Published on June 5th, 2020 | by Guest Contributor

Who Is Cam Carter?

Cam Carter who is a new find for us is a songwriter and recording artist from Memphis, Tennessee, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. His debut album is titled “Halo into Hell” and is set to drop sometime within the year.   With such singles as “Knee High,” “Haha,” “First Date,” “Lost in the in Crowd,” and “Shadows,” Carter has established himself as a rapper who is willing to blend and defy genres—combining southern hip-hop, pop, and rock elements.

His style garnered the attention of One West Magazine in March 2019, Hip Hop Since 1987, and Hip Hop Weekly Magazine in February 2020.   His full body of work is available on all platforms, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Revohloo, and YouTube.   His latest single, is entitled “Self Destruct,” featuring Ray K; it’s a trippy vibe but introspective.

The Hype Magazine got Cam Carter to weigh in on a few things!

From the outside looking in, Who Is Cam Carter?

From the outside looking in, I’m a rock star. My music is dope. I get to do things that normal people don’t do, and my life is a crazy ass movie.

I’ve flown airplanes, kicked it with celebrities, and I continue to generate more and more fans of my music weekly. I’m a man of many words and perspectives and many people of my past never expected me to be doing what I’m doing.

I’m humble, but I know what’s next for me. My goals are insane.

What brought you to the entertainment industry, music specifically?

I’m from Memphis, TN. I was born with music in my blood and a blunt in my mouth. What fascinates me the most about music is how an artist can capture a moment in time and make it live forever. It took a while for me to pursue what I’ve always wanted, but I’ll make up for it with quality hip hop. However, hip hop was always just the beginning. I’ve always been a song writer that enjoys creating other genres of music. That is what sets me apart from the rest of my peers in this industry. I hope to become one of the greatest because of it.

Tell us about your current project and what it means for you?

Honestly, I have so many projects that I want to work on, but I like to keep my focus and prioritize them accordingly. I have so many ideas it’s sometimes hard to decide if I should work on something old or something new because either way, it will be new to the world. Currently, my primary focus is on preparing for a performance at The World Famous Rock & Rock Hall of Fame venue, The Whiskyagogo on August 13 in West Hollywood, CA. Being able to grace the stage with the ghosts of some of the greatest musicians in history is a huge responsibility. I look forward to that being an epic night.

Given the current situation of all that is going on in the world, I have put a few projects on hold for now. We have some deep internal problems we’re facing as a whole in this country, and it’ll take much more than music to mend us back together. I am shifting my focus to something I wrote in 2015 called “Make Love, Not History.” It’s basically a modern declaration of our global cry for peace. It’s a 100+ page rhapsody written in verse that stands for something much bigger than myself. I feel that it is a good time to give it legs and drag people through what we have become, wake people up, and paint the road towards love.

We’re in the midst of a revolution. There will be a new renaissance and a new wave of pioneers once the smoke clears. I’ll be one of them.

If you had to pick a song from your body of work as an introduction for the first time listener, what would that be?

Knee High, my debut single. It was my first song for a reason. I wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love (Woodstock 1969) and have Los Angeles turn the fu*k up for no reason. It feels like Miami but looks like LA. The premise is basically bringing different ethnicities together and them all playing a role as a color in a spectrum, equally beautiful in a different fashion, representing not only individualism but also a good time.

I did that because I wanted a summer anthem that consisted of bikinis, hot girls, margaritas, and water guns. It’s spicy as Tabasco, but as smooth as Gatorade. The beat is also very catchy and has a genre defying vibe that works well for the club and the radio.

What inspires you to make a song?

I trust the vibes everytime. I never force a concept like I used to when I was younger. When a situation in life arises, the music usually just comes to me. By then I simply just hold the pen, and the song writes itself. Sometimes, I’ll write to an imaginary metronome and then arrange it as it comes. Usually when I do that, I dig up the title in the process by accident, then I build off that. Sometimes, I know exactly what I want to write about. I make a brain storm web and just play with words and snowball it in a fun direction. I see through the cracks in life so it’s pretty easy for me to stay inspired.

Writing raps and writing songs to me are two different things. If I write a rap I can go on for 200 bars and talk about nothing all day long, and it still go hard. Songs on the other hand, take a much higher level of consideration and concentration for me. What inspires me to continue making music is that when I die, my voice and my lyrics live on forever. If that’s not badass I don’t know what is.

As a songwriter and artist you hear a lot of music, are you still able to listen to it for pure pleasure or do you find yourself analysing everything you hear?

I vibe to some songs. I love all types of music. I definitely pay my respects to hip hop, but I don’t analyze it. Not since Pac and Wayne at least. If anything, I usually turn it off. It distracts me from the music I could be making. I never have been that way until my feet sank deeper in the music industry. I think the less music of my peers I hear, the more unique and original I sound. Plus it saves me from all the trend tripping bullshit. I already write the future and that freaks me out enough.

I have a distinct accent, a deep southern hip hop flow, and a large vocabulary. I can flip my delievery to different styles of hip hop. If I ever get frustrated with a song or appear to be bothered, it’s because I’m confident that I can do better. But instead of being all analytical and sounding like a hater, I don’t speak on it and just use it as fuel to sharpen my sword.

I love listening to older music. It’s there. And it’s not going anywhere. Certain songs bring back memories of bonfires, blue eyes, and beer. I’d like to pay homage to all of the music that inspires me. It’ll get done.

Who’s on your bucket list to create with?

I want to put Lil Wayne and Juicy J on a record. I want to take some of the 90’s bands I grew up listening to and flip some of them into a cross genre style of hip hop. Think Evanescence and Korn meets Post Malone and Taylor Swift. Or a Pink Floyd vibe with someone like Travis Scott or Kid Cudi on it. I’d like to work with Joyner Lucas, Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Blackbear. I have some good ideas up my sleeve I’ll just have to freight train my way into those conversations.

Anything special on your playlist?

Cam Carter: Shadows, Lost in the in Crowd, Anything for that Body, Spaceships, Self Destruct, Just Listen, First Date, Haha, and Knee High.

If I can’t be a fan of my own sh*t, I have no business doing music.

Tell us about your work and passions outside of music?

I like to cook. I was a sushi chef for few years during and after college. I got some serious skills no cap. I used to work for the Memphis Grizzlies in their direct marketing department back when they knocked the Spurs out of the playoffs as an eighth seed. That made me a huge fan. Going to college at Ole Miss made me passionate about their football, baseball and basketball programs. I’ll always bleed red and blue.

I’ve always had a secret passionate for writing. Sometimes my ADHD won’t allow me to sit down and write so I have to implement better habits when I do have projects like that. I believe I’d be a great television screen writer, but that’s something for a later time in my career. I’m passionate about women and beauty in general. I admire all things I find beautiful whether it’s art or food. Anything that I love, I’m passionate about.

Last but not least Hype wants to know what’s been your craziest WTF moment thus far in your career?!

I went to bed in Houston, TX one time and woke up in Baton Rouge, LA on top of an air conditioning unit with a sombrero on my co*k. I had to somehow get all the way back to Galveston, TX to get my car and then make it all the way back to Oxford, MS for an event.

I had some people with me on the home stretch trip and we ran out of money so we had to siphon gas to make it back. Back then I had a Honda Civic slammed to the ground with rims and a body kit and I used to measure road trips by how many blunts it would take to get there. For instance, Memphis to St. Louis is four blunts.

Anyways, after getting my car back, we started grinding our way back to Oxford. I had someone else driving my car and we were all smoking a blunt and the next thing I know, I see sparks flying as the passenger tire explodes. The reason I mention that is because I had body kit so me and my friend were arguing about the jack and how it would break the body kit. So he gets all aggressive and then gets cut pretty bad on his hands when he was already on bond for a big assault case so now his injury made his pending case even more fishy, on top of that he had to shit.

This guy was literally bleeding, throwing up, and shi**ing all at the same time.

I will never forget that. Then as I make it to the event in Oxford, MS… Then next thing I know I’m on a tour bus selling weed to Saving Abel while Barack Obama and John McCain are preparing for the presidential debate. Looking back at that makes me definitely say, “wtf?”

A more recent wtf moment happened about a week ago in Marina Del Ray, CA. I was tripping on some mushrooms at the beach with some friends and then all of the sudden Gata from Dave on FX pops up on my phone. Then a day later Fetty Wap hits me up and puts my song on his 06/15 mixtape.