Miss Kam Covers the Nu Era Issue of NUNAR
Miss Kam photographed in Baltimore, MD by Tiimy Reid styled in Caylee Shelton designerwear.
NUNAR’s JAN 2024 Nu Era Issue print is now available.
Three years since her debut album Tew Faced and one year since her follow-up Tew Be Continued, Miss Kam has become a force in Baltimore. We spoke with Baltimore rapper and recording artist, Miss Kam, to talk about what being a multi-hyphenate black woman means to her, sharing her creative endeavors with others and disciplining yourself into being in the moment when exciting things are happening to you.
Miss Kam boasts an impressive array of creative titles, spanning from music to medicine. Where most people see a period after one title, she chooses to see a comma, an invitation to continue adding to her diverse repertoire. If you can’t decipher through her music or extremely vibrant and laugh-out-loud social media, Miss Kam has a very animated and upbeat aura– a far cry from her “shy and quiet” childhood. Then, one day, she realized she had a personality that couldn’t be caged in. “I literally won ‘the most dramatic’ senior year of high school. I learned how to tap into it and just be dramatic. Life is too short. I've seen some dark stuff so I try to cheer people up and cheer myself up.”
Growing up, Miss Kam's mother, Linnyette Richardson-Hall – a culinary TV personality and holder of many other titles – served as her visionary role model, a dynamic entrepreneur whose multifaceted ventures illuminated the vast possibilities within reach. “As a young black woman in this economy, I'm trying to figure out how to get my funds and at the same time pour into what I love.” Miss Kam strives to find the intersection between financial stability and pursuing her passions, with ophthalmology emerging as an unexpected love rather than just a 9-5 source of income.
“You know most creatives are octopuses, we got eight tentacles you just got to find which one sticks! You know not all of them are gonna stick but they're still going to work. You can still grab onto different things and find out which one works,” says Miss Kam of the various creative adventures that she is on. Breaking free from societal limitations, she emphasizes the importance of embracing multifaceted identities, especially for black women, who often face stereotyping. “Even with black women, it's unfortunate that in a lot of spaces, people only see us as one way… I took my breaks but now just trying to find my footing. I think sometimes it comes off as I know what I'm doing but sometimes I just be out here, girl,” she says. Acknowledging her own exploration, even in areas that might not define her ultimate calling, she values the process of trying and discovering.
Miss Kam has been shining in a lot of different areas of her career. She is apart of the Recording Academy’s Washington D.C. Chapter on the Hip-Hop Committee and has been seen in i-D magazine, for Spotify’s Frequency campaign, and in one of her most jaw-dropping highlights, being honored in The Culture: Hip-Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum. She tells us how she had to sit herself down and recognize what was happening around her. It took the staff at the exhibit and her friends asking her “Do you know what this means?” She laughed and asked them “Girl, remind me!” Despite initial disassociation from the magnitude of the achievement, she eventually grasped the historical significance, realizing her place in the broader narrative of hip-hop.
Navigating the digital era's comparison trap, Miss Kam reflects on the perception of not doing enough, only to recognize her unique contribution to history. “I be thinking like Oh, I’m not doing enough or Its not that serious or Its not that big but then as time started to creep in I really sat and looked and was like, bruh, this is apart of history.” Beyond her museum honor, she tantalizes with insights into forthcoming projects in TV and music for the new year, hinting at a mix of excitement and anticipation. “I can't say too much… but I have some things that I am really really excited about in different avenues between TV and my music.”
As the curtain rises on 2024, Miss Kam envisions delving into television and honing her hosting skills. Eager to leverage her networking opportunities to uplift others, she sees this phase as a transition from personal acclaim to a collective illumination, where her connections become pathways for collective success. “I am really excited for 2024… about to get some TV time and into my hosting bag. I had a lot of opportunities with networking and I'm just excited to bring all those connections together and to make everybody win. I feel like I’ve had my time to shine but now it's really time to bring that light to others!”
