America's Top Player

Chapter 123: Queuing for Cooperation

With Beyoncé present, Li Ang agreed without giving it much thought.

He attacked many rap bigwigs in the MV for "Billy," but did not comment on JAY-Z.

Fanatical fans on the Internet took the MV apart and interpreted it, speculating that the dog with a "question mark" name tag around its neck was secretly mocking JAY-Z.

But this is just one of many speculations.

Only the creator himself knows the answer.

Accompanied by Jorge, Leon arrived at the door of Lenny's office and was unexpectedly stopped by the secretary.

"Mr. Leon, please wait a moment!" The black female secretary, who was shaking a huge sheep's tail oil, said softly, "Mr. Lenny is in a meeting. I will inform him for you."

Li Ang showed an unhappy expression on his face.

It was clearly the other party who proposed the meeting first, but he ended up having a meeting with other guests and I was turned away.

This is extremely disrespectful.

Leon completely ignored the female secretary and walked straight to Lenny's office.

In fact, with his current influence, he doesn't need to be humble to anyone in this company except Beyoncé and her husband.

"Mr. Li Ang! You can't just go in like this!" The female secretary was so anxious that she almost burst into tears.

If her boss hadn't given the order, she wouldn't have dared to stop this notorious street ruthless man.

"Get away from me, bitch!" Jorge's refrigerator-like body separated the secretary.

He didn't forget to pat the sheep tail oil with his rough hands, which were as rough as those of a basketball player, while laughing.

Snapped--

Hei Nuo was so scared that she was like a mouse forced into a corner, not daring to move.

Only the taillights kept shaking, expressing their final protest.

"It feels good~" Jorge followed Leon and walked straight ahead.

The office door was pushed open, and there was no so-called meeting being held here.

Only a young black man with dreadlocks was in close communication with Lenny.

Li Ang's appearance brought their conversation to an abrupt end.

Lenny was not angry at all. Instead, he opened his arms and greeted Leon. "Look who's here! A dangerous individual that the world is paying attention to~"

After a perfunctory hug, he pointed to the black youth behind him and said, "This is J. Cole, our young talent~"

"Of course, any talent pales in comparison to you. I never thought you could create Drill music."

Li Ang didn't say anything, but looked up and down at the black youth in front of him.

When he first joined the company, he often heard people put the name J. Cole together with his own.

Since both of them were signed by JAY-Z himself, they will naturally be compared with each other.

From the beginning of his career, Cole was a newcomer who was highly expected by the circle.

He is known as the hope of the rap world in the next decade, along with Kendrick and Drake.

In comparison, Leon is much dimmer. He is more like an orphan picked up from the street by JAY-Z.

However, in less than a year, the status of the two was overturned.

Li Ang has already established himself as a top singer with the album "Demons" and a series of hit singles, but Cole has not yet released his first album.

Cole immediately realized something was wrong and stood up quickly after a shudder. "Damn bro! Every guy on the street is talking about your name! I'm J. Cole. You should have heard of me. I have a lot of works."

"Hello." Cole was interrupted by Leon halfway through his introduction.

Undeterred, he continued, "Kendrick often mentions you to me! Bro, I have to say your song "Billy" is the most brutal diss I've ever heard. You have no idea how much I love it."

"Okay." Lenny glanced back and told the other party to stop talking nonsense.

But Leon was more interested in Cole and asked, "Do you know Kendrick?"

"Man! I can't finish telling the story of K.dot and I in three days and three nights~" Cole said excitedly, "We did all the crazy things you can imagine!"

"Fxxk, you two are not going to get together, are you?" Li Ang laughed out loud.

"WT-Hell," Cole said. "We only fucked women together! Oh, and I was the producer of his work, HiiiPoWeR~"

Looking at the other person's smug expression, Li Ang finally confirmed that this guy was not trying to make connections.

"HiiiPoWeR" is a single from Kendrick's debut album Section 80.

Although the sales of that album were not as expected, the song "HiiiPoWeR" was still acceptable and of high quality.

The two of them started chatting together.

Although Cole is five years older than Leon, he voluntarily puts himself in the position of a younger brother and flatters him utmost.

In the entertainment industry, everything is based on strength. Even Jones, who is nearly 80 years old, had to stand up and toast Beyoncé, who is at the peak of her career.

After learning more from Lenny, Li Ang finally understood why J.cole became the first artist signed by JAY-Z after he formed the ROC Kingdom.

This guy started writing songs at the age of 14. With only a Roland TR-808 drum machine given to him by his mother, he wrote hundreds of rap works in three years and uploaded them to various hip-hop music forums.

He worked as a newspaper advertising salesman, a cashier, a file clerk, and a kangaroo mascot at an ice rink.

Despite having multiple part-time jobs, he still produced accompaniments for many rappers.

Li Ang immediately showed great respect for him. He was a rare "positive energy Nico".

"Cole's about to release his first album." Lenny patted Cole on the shoulder. "Not only that, but even Janet Jackson is asking him to sing."

Around the 80s, Janet Jackson was known as one of the Four Divas along with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Madonna.

He has won 5 Grammy Awards and 32 Billboard Awards, and has sold over million records worldwide.

Even if we put aside her identity as MJ's sister, her achievements in themselves are legendary enough.

As a fledgling rapper, J.Cole was chosen by Jenny, so one can imagine his ability.

Li Ang smiled and said, "I'm very optimistic about you. You're truly a genius. Maybe you'll surpass JAY-Z in your achievements in the future."

His admiration came from the bottom of his heart. In his eyes, Cole was more desirable than a blonde beauty with big boobs.

One person does all the work including writing, recording and arranging, and is extremely talented in each of these tasks.

As long as he doesn't starve to death, he will continue to produce works.

A true human hair-cutting machine.

“No, no, no,” Cole waved his hands repeatedly, “No one dares to call themselves a genius in front of you. I’m serious!”

"Fxxk, I've never seen anyone like you who can handle R&B, Trap, Rock, Gangsta Drill, and everything else."

"You even found time to write a movie script. You're even good at investing."

"Shxt! No wonder Kendrick said you were a monster!"

The flattery made Li Ang blush.

In fact, he really wanted to tell the other person: Do you think it’s possible to do such an awesome thing without cheating?
"Okay, Cole, the company will provide you with top-tier promotional resources for the album." Lenny checked his watch. "I have something to discuss with Mr. Leon."

"Okay~" Cole spread his hands, "Shxt, you two are so secretive, just like the mafia in the Godfather movie~"

After saying that, he turned and left.

Lenny glanced behind Leon. "And this Mexican guy."

Jorge acted as if he hadn't heard anything and stood there motionless like a Roman pillar.

Only after getting Li Ang's approval did he wave his hand and leave, "I'm going to study that interesting black girl outside~"

After all the irrelevant people left, only Leon and Lenny were left in the office.

Leon straightened his clothes and strolled to Lenny's bookcase as if he was in his own living room.

There is not a single book here, but it is filled with various types of whiskey and red wine.

Connected to it is a "zombie cabinet" with constant temperature and humidity, which contains rows of carefully maintained cigars.

Li Ang casually picked up a bottle of Yamazaki 18-year-old whiskey and complained, "You like Xiao Benzi's wine so much? Xiao Benzi also knows whiskey?"

Lenny tilted his head. "JAY-Z put these here. I'm more interested in cigars than wine."

Hearing this, Li Ang smiled knowingly, JAY-Z's is Beyoncé's.

He had tried Beyoncé's techniques, so it was no big deal if he tried the wine. "What surprise do you have for me?" He took a sip of his wine and asked, "Where's Ms. Beyoncé?"

"Maybe soon," Lenny said. "You've created the biggest entertainment buzz of the year. Congratulations! Your net worth is going to skyrocket."

Lenny's reaction was exactly what Leon had expected.

Although Didi and his gang were pressing forward step by step, their provocations were full of gunpowder everywhere.

It seems that if I am not careful, I will repeat the same mistake as Tupac in 1997.

But the more times like this happen, the more we should face them. The worse the weather is, the better time to catch big fish.

Now he is carrying a huge amount of traffic, forcing JAY-Z to do his best to protect his cash cow.

Lenny couldn't suppress the smile on his face and said, "I can already guess why Beyoncé contacted you."

"Because of what?" Li Ang blurted out.

From the beginning, he suspected that given his relationship with Beyoncé, he could just call the queen directly no matter what happened.

"I guess she wants to ask you for a song!" Lenny said. "Ms. Beyoncé rarely asks other artists to sing on her own initiative."

Li Ang took a sip of whiskey and nodded in relief.

Asking a new artist, whom she has watched grow up, to sing a song is indeed not something a queen of pop should ask over the phone.

What's more, the two of them have been matched together before.

"It's not just Beyoncé who's asking you for songs. The company's email inbox has been practically overflowing these days." Lenny smiled and clicked his mouse. "It seems like everyone in the industry wants to work with you, especially female singers."

Li Ang was not surprised at all.

Not all of his works became hits, like the album "Demons".

Among them, only three songs became popular and entered the Billboard TOP 10.

But the works he wrote for other singers were all very successful.

Especially "Faded" and "Senorita", which made Robbie and Ariana, two newcomers in the music industry, famous overnight.

Now this song "Billy" has become a huge success again, which has directly triggered a revolution in the Drill music from the drug dens in the mean streets to the mainstream market.

Leon Smith's work is a golden ticket to fame.

Lenny scrolled the middle axis of his mouse and read out a gorgeous list.

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocalist Christina Aguilera;
In 2010, phenomenal female singers such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga topped the Billboard charts.
They all expressed their desire to cooperate.

"You are not interested in these people?" Lenny widened his eyes, looking surprised.

"Not interested." Li Ang shook his head.

"So, what about Taylor Swift?"

Li Ang became alert when he heard Taylor's name.

Just recently, Taylor offered him an olive branch of cooperation in a private message on social media.

Since it was just a joke on social network, Li Ang didn't take it seriously at first.

Now it seems Taylor is serious, and the person who sent the email to Lenny is Scott, the owner of Big Machine Records.

Seeing that Li Ang was showing signs of being interested, Lenny continued to coax her, "This girl is an award-winning actress and a sales queen. The number of singers who want to work with her could fill up the Golden Gate Bridge."

Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, it doesn't seem so rash when applied to Taylor.

Each of Taylor's albums has sold over a million copies and has consistently ranked in the top three on the Billboard 200 annual best-selling album chart.

In the current market environment where physical records are severely impacted, this is a rather terrifying result.

Many music publications viewed Taylor's album sales as an anomaly in a music industry dominated by streaming following the decline of the album era in the 2010s.

This phenomenon is called the "Taylor Swift phenomenon."

Li Ang was indeed very moved.

Putting aside the fact that he has a good personal relationship with Taylor, if getting the opportunity to work with Taylor is equivalent to "taking out a loan to get a platinum record certification", he can definitely open the champagne in advance.

Maybe double platinum, triple platinum or even more.

This will undoubtedly speed up his progress in moving into a big house overlooking Manhattan.

Li Ang spread his hands and said, "I mean, why not? It's a win-win."

"Great!" Lenny slammed the table excitedly.

The noise caused Jorge to push the door open and rush in aggressively, pulling the trigger of his Glock.

"WTF" Lenny's face turned pale with fear.

"Go out Jorge, I had a good chat with Mr. Lenny."

After Jorge left, Leon lit a cigarette and said, "I'm very sorry. My bodyguard was born in Sinaloa, Mexico. The environment he grew up in has always made him very nervous."

Sinaloa?

Lenny's heart skipped a beat, and it took him more than ten seconds to calm down. "Even though the media calls you Al Capone, you have to remember that you are a singer."

"I have to do this for safety reasons. There are too many idiots who want to take advantage of me." Leon responded.

Lenny didn't dwell too much on what had just happened and brought the topic back to the cooperation they had just mentioned.

One is the most talked-about newcomer in the entertainment industry, and the other is the best-selling female singer at the moment.

Even if two people squat in the same pit and make a big profit, they can create huge wealth.

There are always fans who can swallow it.

If this thing really comes to fruition, it will undoubtedly be a successful cooperation, at least it will be successful on a commercial level.

Lenny continued, "Can you create a brand new piece tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Li Ang suspected he had misheard. "Do you think creation is just a street freestyle battle? Can you just piece together a song using Puxi and Dick?"

Lenny smiled and continued, "What about the day after tomorrow?"

"Fxxk, I think you are mentally unstable." Li Ang rolled his eyes.

"It'll be too late any later." Lenny knocked on the table. "The company's management and Scott from Big Machine Records have agreed that in order to maximize the Beef traffic you've created, it's best to release the new album within two days!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Ang almost cursed out loud.

His inspiration had just come a few days ago, and it was impossible for him to create a new song in two days by himself.

Even Taylor, who can draw inspiration from men, may not be able to do it.

Only then did Lenny finally reveal his true intentions. "Considering that a person's inspiration is limited, the company will invite a top creative team for you."

"Estel Dean, Dave Jim Records' ace lyricist, wrote songs for Rihanna like 'S&M,' 'What's My Name?,' and 'Only Girl.'"

"Anyway, you won't be disappointed, and your name will still appear in the most prominent position in the creator list."

"To match it, there is also a top-notch composing team!"

“You just have to be ready to pick up the money.”

If a newcomer to the industry heard these words, he would definitely hug Lenny's thighs and call him daddy.

But Leon has more holes in his head than that annoying Bob from the SpongeBob cartoon.

He soon discovered what was wrong—

copyright.

If the contract renewal with ROC Kingdom fails, even if this new song achieves huge commercial success, it will have nothing to do with Li Ang.

He might not even be able to perform the song in public.

What's more dangerous is that the complex copyright issues will make Li Ang and the ROC Kingdom more entangled.

It is very likely that she will end up in the same situation as Taylor Swift.

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(End of this chapter)