“School is my Grammy!” Vibing with Kameo Latortue, Class of ‘24 

“I am SO ready for this,” says recording artist Kameo Latortue. He turns for a minute toward the wall and takes a breath.  

When he turns back around, his eyes are glistening. The 2024 Guttman graduate is describing his bachelor’s program at Baruch College where he’s specializing in management of musical enterprises, an ambitious blend of credits from the Weissman School’s Fine and Performing Arts Department and the Zicklin School of Business. A curriculum designed for students wanting careers in the music industry seems like a perfect fit for Latortue, who earned his associate degree in business administration earlier this year. 

At 35, Kameo, one half of the queer pop/R&B duo EHRIE, wants his 40s to look different. “We’ve been doing music for over 20 years,” says Latortue, who began singing and performing with his twin at age 9. “In my 30s, I thought, ‘OK, time to lock it in.’ I felt like my dream was becoming more of a hobby. So, at 32, I did it. I went back to college.” 

Latortue began as a freshman in Fall 2022. It wasn’t his first time. Fresh out of high school in 2008, Kameo enrolled at Atlanta Metropolitan State College in Georgia and left after his first semester. “It was too big,” he says. “I felt lost and nervous.” 

But Guttman was different. “It was small. It felt safe,” he recalls. “Over the years, I experienced so much. Trials and tribulations, homelessness, things working out and some things not. I felt like if I was going to try college again, the environment there was everything I needed. It was on me to make it work.” 

“What I found out was that as an adult learner, it’s not that hard!” he laughs. “When you want it, you do the work! You show up; you can’t fail! I learned from interacting with my professors and laughing and engaging with the other students that it’s OK not to know… as long as you’re willing to try. Guttman gave me so many opportunities. 

Kameo is particularly proud of one of those opportunities, sponsored by the Pulitzer Center, a global network supporting journalistic excellence, suggested by his English professor Thomas Philipose. Kameo applied and was chosen as a 2023 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow. “I’ve never won a scholarship, and I’ve never felt like I have to be first in everything—I just want to be in the room, you know? So this  —the Pulitzer Fellowship — this can never be taken away from me. It’s a strong reminder of what happens when you don’t give up on yourself.”  

Latortue pitched his project to the Pulitzer journalists on a topic that he knew all too well: “Internalized Homophobia and Transphobia among the Black Queer Community.” 

“I used to constantly police my behavior in public because I was afraid of being rejected and ridiculed. For a long time as a young adult, concerned about how other gay men would perceive me, I struggled with accepting the feminine parts of myself,” he wrote in his fellowship application. 

Kameo researched the fear of femininity among Black gay men and the superficiality rooted in femmephobia often directed at Black trans women. He conducted interviews with members of New York’s Black gay/trans community, then created a podcast that offers a deeper look at what contributes to the internalized homophobia and transphobia they experienced. “Black queer men can say some of the most derogatory things about other Black gay men and trans people. Toxic masculinity happens in this community. It can be crippling to deal with, and it alienates queer people from one another,” he asserts. 

For Kameo and his brother Romeo, who is also gay, their Haitian American family has been a faith-filled source of strength and comfort. “Coming out, there were some bumps in the road, but we could always count on their love and belief in us,” the Brooklyn-born musician says. His mother watched her young twins sing and dance in front of the mirror and encouraged them to continue by providing voice lessons. In 1998, their father took them to Jackie Robinson Summer Camp where they performed in the park and when they were 14, signed them up for a local Talent All-Stars show for which they had to sell tickets in order to get onstage. Harder than it looked, the two boys couldn’t make a single sale. “Dad bought up all the tickets so we could compete,” Latortue admits. That day, the audience swelled with the twins’ three little sisters, aunts and cousins who are now EHRIE fans. 

EHRIE released its first album in 2019, after years of Kameo and his brother writing, producing, recording and performing original music which Billboard describes as “a funky and sensual feel-good disco-tinged escape.” Three of the brothers’ singles have been featured on Billboard Queer Necessities, and their song “Half Bad” is featured on the curated Fresh Finds playlist on Spotify. Just released in March 2024, their single “Just Like That” can be found on SoundCloud, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook — platforms that Kameo and Romeo work hard to keep fresh with their music, fashion and humorous antics. The band encourages their followers to be who they are and to love themselves. 

Still, it’s a hard industry, and at a time when many question the value of a college degree, Kameo is pushing his marketing skills beyond his teenage ticket-selling days to encourage his best friend and cousin to consider continuing their education. Romeo watched his twin succeed, and now he’s on campus as a first-year liberal arts major. Says Kameo: “I feel that with college, I’m giving myself a shot at a platinum, at touring the world performing. I am so happy I made the choice to go to Guttman and transfer to Baruch. School is my Grammy right now. This is my VMA.”