Jae Preme

When you listen to Jae Preme's music, you could hear the passion spilling out of his heart and soul in his delivery on the mic. He looks at the world with a totally different perspective than your average rapper today in the Hip Hop industry. It wasn't always this way with him though. Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1986, Jermane "Jae Preme" Beckford was raised by his mother and father as well as his older brothers and sister in one of the worst parts of Brooklyn called Bushwick in the 1980's-1990's.

Bushwick in the 1970s, fell hard and fell fast. The New York City blackout of 1977 caused a ton of rioting, looting, and fires to break out in and around large sections of Bushwick. The neighborhood was damaged significantly during the blackout. It looked like a bomb went off in some areas. In the 1980s and 1990s that desolation resulted Bushwick being labeled "New York City's poorest neighborhood." It was also the "rat capital" of the city during that time period. All of the improvements the city tried to make could not protect Bushwick from the ravages of crime, youth gang violence and, in particular, the scourge of the crack epidemic that afflicted all low income New York City communities in the 1980's and early1990's.

Preme's parents tried their hardest to raise him up right in a neighborhood of ciaos by planting good seeds in him before his adolescent years. His parents had a strong belief in Christ though they never went to church regularly as a family. They often times would send Preme with the neighbors some weekends. They believed that you should: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it(Proverbs 22:6). As Preme reached his adolescent years it seems as if he was departing from everything they were trying to instill in him. Soon Preme began to become infatuated with the street life that he seen growing up in his neighborhood. Nice cars, fresh kicks and clothes became every young mans goal in the ghettos across America. This led to a never ending cycle of incarceration and death statistics which Preme lost family members and close friends too.

Along with basketball, Hip Hop seemed like it gave the ghetto youth hope of making it out the "hood". Preme took to playing basketball and rhyming very early as most kids in the neighborhood did. At the age of eight, Preme developed an interest in Hip Hop. Preme developed his talent for years battling in school lunchrooms, street corners, and anywhere someone wanted a challenge. Preme started pursing rap as a career when his gift was unleashed during a talent show in the auditorium of his former high school William H. Maxwell, where he wowed the crowd. By the crowds reaction, he knew for sure music is what he wanted to do.

Preme started dabbling with dealing drugs, and the fast life he became familiar with growing up. In seeing that, his parents thought changing up the environment might be a good thing to try ,so they relocated to Orlando, FL in 2003 when he was 17 .The change seemed like a good thing for Preme. He was on the right path and trying to clean his life up. A year later from the time he moved from Brooklyn he lost his #1 fan that supported him like no other. His dad died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm. It threw Preme into a deep depression for years, then the drugs and alcohol he played with in Brooklyn became full blown addictions after awhile. Preme found the same environments and people he was use too in Brooklyn, and soon jumped right back into the cycle his parents tried desperately to take him away from. Year after year nothing got better for him, his life was on repeat.

At the age of 20 Preme was blessed with his first daughter and his second daughter at the age of 24. They fulfilled some of his emptiness and joys of his soul and spirit but something was still missing. That seed that had been planted in him as a child led him to the person that made him whole and quenched his thirsty spirit. That person is JESUS CHRIST. One day after returning to Orlando, FL from living in Atlanta, GA for a year and a half, Preme desperately reached out to Jesus Christ one late night on his mom's coach. After deep prayer and meditation the Holy Spirit came upon him and he has never been the same from that day on. He let God into his heart and all addictions, pain, anger, and bondage were broken. From then on he realized God has a purpose for him, and the way he was living was a lie.

Preme now uses his gift of making music to glorify God and to share the truth with the urban youth who are living the same way he use to live. Preme is now working on his debut album entitled "Life Investment" with his cousin Edsoulja ,who produced his first single off the album entitled "Choose To Be Free". Together they started Steady Grind Empire Music Group LLC to reach the youth and the environments they once contributed to destroying. They hope God will use them to touch the ends of the earth. Preme still lives in Orl