosley's debut single as an artist, "Here We Come" alongside Elliott, Playa, and Magoo for his solo debut album Tim's Bio: Life from da Bassment, which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the UK and Dutch charts.^[27] As discussed in a 1998 Timbaland interview for MTV, "Darryl [and I] were messing around in the studio and he was humming the Spider-Man tune, 'Doomp do doomp, doomp do doomp,' so he was doing that, and I was like, 'Do that again,'... [h]e did it, and I sampled his vocals doing that and I put a beat on top of it, and we just rapped to it."^[28] In 1999, Pearson contributed 4 songs to emerging R&B singer Terry Dexter's eponymous debut album, and two songs to Shai album Destiny.^[29][30]

As reported by Billboard in a February 13, 1999 article, Pearson was scheduled to release his debut solo album (titled Savior's Day) on MCA Records in the summer of 1999, immediately after a May 8 release of lead single "You Should Be With Me" featuring Mya, but the project and single were shelved for undisclosed reasons.^[1] Pearson song "How Many Times" was placed on 1999 MCA Records compilation Summer Heat Nineteen Ninety Nine - Volume One, but remains officially unreleased. Another album track, "I'll Give U All I Got" appeared on several MCA Records promotional CD Samplers sent to radio stations at the time, but also remains officially unreleased. His sole release as a solo act remains a rendition of "Silent Night" from 1999's MCA Records Compilation My Christmas Album.^[31] MCA executives planned to release Pearson's appearance as a single to various Adult Contemporary radio formats in promotion of the Christmas project.^[32]

After early 2000s contributions to projects from Missy Elliott and Dru Hill, Pearson again reunited with Swing Mob producer Mosley in 2006 and entered his Mosley Music Group camp, contributing to Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds (credited for guitar accompaniments to number one hit "SexyBack" and album cut "Sexy Ladies"), Madonna's Hard Candy (guitar credits on "Dance 2Night"), Chris Cornell's 2009 album Scream (various instruments), co-writing "Grown Woman" alongside Mosley for Beyoncé's Pepsi campaign in 2013, and co-writing "Pray" from Sam Smith's 2017 album The Thrill of It All.^{[33][34][35][36]} In 2016, Pearson, alongside greiBO Entertainment co-producer Davis Grei, produced a video using images from Jermaine UniqueEye, Christopher Ervin and others to capture the 2015 Baltimore protests, winning a bronze Telly Award in the "music video" and "social responsibility" categories.^[37] In 2022, Pearson co-wrote "Plenty Love", a song performed by Bri Steeves representing Pennsylvania on television series American Song Contest.^[38]

Credits are courtesy of Tidal and Discogs.

° Ginuwine - Untitled Shelved 1995/1996 Debut Album (Da Bassment / Elecktra)