Campbell was born into a working-class family in Kingston. The son of a train driver, he grew up in one of the city's toughest neighbourhoods.

He developed a taste for music at a young age and in 1956 he started singing at Kingston nightclubs for small pay. He formed a succession of bands with several of his friends, none of which were really successful.

What turned Campbell's music career around was the growing sound system craze. Across Jamaica, music promoters drove vans filled with stereo equipment to stage mobile parties. The operators of the sound system would play the most popular R&B dance records of the day and often they would have a vocalist called a toaster call out the dancers' names, chant in rhythm and make light-hearted boasts; the toaster form was the primary influence on early rap MCs.

Eventually, Campbell was introduced to Clement Dodd, a businessman who operated one of Kingston's most popular sound systems. Interestingly, Campbell was not hired as a musician but as security. Because of rivalries between fans devoted to a particular sound system, the parties sometimes could become quite rough and Campbell had been a skillful amateur boxer as a teenager. It was in this line of work that he earned the nickname 'The Prince', which along with his boyhood name Buster (from his middle name Bustamente), formed the name under which he would later become famous.

In 1960, Buster produced a record for the Folkes Brothers for the Wild Bells label, Oh Carolina, under his nickname. This record included African drumming for the first time in Jamaican music and was an instant hit.

Buster's early records (most of which were released in the UK by Melodisc Records) contributed greatly to the developing sound of ska. Buster was soon recording himself as well as producing records for others. By this time ska was becoming the hottest music in the country and he moved on to Melodisc's spinoff label, Blue Beat, which focussed exclusively on ska.

From 1963 to the end of the decade, Buster wrote and cut dozens of records for Blue Beat, nearly all of which were hits. In addition, he produced over one hundred records for other artists on the same label. He experimented with new production techniques that were used by other producers for years.

Soon after his initial success, Buster was drawing international attention. He toured Britain extensively during this period, playing to sellout crowds and appearing on TV programmes such as Ready, Steady, Go! in 1964. Several of Buster's singles charted in the UK, the most famous of which was Al Capone, which was the first Jamaican record to break into Britain's top 20. He also toured Europe. Although none of his singles charted as highly in the US, he went on a successful American tour in 1967.

Besides being a pioneering musician, Buster, like Clement Dodd, was also very interested in business. He started a record store in Kingston in the early 1960s which is still owned and operated by his family today. Later he founded a jukebox company. He also started the Prince Buster Records label. Although it proved unsuccessful, he was able to cut most of his losses by selling it to the former owner of Blue Beat.

Prince Buster joined the Nation of Islam after meeting Muhammad Ali while on a tour of England in 1964.

By the 1970s, Buster had slowed down his career as a musician to focus on his business ventures. The ska sound was not as popular as it once was, but its influence was clearly felt in its descendants: rocksteady, which was slower than ska and more influenced by gospel and soul, and by rocksteady's better-known successor, reggae. In addition to the musical influence, many reggae lyrics expressed an Afrocentric, Marcus Garvey-inspired worldview, which had been present in some of Prince Buster's songs. Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert and other reggae stars have acknowledged their debt.

Buster also made a cameo appearance in the acclaimed international hit movie, The Harder They Come.

By the late 1970s, Buster was in serious financial trouble. His business ventures were all posting losses or low profits and the loans he had taken out to start them were catching up. Fortunately for him, ska was experiencing a revival in the UK. In 1979, the band Madness released its first record, a tribute to Buster called The Prince, which urged ska fans to remember 'the man who set the beat'. Interest in Buster soared during this time; he received royalties when his songs were covered by bands like the Specials, the (English) Beat and Madness, and his old records were reissued and sold well.

Prince Buster now lives in Miami, Florida. He no longer records or produces, but has performed at a few shows over the past several years.