Photos by Julien Carr — Photos by **Julien Carr**

For Preme, DJing is second nature. Growing up on the East Side of Chicago, music was always a part of Preme’s life whether it was playing DJ Hero as a kid or DJing underground Chicago shows in high school. From fans to collaborators, Preme has built a network of people who have one simple commonality; they all love music. “I really genuinely love music… and just even matching someone’s emotions at that time of when they hear a song, is so amazing to me. For people even to just rock with me off loving music is just amazing.” His ability to connect with crowds and capture these emotions is what’s led Preme to bigger shows such as Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash.

To Preme, “Music is the most important language you could ever communicate through” so when the Pandemic hit and live events came to a halt, Preme focused on finding new ways of connecting with fans. His use of Instagram Live and Mixlr kept him connected virtually until he was safely able to perform again at the LSD Drive-In show, opening for Lil Yachty this August. Shortly after, he released his ‘Young and Turnt’ mix on Soundcloud and has been working on a project since then.

We linked up with Preme through Zoom to talk about his origins as a DJ, how he’s adapted to the current landscape of the Music Industry, and what he envisions for DJs in the future. It was a gloomy Sunday when we hopped on Zoom, but his eagerness and excitement lit up the room similar to the way it would if he was performing on stage.

For those who know you and your journey, it's safe to say the path you've been on has been very transparent and equally inspiring. Can you tell us about your come-up and how you got started as a DJ?

Preme: Around the age of 12, I got my first DJ Set. My Mom used to play music around me and I used to watch festival videos like around 2012/2013, that's when Travis [Scott] was coming out and Chance. I was like a man, I wanna be A DJ because it's just playing your favorite music to people. So my mom got me a DJ set and then when I started hs like 14/15 that’s when I started doing little events and stuff. Once I did my first one where I met everybody we know now, it was like meant to be.

What influence has Chicago had on you as an artist?

Man, I feel like it's still shaping me each day. Chicago and its history, not only regular Chicago history, but the music history is really close to me. I have cousins who used to rap and my stepdad used to be in old Soul groups in the 70s and my dad’s a super super music head who was into Public Enemy cuz like he was messing with the Black Panthers and he used to play that around me. Just me always being connected to Chicago through music has just really made me always go hard and be very optimistic. We have so much stuff out here, so many types of music and types of people that spread music through the city and I wanna be in that music history because it’s so rich, and it's really like a ‘if you know, you know’.

From Summer Smash to Lil Yachty to Lil Keed, what's it like stepping into paid gigs and performing for bigger crowds?

I think about this a lot and I try to do smaller shows every now and then just to pop up and do cool sets. But I really like [big shows] and the people who introduce me to that level of DJing, I feel like they trusted me with how talented I am and how I carry myself. I also don’t do too many shows that don’t make sense- If I do a show, I gotta be opening up for an artist that I really like. Most likely I know their crowd and what everybody wants to hear and what everybody wants to see. To have the chance to even do that is kinda amazing, it's just a super big jump from chilling doing the basement shows to going to big shows. Hopefully, I can transition to another level of my doing my own shows.

Speaking of shows, do you have any pre-show rituals?

A lot of people ask me this question and I be wanting to [have these rituals] but sometimes I be so much in mode. Usually, I'll pray but other than that, I’ll listen to some music before but if it’s 30 minutes before I’m probably not listening to any music. I feel like it’s me just zoning in. When you have something you love and it's second nature, everything else doesn’t matter when that thing is happening.

As the Pandemic hit this year and live shows have come to a halt, you’ve utilized Instagram Live and Mixlr to connect with fans. Can you talk a bit about that?

I started out on IG Live. Just seeing all the other DJs doing it kind of inspired me and people were asking me “man we haven’t seen you spin in a while.” Then I did a couple of events on IG Live and found out about Mixlr through DJ Cash Era and DJ Mike P. I didn’t even know what it was but I guess it was a better stream [laughs]. One day I was thinking, ‘I wanna drop a mix today’ and my Soundcloud wasn’t working. I was like “ok what should I do?” So I made a Mixlr account, downloaded it on my computer, and the first night was really really good. One of the other highest nights was my birthday night. My birthday night was super bussin’, that was the best birthday present ever.

DJs sometimes seem to be under-appreciated in mainstream culture. What do you envision the future being for DJs?

Honestly, I think about this every day, once a day. I feel like if you go back in history, and I know people know this but people should pay attention to this element- Djing was one of the most important elements of starting Hip Hop and Rap music. The stuff DJs have gone through, it's a weird position. Over the years, you have DJs that are known for doing parties and stuff but then you have the more famous DJs who host mixtapes or you even got people like DJ Khaled. Being a DJ is not just being a DJ, it’s more of just being an artist too. You can make both worlds work. A lot of DJs are tapping into their more creative side, so I feel like the future of DJing won't just be DJing I think it’ll just be like like “Yeah I DJ, but I also do all these other things too” and I think it’ll make Djing more of a brand to people like ‘I just love music so this is what I do’.

Aside from your career as a DJ, you also produce and rap. What's next for PREME as an artist?

We’re working on a lot of stuff right now. I got this mix coming out but it’s gonna be more than a mix I'm making kind of a project. I’m gonna showcase production Preme and rap Preme on it too. I'm definitely tapping back into rap Preme a little bit because a lot of my rap friends, shoutout to Wemmy, kind of been forcing me to get back. I just wanna wait till it's the perfect time to do it but I feel like now I got a little bit more free time I could be able to get in the studio and work. It’s going to be fun, super fun.