America's Top Player

Chapter 181 Videotape Male Protagonist
Ariana didn't understand at first and was stunned for half a minute.

After she came to her senses, she gently kicked Li Ang twice with her white little feet, her face full of pouting.

The delivery address he mentioned was: Ariana's Puxi.

"I heard that you've been very inspired recently and have written a lot of songs?" Li Ang asked as he put on his coat.

"Yes, but I'm not very satisfied with most of my works." Ariana hung her head and counted on her fingers. "You always say that my lyrics are childish, like a child."

"Aren't you just a child?"

"I'm not a kid!" Ariana pouted, "You're only three years older than me."

The cute and innocent look made Li Ang laugh, and he pinched the other's fair and smooth face.

He admitted that he had misjudged the market situation at the beginning, and his mistake was that he did not have a clear enough positioning for Ariana.

In this unrestrained era known as the "second sexual liberation", the image of the cheerleader girl next door who is keen on gymnastics, star chasing and Barbie dolls is still very popular.

In the public's mind, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Britney are the three giants that symbolize the American entertainment industry.

At her peak, Britney ranked higher than Madonna on the Forbes celebrity list and was recognized as the national sweetheart girl in the hearts of Americans.

Her first album debuted at number one on the US Billboard album chart, with global sales exceeding 3000 million copies, topping the charts in 15 countries around the world.

With the outbreak of scandals such as cheating, drug use, and shaving her head, her status quickly declined.

In 2007 alone, one-fifth of all gossip in the United States was about Britney.

In other words, Britney feeds the paparazzi of the entire country entirely by her own efforts.

Someone had to fill the market left by Britney's decline, and at first everyone thought that person would be Taylor Swift.

Although they both took the sweet route, the audience soon discovered that the two people were not of the same type at all.

And Ariana can perfectly take over Britney's ecological position in the music industry in every aspect.

There is still a lot of room for development in the youth idol field, and Justin Bieber's sudden popularity has proven this.

"Tell me what songs you have written that you plan to put on your first album." Li Ang asked.

Hearing the word "first album," Ariana's eyes lit up. "Oh my god, you're going to release an album for me? Didn't you say before that you'd wait until 'Senorita' sold over two million copies?"

Li Ang held her in his arms. "You've already proven how good you are. It doesn't matter if it's released earlier. In three months at most, that record will have sold over 200 million copies."

The past was before and the present is now.

Li Ang doesn't need to worry about money at all now.

After purchasing the new office building, he still had nearly $4600 million in liquid funds.

This money, combined with the funds in Lion's Nest Media's account, is more than enough to complete the filming of "The Rap of America" with top-level configuration.

“I’ve written about forty songs.”

"so much?"

Li Ang was very surprised. His creative efficiency was comparable to that of Taylor.

"Yes, but I think the quality of the songs that can be put into the first album can be counted on one hand." Ariana said, "The song "The Way" you heard before, and the song "Problem" I just sang, what do you think of it?"

"Great," Li Ang said this, but his thoughts were something else.

It’s not that those songs are bad, they just don’t fit his musical aesthetic.

Although he is only 21 years old, it is difficult for him to understand the musical tastes of teenagers.

He thinks Justin Bieber's song "Baby" should only be the ending song of children's programs.

The reality is that the song’s popularity has sparked heated discussions around the world.

In countries other than the United States, many people have never heard of Eminem, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé.
But they all know Bieber's name.

"Leon."

"what happened?"

The two chatted for a while downstairs of the company. Just as Li Ang opened the car door and was about to go home, he was stopped by Ariana.

She lowered her head and whispered, "My mother might come to New York in a while. She wants to come see me."

Although Ariana has been in the art circle since she was a child and is now a popular rising star, she is still just an 18-year-old girl.

She comes from a wealthy family and her family dotes on her very much.

Li Ang just prayed that her mother wasn't a mean and difficult woman.

"How about I have Jorge drive the company car to pick up your mother? Your father runs a design company, right? I can arrange a city cruise for her, and take her to see the Statue of Liberty. Let your family know that the company values you."

Ariana waved her hands sheepishly. "Don't bother. My mom just wanted to see if I was happy. After all, she doesn't know anything about my boss yet."

Don’t know anything?
Except for those who know nothing about entertainment news, I think everyone knows the name of "Street Coconut Crisps".

Leon had reason to guess that Ariana said this on purpose, as her mother was well aware of her notoriety.

Otherwise, there would be no need to fly all the way from Miami just to see if his daughter had signed with a mafia-related company.

The next day, Li Ang had just sat down in the office when he was startled by the noise coming from the corridor.

He yawned and lit a cigarette.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Li Er Duke and King Feng pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Sean.

"Boss! Sean is a genius! He plans to..." As soon as they met, King Feng moved his thick lips and talked incessantly.

"You sit down and let Sean speak for himself." Compared to the black man's rap-like speaking style, Li Ang would rather listen to Sean's awkward loli voice.

Sean cleared his throat and reported, "The auditions are now more than halfway through, and there are now 80 contestants shortlisted."

"so much?"

Li Ang was a little confused.

According to the standard of 120 minutes per episode, this means that many contestants don’t even get half a minute of screen time.

"I can't help it. There are just too many interesting people." Sean spread his hands. "Looking at the current situation, there will be at least 150 contestants shortlisted for the final round. I'm going to give up the idea of recording in a professional studio."

"I agree with your idea." Li Ang said.

Lion's Nest Media's studio is too small, and it's crowded even for podcasts, let alone a large-scale talent show like this.

Originally, Sean planned to rent a studio from CBS, where he had some connections.

CBS has five large studios, and except for the studio where the "Evening News" is recorded, all others can be rented out for a suitable price.

However, CBS's attitude towards this was very cold. Although it did not refuse, it offered a rent far higher than the market price.

The motivation for doing so is not difficult to guess. For an old TV station to rent a studio to Netflix to produce a reality show is equivalent to cultivating its own competitors. Judging from the current scale of the contestants, CBS's studio is definitely not enough.

More than 150 street thugs swarmed into the CBS building like ants. Just thinking about such a scene was enough to frighten the CBS management and make them unable to sleep.

By the time the recording is finished, all the valuable equipment in the studio may have been moved away.

Li Ang then said, "How about renting an abandoned factory or warehouse as a recording location?"

"Arrange it like the streets in the black community?" Sean's eyes lit up.

"That's right~" Leon snapped his fingers.

This not only saves money, but the environment of the abandoned factory also fits in well with the temperament of the show.

All they had to do was hire a decorating team to give the venue a simple makeover, set up a makeshift studio, and paint it all over with gang graffiti.

The atmosphere is much stronger than that of a formal studio.

After reaching a consensus on the venue, Sean went on to discuss the design of the show's main competition. "To make the show more intense, I plan to divide the contestants into several camps based on their backgrounds and have them compete against each other."

Li Ang perked up and showed a rather interested expression.

Just by looking at the way Li Erduk and King Feng are ready to fight, you can tell that this matter is not simple.

"Tell me more about it."

"The players are divided into several camps based on their hometown cities, such as the New York camp, the Los Angeles camp, the Atlanta camp, and of course the Chicago camp," Sean introduced.

These cities are the ones with the highest popularity of hip-hop music in the United States. Including Detroit, they are known as the "five major rap holy places."

In addition to the strong rap atmosphere, the grudges and frictions between each other never stop.

They all believe that their hometown can represent the orthodoxy of hip-hop and lead the future trend of fashion.
As a result, there are constant wars of words on the Internet, and there are countless real incidents of people directly using Glock to attack each other.

King Von, overly excited, let out a monkey-like cry: "I'll show those Detroit bastards how powerful 0-block is! Oh, and those New Orleans bastards, the walking dead are coming~ They need to run for their lives~"

Chicago and Detroit are both located in the Great Lakes region, and rappers often diss each other.

But it has nothing to do with New Orleans; the two cities are far apart, one in the south and the other in the north.

The starting point of the conflict lies with Lil Wayne.

This most popular rapper since the millennium is from New Orleans. His unique accent and trendy music style have won him a large number of loyal fans.

In addition, he has achieved great commercial success, and the upstart label he founded has always been a top-level presence in the rap circle.

It has hot new artists such as Nicki Minaj, Drake and Tyga, and its popularity is threatening to overshadow Li Ang's Apocalypse Music.

Lil Wayne also earned the nickname "Young OG".

He single-handedly set a city on fire, and New Orleans rap is rising at an astonishing rate.

These wild kids from the Louisiana countryside are more aggressive than those guys from the big city.

Many newcomers often disappear before they become popular for a few months.

Either die on the streets or go to jail.

"Gad damn it! I really like you more and more." Li Ang praised, "Your parents gave you a strange voice. That's because when they created you, they gave you that big head of talent."

Lil Wayne and Diddy have a good relationship, and New Orleans is full of rap talent.

Even though it was obvious that Li Ang would give the championship to his own people, he would definitely not miss this opportunity to stir up trouble.

"By the way, some of the finalists have strong connections." Sean said with a worried look on his face. "Two of them have already signed with Roc Kingdom. They're JAY-Z's people."

"Isn't this a good thing?" Li Ang spread his hands. "The more guys like this there are, the more interesting the show will be."

Before Didi was arrested, he used all kinds of tricks to exploit the other party to hype himself.

Now that he's created the first-ever hip-hop talent show, JAY-Z isn't going to miss the opportunity to exploit him.

And it is retaliatory consumption.

"I'm worried that something might happen, like a bloody conflict." Sean reminded in a low voice.

"It's okay, as long as no one dies." Li Ang was making a decision. He wanted to see a script with intense conflicts, but he was also worried that if someone really died, the program would be involved in lawsuits or even be suspended.

But in the end, he still did not refuse the way with the largest traffic, and reminded Sean to do a good job of security on the scene.

As long as you can't die, work towards death.

Sean's surprises weren't over yet. He continued, pinching his throat, "There's another special contestant at the Los Angeles audition, RAY-J. You might have heard of this name."

"It sounds familiar." Li Ang searched for the name in his mind, but couldn't remember the other party's information for a moment.

"RAY-J is the protagonist of the Kardashian video tape incident." Sean said with a grin.

"Hou Lixie! That guy works like a cow or a horse!" King Feng exclaimed excitedly, then lowered his head to take a look and muttered softly, "It's even worse than mine."

Ray-J and Kardashian's classic love action blockbuster shocked hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.

Li Ang also watched and appreciated it repeatedly during his stay in Brownsville.

In terms of physique and skills, the two are not inferior to the professional actors of Bazers Film Studio.

RAY-J debuted in 1996, but has always been lukewarm in the circle.

It was not until the video tape with Kim Kardashian was exposed that he became famous. Since then, he has made a lot of money by exposing Kardashian's privacy in talk shows.

Sean smiled wryly and shook his head, saying, "I heard through the grapevine that when RAY-J announced his participation on social media, Humphries tried hard to dissuade Kardashian from turning down our show, and the two of them even had a big fight over it."

Hearing this, Li Ang could no longer suppress his inner joy, and his mouth was grinning from ear to ear.

Kim Kardashian regards fame as everything in her life, and it is impossible for her to turn down such an important job for a man.

Even though the man was going to marry her in less than half a month.

Sean jokingly asked, "Do you think they will break up their engagement because of the show?"

Li Ang smiled and shook his head.

Where is this?
In addition to Humphries, there is also a man sitting in the mentor seat who has been drooling over Kardashian - Kanye West.

He is confident that he can win Kardashian's heart on the show.

Judging from various circumstances, Humphries' fantasy of privatizing "the world's most famous butt" is likely to be shattered.

Li Ang suddenly realized how right he was to have the idea of producing a hip-hop talent show in his impulsive decision.

The program effects that are carefully created are far less interesting than those that are delivered to your door.

There is never a shortage of hard work in this decadent and chaotic circle.

As long as this program is not suspended or removed from the airwaves for special reasons, there is no doubt that it will become a hit.

This will further enhance his status in the rap circle and make it easier for him to take over the vacant territory in the East Coast music market after P. Diddy's arrest.

(End of this chapter)