This past weekend Chicago born emcee PreCise released his second official mixtape- Streetlights @ Noon. Like the current Howard University student explained in an interview with DZI: The Voice last month, his new project takes bolder steps lyrically and conceptually than his previous work.
So to get a better understanding of the inspirations and concepts for some of the songs on Streetlights @ Noon, DZI: The Voice tapped PreCise to participate in our “Track Down” series. The 22-year-old co-founder of the The M.E.D.ian Group collective picked 5 tracks off the tape and provides anecdotes about each song in his own words. Go deeper into 5 stellar songs from Streetlights @ Noon, and then be sure to download all 14 tracks from www.precise-tmg.com.
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“Listen To Your Heart”
Produced by Austin “A.P.” Patton
[audio:http://dezignintervention.blog.com/files/2013/03/02-Listen-To-Your-Heart-1.mp3|titles=Listen To Your Heart]PreCise:
This is probably my favorite track on the tape. Well, one of two or three favorites. When I recorded “Listen To Your Heart” it was something that took over me. It was like regardless of what people say, regardless of what happens, God’s purpose for you is to do this music, and that’s what your heart’s telling you.
There’s this saying that “boys make decisions with their heart, and men make decisions with their minds,” but I don’t believe that. I have always believed that dreamers make decisions with their hearts, and I’ve been a big dreamer. The dream was deferred, but it’s not denied. It’s not even deferred anymore, so listen to your heart. Do what you want to do.
That “Stop, Look, Listen” sample capped it off for me. I remember hearing that old school song by the Stylistics, and I hit up my producer, Austin Patton, like, “can you flip this?” He said, “hell yeah bruh. I got you.” He had that motherfucker to me by the evening. I remember I wrote to [the track] that day.
“Kick In The Door” Featuring T.jahi
Produced by Keylo Conn
[audio:http://dezignintervention.blog.com/files/2013/03/04-Kick-in-the-Door.mp3|titles=Kick in the Door]PreCise:
“Kick In The Door” was really about domestic violence. It stems from my favorite cousin, Kimberly Halloway, who was murdered by her husband a few years back. I must have been about 8 or 9 years old. Even since then I have had zero tolerance for men that put their hands on females or beat women.
So that track really did a lot for me. It really said a lot. It really translated the dislike that I had for domestic violence into a pretty accurate story from things that I’ve observed and heard. I felt that was something people needed to hear. Fellow The M.E.D.ian Group member T.jahi can relate too, so he didn’t have a problem featuring on that one and smashing it.
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“Heaven Knows”
Produced by K. Kordi
[audio:http://dezignintervention.blog.com/files/2013/03/08-Heaven-Knows.mp3|titles=Heaven Knows]PreCise:
This was just me pouring out my heart. I wrote it a while ago, but I really put a lot of my emotion into it when everything was happening with Troy Davis and Trayvon Martin. We had a lot going on in the world. Chicago’s violence was peaking.
I asked myself the question- “when is this going to be corrected?” I thought only God knows, but I didn’t want to make a song called “God Knows” because some people don’t believe in God. Some people have a specific God they believe in, so I didn’t want to get into people having religious debates about which God I was portraying all though I’m a Christian. So let me just talk about “heaven knows”. Everybody understands what heaven is from a spiritual aspect.
The day I was thinking about when is this shit gonna end, I was actually listening to Kanye [West’s] “Spaceship“. When it got to the breakdown where they’re singing “heaven knows”, I was like “heaven knows” is the phrase I’m trying to use. So that’s where that came from.
“20 Below” Featuring Staci Matthews
Produced by Black Light
[audio:http://dezignintervention.blog.com/files/2013/03/10-Twenty-Below.mp3|titles=20 Below]PreCise:
Obviously it’s about the relationship between a man and a women. “20 Below” really stemmed from the fact that a lot of people in relationships don’t succeed because they weren’t friends beforehand. Once you become friends you really know each other to a tee. So that’s why the hook is saying, “Let’s just chill. We can build.” Twenty below is cold as fuck so it’s like let’s just really, really chill. Let’s put the emphasis on that “chill factor” and we can build together. By the time we get in a relationship we won’t have the same problems.
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“Trippy Chick” (Bonus Track)
Produced by Brandon Carlyle
[audio:http://dezignintervention.blog.com/files/2013/03/14-Trippy-Chick.mp3|titles=Trippy Chick]PreCise:
When I did “Trippy Chick” I was really just telling the story about the dangers of lust and how it will get you caught up. That wasn’t even originally a track that was going to be on Streetlights @ Noon, but people heard it and was like, ‘yo, you gotta add that on as a bonus.” So I did that.
The flow is influenced by some of my favorite Chicago artists like Twista and somebody like Kendrick Lamar plus the storytelling ability to just come out and depict that story of being in a club and that one girl lures you in because she wanted something. She’s a “trippy chick”. I chose “trippy chick” because that’s something you can hear as an anthem. You hear people talking about it like “[hashtag]ThatTrippyChick” so I wanted to do something like that.
For more info about PreCise and to download ‘Streetlights @ Noon’ click it
To connect with PreCise follow him @PreCise_Dreams
To connect with T.jahi follow him @MrBlackWallSt
To connect with The M.E.D.ian Group follow them @TheMEDianGroup
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DZI: The Voice 