PRESTON THOMPSON
OVERDUE: An Album About Homage and Obedience
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by PAUL NURNBERG
Preston Thompson says he never planned to be a rapper when he grew up. While kids today grow up being told they can be anything they want to be and rap along to songs on TikTok, no one ever told Preston he could or would be a rapper. He did grow up with a strong musical influence in his life: his mom. She was into R&B, singing along to the radio and having Preston choreograph dances to the songs she loved. She would have him perform his dances when friends and family came over. “If we had music blasting in the house, we were having a good time. It meant happiness to me.” Preston wrote his first song for a girl he liked when he was around 15 years old. “I thought it was really good at the time,” he said, laughing. Back then, he didn’t have YouTube or the Internet, so he would write down other rappers’ lyrics and rap along with them. He did the same thing with R&B, but Preston says he can’t sing, so being a singer was out of the question.
Preston joined the Marine Corps in 1997 and got out on September 1, 2001, only ten days before the attacks on 9/11. Because the job market was tight after the attacks, he joined the Army. That’s where he met one of his best friends to this day, Anthony Lawson or Big Law. Big Law was the husband of Preston’s wife’s best friend. When they first met, Big Law was riding with Preston to the airport to pick up another friend. They were joking around and started rapping in the car. Shortly after that, they met another guy who specialized in making beats, and before anyone knew it, they had started a group, The Lions of Judah. They released an album together before going their separate ways. Preston moved back home and started working on a solo album. He enjoyed secular artists, like Tupac, Common, Busta Rhymes, and R&B artists, but Preston’s musical influences were almost all Christian: Flame, K9, The Ambassador. He’s done shows with Trip Lee, Tedashii, and rapped at the same events as Lecrae. He didn’t come to Christian hip-hop, trying to find a way to get rich; he came in with a robust and doctrinal foundation. All of this was important, because Preston was saved as a result of Christian hip-hop. Someone told him about The Ambassador albums, and he listened to them, and it changed his life. He was 20 years old at the time.
After The Lions of Judah broke up, Preston worked on his solo music and also toured up and down the east coast with Wildchild, DJ Jesusbeats, and Result. Throughout this process, he worked on over ten projects, both his solo projects and projects with other rappers. In 2007, he won Rap Minister of the Year in Charlotte, NC. Preston enjoys working with other people who have talent but won’t ever grace a big stage. One of his buddies had been in his studio recording a song for his wife when we did this interview. “Recording with first-time artists is like teaching a baby how to walk. But man, those first steps are unreal.” He’ll coach them and give ideas while being gracious with them. It’s a way for him to invest and give back to the community.
Preston came into rap with a family. It’s always been a hobby and never a full-time job. He had responsibilities and had to be able to provide for his wife and kids. Preston is in his 30s now, and some people might think that he never made it. The truth is that he never took the shot to go full-time. It would have meant neglecting his household to do so. He works for a rim shop in Savannah, GA, training to be a manager. His passion, besides Christ, his family, and music, is cars. He loves taking cars and flipping them. Right now, that’s also taken a backburner, due to needs within the family, but Preston hopes to get back into it soon.
Preston’s album is called Overdue. Throughout the ups and downs of his music career, Preston says the one constant has been his wife, Nakeisha, and his kids, Nezhara, Preston J’Coray, D’Avion, Christian, and Nyxa.
His family took a backburner while he tried to run his label and mentor the other rappers he was working with. In one of his songs, he raps: “What’s wrong with me? All this time in ministry, it’s like I never really ever learned nothing. No fronting. I made you take a back seat….” The whole point was that everything he was doing was for the rap. The mission was good, but the order was wrong, and Preston knew that.
Overdue has the message of homage for the patience and grace of, not only his wife and kids, but also for God. He felt God convicting him that as a minister, he should know the order of things. Instead of being grown, in this area, he was still a baby. Giving God the honor was overdue, and his growth in this area was overdue.
The album will be released on February 11, 2020. Preston is working 13-hour days in Savannah and tries to get into the studio as often as he can to rap, mix, and create his songs. I asked Preston what his goal or hope was for his album. “That’s the weird thing. Usually, when I create an album, it’s to create a buzz. I want to go out and sell some albums, make some money, donate this or that. This time, there’s really no goal but to pay homage to whom it’s due, God and my family. I need to put things in order. It’s something God told me to do, and I haven’t done it yet.”
This album is an act of obedience for Preston. Sitting in his studio and watching his two young daughters rap along to every word that their dad has written was inspiring, but more than that, it was a reminder that Preston is accomplishing his mission for the album, and that his kids know it’s for them.
Either way, whether his goal was to make an impact or not, this album is full of vulnerability and hope. As he raps about things he and his family have experienced, you can’t help but reflect that the weight of the world does pull on all of us. Keep listening, and you will quickly realize that there is always a hope much larger than ourselves and that the King of Restoration is truly working, in each of us, even as we walk in darkness. This album will provide that hope to anyone feeling broken or discouraged, while leading us all back to the Father, who graciously lets us keep coming back, regardless of where we’ve been.
