Genius has partnered with Acura for Precision Crafted Performances, a series of live showcases supporting emerging artists. At our Atlanta showcase, Mereba took the stage alongside co-headliner Deante’ Hitchcock. Before the event, we caught up with Mereba to discuss how Stevie Wonder changed her career and break down “Black Truck,” which she later performed.

Mereba recalled signing her first contract with a small production company that trapped her in a bad deal. After moving to L.A. to get out of the “toxic situation,” she starting working with a producer who introduced her to pioneering singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder.

“We started bonding that day, and he asked to hear some of my music,” she remembered. “I was like, ‘I have these other songs I’ve been making in my room.’ And so I played him those, and he’s like, ‘This is it. This is it. This is a sound. I can feel it. It’s all you.’ That’s what ended up being my next project.”

She continued by explaining how “Black Truck” exemplifies her goal of making “performance-ready” music. “I wanted to make a song that, when I performed it, gave people that strength that I was coming into,” Mereba said. “I feel like that song, every time I perform it, I’m like, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to deliver these type of songs to people.’”

Later on, Mereba spoke about what performing means to her. “Precision Crafted Performance just means attention to detail,” she said. “You have to be very precise and very intentional about everything that you do. It makes me think about my whole journey, and I’ve always rejected the idea of other people having a lot of hands in how I create.”

Watch the video above and catch clips of the previous performances from Olivia O’Brien, Destiny Rogers, tobi lou, Childish Major, Eladio Carrión, and Mariah.

The Acura x Genius Precision Crafted Performances music series is curated by tapping into Genius’s proprietary Music IQ data, which identifies emerging artists championed by Genius’s global community of savvy superfans. Music IQ is powered by Genius’s collection of the world’s most accurate lyrics as well as real time search trends. The data offers trend-spotting analysis that identifies music’s hottest emerging artists ahead of the crowd. The Acura x Genius showcases mark the first time ever a live show will use the real-time search trends of Genius’s superfan community to curate the rising artists taking the stage.