Cam Meekins

Growing up immersed in both pop acts like Dave Matthews Band and Sublime alongside hip-hop figures such as Jay-Z and Kanye West, Boston-based rapper Cam Meekins found himself well suited to emulate genre-blending artists including Asher Roth and Mac Miller, though he drew no direct inspiration from that pair. During a vacation at age 15, Meekins suffered a jet-ski accident that forced several months of recuperation, a stretch the budding artist devoted to mapping out his first project. Teaming with producer Matty Trump, he issued the 1993 mixtape in 2011, followed in 2012 by Faces, a release that confronted parallels to the prevailing wave of “frat” rappers. That same year the Atlantic imprint Giant Records recognized his distinctiveness and inked a deal with the emcee. His first album for the label, Lamp City, arrived in 2013.