America's Top Player

Chapter 104 Protecting the Calf

With the help of piano music, the physical feeling of this song has achieved a good effect.

The previously immature lyrics became less awkward after Ariana's interpretation, or perhaps this is how lyrics from a seventeen-year-old girl should sound.

In fact, most of the musical works that can be called masterpieces would appear very stiff without the emotional rendering of the melody.

Ariana successfully demonstrated her excellent singing skills developed on Broadway. She was a girl who took the lead in the classic play "Beauty and the Beast" at the age of 16.

After the singing, she gave Li Ang a playful smile.

The light in his eyes has written his feelings on his face: Come on, praise me!

"You sang very well. It proves that Phil is blind." Leon applauded.

"Really? Then can I put this song on the new album?"

"Of course, but..." Li Ang hesitated when the words came to his lips, fearing that he would accidentally break the girl's fragile heart again.

"Just what?"

"An album must have at least ten good songs. Sales of 'Senorita' are at their peak right now, so let's wait."

Hearing this, Ariana immediately jumped off the piano chair.

Barefoot, like an excited rabbit, he rushed forward and grabbed Li Ang's hand, "Follow me!"

The two walked into Ariana's bedroom. As soon as he entered the door, Leon was shocked by the pink in front of him.

It is normal for a seventeen-year-old girl to like pink, but Ariana seems to have an excessive obsession with pink.

From carpets to walls, to home textiles and various furniture, everything is pink without exception.

There were all kinds of clothes scattered on the ground, including underwear, all of which were pink.

Mike and Phil used to bet on what color underwear Ariana was wearing underneath her miniskirt.

Now this problem can be closed.

The answer can only be pink.

"You are the girl who is most obsessed with pink that I have ever met." Li Ang exclaimed.

"That's nothing. In fact, my brother is the person in the world who is most obsessed with pink. You should go to his room and see that he has achieved perfection in every detail." Ariana introduced her brother proudly.

As soon as Li Ang returned, she saw her brother holding his head high with a proud look on his face.

That affected demeanor almost made him vomit his dinner.

Ariana pulled a pink notebook from the drawer of her dressing table.

It is densely covered with lyrics and musical notation.

Li Ang roughly counted and there were at least thirty poems.

"Did you write all this?" Li Ang flipped through his notebook quickly, humming a few lines along with the musical notation from time to time.

I have to say that some of the works are well written, and the arrangements of the chorus and verses are very mature.

"Of course~ Actually, I have some recorded demos." Ariana walked to the desk and opened her laptop.

She has completely transformed this desk into a simple recording workbench.

Microphones, tuners, mixing equipment.
Although not professional, it has everything you need.

"I really found a treasure," Li Ang exclaimed shortly after putting on headphones and listening to the song.

These works were recorded in the absence of professional equipment and guidance, and are inevitably rough and immature.

But it is already remarkable to be able to achieve this level.

Originally, he thought Ariana was just an empty-headed white girl like Robbie.

It now seems that this is a completely wrong view that they can't achieve anything in the music industry without their own inspiration.

It is entirely possible that Ariana will become a self-sufficient money-printing machine like Cardi B!
The difference is that Ariana's inspiration comes from a girl's love brain, while Cardi B's inspiration comes from the tunnel below.

Seeing Li Ang's shocked expression, Ariana mustered up the courage to say, "I want to make an album, an album that belongs only to me, Ariana Grande."

"Will you give me this chance?"

"This..." Li Ang hesitated.

Now the filming of "Straight Outta Compton" costs money, and the promotion of the records of so many singers under the company is also constantly burning money.

Both Cardi B and Robbie have plans to release new singles.

His financial situation is not enough to support the production of another fine album for Grande.

"Leon~" Ariana blinked her big watery eyes and shook Leon's arm.

Every eyelash pierced his heart.

"Boss~"

Seeing Ariana's eyes about to burst into tears, Leon compromised, "Okay, but this will take some time. Your main job now is to promote 'Senorita'."

"Yeah!" Ariana nodded seriously, "Then when is the best time?"

"This year, if the annual sales of the physical record of "Senorita" exceed 200 million copies, the company will produce an album for you."

"That's great!" Ariana excitedly threw herself into Leon's arms.

I don’t know if it was out of jealousy or some other reason, but Ariana’s brother Frankie looked unhappy.

He poured a bucket of cold water on her, "Why is it taking so long? With my sister's talent, one album will definitely make her famous!"

"She'll soon surpass those bitches like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry!"

Li Ang glanced at Frankie with a look that looked like he was stupid. "I agree with you, but the company is now pursuing a boutique approach. A great album takes time to polish."

"I'm just kindly reminding you to hurry up! Warner Records and Sony Columbia have both shown great interest in my sister. If you don't cherish this future superstar..."

"Shut up!" Ariana's petite body burst out with a high-pitched voice, instantly making her brother shut up.

Li Ang rubbed his brows. Things were exactly as he had thought before.

Warner Records' offensive is swift and comprehensive, and they do not intend to let go of any singer of Apocalypse Music.

He patted Ariana's shoulder and asked seriously, "Is this true, Xiao A?"

"Warner Records is contacting you? Is it that bastard Leonard?"

Ariana bit her lip lightly, the expression on her face already giving the answer.

"Fuck! Who my sister is in contact with is none of your business. As the owner of a record company, you haven't done anything for your artists!"

"You know what Ariana went through recently? Her career was nearly destroyed!"

Frankie became more and more agitated, and Leon had no idea what he meant.

Ariana is taking off like a rocket and has everything any newcomer could dream of.

What exactly does a devastating blow mean?
"Frankie, shut up!" Ariana was so anxious that she almost jumped up.

Leon pulled out the pink swivel chair in the room and sat down, crossing his legs and asked, "Go on, Frankie, tell me what happened?"

Frankie looked around, and seeing his sister's eyes that wanted to stab someone, he didn't dare to speak.

"Don't wear out my patience, bitch!" Li Ang's loud shout made him sober up instantly. He then realized that the person in front of him was a street ruthless man who dared to go against Puff Daddy after only half a year of debut.

"Don't you read entertainment news? Entertainment Weekly used a large page to introduce my sister's love history." Frankie said through gritting his teeth.

"That's it?" Li Ang breathed a sigh of relief. How could this be considered a devastating blow?

In America, girls generally have dating experience from a very early age.

Although Ariana is a youth idol, her fans are not that opposed to her dating.

It doesn’t matter if the love history is a complicated one, if having a clean love history is a hard requirement for idols.

Then all singers of this type in America will become extinct.

"You really don't know anything about this! You must see what they did to Ariana!" Frankie returned to his room.

Ariana tried to chase after him to stop him but was stopped by Leon.

"It doesn't matter. I must know what happened." He patted the other's head. "I will protect you. You know I can always solve problems."

Frankie returned to the room half a minute later and handed over the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly.

The eye-catching title first caught Li Ang's attention - "Ariana Grande loves black and hard things, revealing the idol girl's complicated love history."

The article details several of Ariana's boyfriends, with a large portion of the article devoted to a black man.

A young black actor from Broadway named Dean exclusively revealed to Entertainment Weekly that Ariana is a dirty bitch who appears pure on the surface.

When she was working on Broadway, she often captured the honest and simple Nico from the same crew.

"WTF" Leon looked up and glanced at Ariana, whose face instantly turned red like a tomato.

"This isn't true, this isn't true!" Ariana's lips trembled. "I did date Dean for a while, but we didn't do anything."

"Yeah, yeah, I believe you."

Leon's extremely perfunctory attitude almost made Ariana burst into tears.

He soon discovered the trick in the article.

The first half of this soft article details Ariana's love history, but the tone changes in the latter part, focusing on Leon.

The article states that Ariana is a pet of Apocalypse Music boss Li Ang, and the relationship between them is far more than just cooperation.

He soon realized that the article was also part of his opponent's plan to crack down on Apocalypse Music.

For an idol girl, there is nothing wrong with having a love history.

But being portrayed as an unsatisfied bitch like Kim Kardashian would have a huge impact on your career.

Thanks to Dean's personal testimony, the credibility of this article has undoubtedly increased a lot in the minds of the onlookers.

At this time, Ariana's patience had reached its limit, and tears finally burst out in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I just can't control my emotions. I don't understand why Dean did this to me."

"It's okay, I will solve this matter thoroughly and it will be solved soon." Li Ang put his arm around the other person's shoulders and comforted him.

"The impact has spread, no matter how I explain it, no one will believe it."

"Don't worry, I already have a detailed plan to whitewash myself in my mind." Li Ang raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a mysterious smile.

"Whitewashing plan?" Ariana looked up, her tear-stained face filled with confusion.

Whether it is Warner Records or P. Diddy, their behavior has escalated to the point of touching Le Ang's bottom line.

He doesn't care at all about the rumors and slanders against him personally. Anyway, he relies on black traffic to maintain his popularity.

Poaching is also very common in this type of record industry, and the three major record giants have been doing whatever they want in the industry for a long time.

Any newcomer who shows signs of rising to fame will be quickly targeted by them.

Ultimately, this is still within the scope of normal business competition.

For a singer who wants to be a youth idol, negative news may very likely lead to the collapse of his career.

The last singer who was called an American idol, Britney Spears, was on the verge of career collapse due to crazy revelations from the entertainment media and her biological parents.

There was no way Li Ang would just sit back and do nothing about this situation.

Apocalypse Music currently lacks a professional public relations team, so he decided to personally dispel the rumors about Ariana.

He connected with Joe Rogan through Bonnie, and he will appear on the podcast with Ariana.

Fire back at the masterminds on America's most influential podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

After hearing Leon's plan, Ariana's mood eased a little. She whispered, "Can this save the current situation?"

"It's not that simple. They hired a professional team." Li Ang spread his hands. "Starting tomorrow, I will contact all the radio stations in New York and ask them to issue a statement to refute the rumors."

"Publish some whitewashing articles in those entertainment magazines and newspapers"

"Not only New York, but also in big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, etc., I will arrange everything."

Ariana curled up tightly in Leon's arms, her eyes strained to the extreme, "Thank you Leon, but this will cost a lot of money, right?"

When it comes to Dao Le, Li Ang can't help but feel a pang of pain.

Such a massive public relations whitewashing plan probably cannot be settled with just a few hundred thousand dollars.

But compared to the benefits Ariana is creating, the money has to be spent.

He said to Ariana with a serious face: "Nothing is more important to me than your future!"

Ariana's heart was completely melted by Leon, and she fell completely into his arms, "You are the best boss in the world!"

"Before we get to record the Joe Rogan podcast, we have a special guest."

"Who else besides the two of us?" Ariana frowned in confusion.

"Of course, if your black ex-boyfriend could come forward to refute the rumors, things would go much more smoothly." Li Ang showed an unpredictable smile.

"He's not my ex-boyfriend anymore! He's a shameless scumbag!"

"Alright, alright. Whatever he is, we have to find him."

Only a fool would not realize that Dean must have received money from the mastermind behind the incident before he leaked the information to the entertainment media.

In order to prevent this from happening again, he must pay the price!
Leon put his arm around Ariana's shoulders and said, "Do you know where this bastard lives now?"

Ariana shook her head. "I've never been to his house, but you should be able to find him on Broadway in New York."

"very good."

"But I don't think Dean will accept your invitation unless you give him a lot of money." Ariana sighed.

"Money? No, no, no, I won't give him a penny, but I will give him some special gifts." Li Ang looked down at the time on his watch.

Seven forty-five.

"The Broadway show should be at its peak right now. What did you just tell me? That Nico is a professional actor in the cast of 'Chicago'?"

"I'm going to talk to him now."

“In the most old-school, traditional Chicago way.”

(End of this chapter)