America's Top Player

Chapter 94 Miami Show
Li Ang had no intention of paying any attention to Lao Deng. He discovered a bad signal while browsing social media.

Diddy has been on a bit of a weird streak lately, mostly releasing clips of The Book like a devout believer.

The most recent tweet was a picture of Coconut Crisp with his head tilted and being crucified.

The image has a caption: "From 33 AD to 1996. So when is the next one?"

It took Li Ang two seconds to understand the meaning behind the picture.

Coconut died in 33 AD, and Tupac was shot and killed in 1996.

It goes without saying who will be next.

He opened the comments section and was struck by several messages: [Look! Another blind fellow is about to suffer.]

If you want to teach the new generation of kids what respect is, sometimes you have to resort to holy violence.

Phil tilted his head and looked over. "It looks like you're in a bad situation."

"Nothing." Leaning on the pillow, Li Ang said leisurely, "Even if this guy wants to do something behind my back, he won't rush to do it now."

"Why? I don't think there's anything Diddy wouldn't do. He's not going to let you go just because you know some tough Mexicans."

Li Ang pointed to his temple and said, "Use your brain. I'm still Jay-Z's man. I'm still making a lot of money for him!"

"Okay. I'm just reminding you not to take it lightly." Phil leaned against the balcony railing and lit a cigarette. "Didi claims to be a devout Christian. Can you believe that? Usually when he brings up his faith, he's probably serious about it."

"puff."

Li Ang couldn't help laughing out loud.

Is Didi a devout Christian?

This is as outrageous as Satan having a party in heaven.

Phil reminded him seriously, "I'm not kidding, kid. In 1999, my friend Steve Scott offended him because of his faith. Have you heard of this name?"

"Have not heard."

"Steve was the producer of NAS. He was half responsible for NAS's success in the 1990s. He also produced the album 'It Was Written'."

Only then did Li Ang show a hint of interest. "It Was Written" is widely regarded as NAS's best album, which established his status as the "Son of God" in the rap circle.

"Steve was beaten half to death by Didi and his bodyguards. He had two broken ribs and suffered severe internal bleeding that almost took his life." There was obvious anger in Phil's eyes, as if he was standing up for his friend's experience.

He took a deep drag on his cigarette and continued, "And it all started as a joke. Steve crucified the actor who played Diddy in the music video and he thought it was funny."

"If NAS hadn't intervened, Steve would have most likely been killed."

"Since that incident, the conflict between NAS, JAY-Z and Diddy has completely erupted."

Ariana blinked her big eyes, like a child listening attentively in class.

These bloody gangster stories were very attractive to a 17-year-old girl.

"OMG Mr. Phil, are all these things you said true? I loved listening to Diddy's songs when I was a kid."

"Of course it's true!" Phil laughed maliciously. "Girls like you are his favorites. You better be careful not to get caught by that guy! The entertainment industry isn't as rosy as you imagine, with flowers and flashing lights everywhere."

Ariana showed a look of astonishment, jumped onto the bed like a frightened kitten and hugged Leon's arm.

"Mr. Leon will protect me no matter what the circumstances!"

"Isn't that right, Mr. Leon?"

Li Ang's expression was quite helpless. He hadn't dealt with the troubles in front of him yet and was still thinking about protecting others.

Ariana's big eyes sparkling with stars made people irresistible. He still touched her head lovingly, "No one can bully little A."

"Don't call me that weird name!"

The dull atmosphere became lively under Ariana's instigation.

After a short rest, Li Ang went to the venue of the fashion show, Palm Beach, Miami.

This place is known as the backyard of American billionaires, with the average price of luxury homes exceeding 3000 million US dollars.

For those elderly capitalists, they live in Manhattan to make money, but live in Palm Beach.

The residences of Kennedy, Rockefeller, Carnegie, the British royal family, and many other celebrities are located on this island.

Compared to Washington, who symbolizes supreme power, the retired capitalists living here have just as much influence on the entire United States.

Tomorrow there will be many new investors and old giants coming to watch the show.

Then they will select girls according to their personal preferences like selecting commodities, and let them taste the feeling of being a sugar daddy.

The fashion show is scheduled for noon tomorrow, but the organizer, Sports Illustrated magazine, has scheduled the rehearsal for today.

Facing hundreds of wealthy celebrities and media people, this performance cannot afford to fail.

The person responsible for connecting with Leon is Claire, the editor-in-chief of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Although the event was funded by dozens of swimsuit manufacturers, the organizing was entirely managed by Sports Illustrated.

This magazine has an unshakable authority in the global swimsuit industry, and their "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" published in mid-February every year is known as the arbiter of supermodels.

"Hurry up! Girls, get moving! Even though this is just a rehearsal, you still have to be fully focused!"

"Whoever moves slower I'll spank her!"

Claire, dressed in a casual suit, roared with a stack of scripts in her hands.

The girls in cool clothes completely lost their model-like elegance under the high pressure and hurried to the backstage to line up.

Leon had a very bad first impression of Claire. In fact, he had never liked the image of a strong career woman who dressed like a man and was as harsh as a man.

A capable woman does not need to dress like a man to establish an authoritative posture.

Claire noticed Leon and walked over to him, scolding him, "Don't you have any sense of time? Do you know how important tomorrow's performance is?"

Li Ang did not expect the other party's domineering attitude.

He has participated in dozens of commercial performances, large and small, since his debut. This is the first time he has heard the inviter and the guest speak like this.

He glanced at his watch and realized he arrived at the perfect time, neither too early nor too late.

"Hurry up and go backstage and try on your costumes! The sound engineer, where is the damn sound engineer?!"

"Damn it, sooner or later I'll be pissed off to death by you useless men!"

Leon had no intention of paying any attention to this woman, but Bonnie's patience had reached its limit.

In Brownsville, she would have rushed over and ripped the woman's clothes off.

She stood in front of Claire, her plump headlights pressed against her, and with the help of her high heels, she looked down at her. "Please pay attention to your tone and wording!"

Claire was stunned by Bonnie's aggressive attitude. It took her more than ten seconds to react: "Who are you, little girl?!"

"Let's go, let's ignore this bitch." Leon didn't bother to pay attention to Claire and pulled Bonnie into the locker room. "WTF? Who are you calling a bitch?"

Claire was so angry that she started cursing, but no one paid any attention to her.

In the backstage dressing room, Phil cursed angrily, "Look at how arrogant that bitch is! It's just a magazine that's about to go bankrupt. This industry is rotten to the core. There's no money to be made."

"No matter how bad it is, Time Warner is behind it," Li Ang responded.

"Time Warner, no matter how wealthy they are, wouldn't keep a bunch of money-losing idiots." Phil raised his eyebrows. "You read newspapers often, don't you know? Time Warner is looking for buyers for many of its magazines, including Sports Illustrated."

Under the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, after more than ten long months, the magazine industry did not get out of the trough, but instead fell into the quagmire.

The number of magazines that ceased publication in 2009 was astonishing, and many magazines with decades of history could not withstand the cold winter.

There is too much bubble in this industry, and publishers are beginning to tighten their belts and rethink their advertising strategies under economic pressure.

Some simply gave up and chose to cease publication.

Phil bent over, polishing his shoes while casually saying, "Those magazines worth hundreds of millions of dollars have shrunk in value by more than five times... and even then, it's still hard to find buyers."

"Old magazines like Glamour and Vibe are still closing down and looking for buyers."

"It won't be long before that bitch Claire is out of work, crying her eyes out, and content to be a housewife."

Phil's daily trash talk suddenly reminded Leon of something.

"Vibe", a music magazine founded in 1993, mainly reports on black music such as R&B and Hip-Hop music, and was once considered a bellwether of the hip-hop industry.

After laying off half of its staff and taking intermittent breaks, the magazine announced its closure in 2009.

"Vibe. Mike told me about that magazine, where he was a staff photographer for a while."

When Li Ang said this, his eyes were blank, as if he was thinking about something.

Phil quickly saw through his thoughts. "I know what you're thinking, buddy. Give up that stupid idea right away. Traditional print media, especially entertainment magazines, are on the verge of collapse."

Li Ang didn't care about any of these interests. He just wanted to know how much the magazine was worth now.

Since entering the media industry, the radio sector has not been profitable, and it has been difficult to even break even.

He doesn't have high requirements for media investment, as long as he doesn't lose too much money.

According to the previous layout, the biggest role of these media is to provide channels for publicity and voice for themselves and the singers under the Apocalypse label.

Thinking of this, Li Ang asked directly: "How much do you think "Vibe" is worth?"

"I don't understand. Maybe you should ask the relevant professionals." Phil shook his head in disappointment. "It's stupid enough that Fxxk invested in a radio station. Why do you always pick up those sunset industries that no one wants to invest in?"

"A lot of profits are hidden in places that cannot be reflected in financial statements." Li Ang stood up from the dressing chair and looked at his look in the mirror.

For him, as long as the publicity can achieve satisfactory results, it is enough.

Some businesses may not seem to be very profitable, but the invisible and intangible traffic has already been secretly integrated into the profits from record sales.

Phil shook his head repeatedly to express his helplessness. He couldn't change anything that Leon had decided on.

"You'll quickly dispel this idea. Quincy Jones, the owner of Vibe, is an incredibly sinister guy. He's a black Jew with a black appearance."

As the first godfather of black music, Quincy Jones, who is nearly 80 years old, has a lofty status in the music world.

He was once a mentor and helpful friend to MJ on his musical journey.

In 1985, Quincy Jones launched "For Africa", an event that is regarded as a very meaningful event in the history of pop music.

In the same year, MJ gathered 45 popular singers to respond to this event and released the famous song of the century, "We are the world".

Mentioning Jonesfield, he couldn't help but scold, "This guy has pretended to be a good person his whole life, but everyone in the circle knows his true face."

"Look what he did to MJ. He's been a betrayer more than once!"

"Don't look at the fact that the guy is almost 80 years old. He attends Diddy's parties ridiculously often and is only interested in girls who are old enough to be his great-granddaughters!"

Leon didn't care about Jones's character at all. The only thing he cared about was how to get "Vibe" from Jones, the old fox, at the most suitable price.

At the moment, if we want to get a solution to this problem, we may have to rely on Old Mike to act as a matchmaker.

Leon and Ariana only rehearsed once, and although the performance was excellent, the mean Claire was still not satisfied.

When she suggested to do it again, Leon ignored her and turned away with Ariana.

By noon the next day, the exquisite stage had been set up on the beach of Palm Beach in Miami.

Those prominent and wealthy businessmen from all over the United States sat firmly in the first row, enjoying the girls' charming bodies from the best perspective.

After the show started, the atmosphere quickly became heated as one model after another with a plump and well-proportioned figure appeared.

The biggest difference here from Victoria's Secret isn't that the models are wearing less, but their body shapes.

The Miami swimsuit show has always been about sensuality, and girls whose bust size is smaller than C and whose taillights are no longer than 95 cm are not eligible to perform on the stage.

Many wealthy men over 70 years old did not care about their decency and pointed at the girls' figures while giving obscene smiles.

Phil was one of them. He was sitting and chatting with Leonard, the vice president of Warner Music North America. All of this was seen by Li Ang in the backstage.

He glanced over and saw a familiar figure in the audience.

Jennifer Lopez.

He was sitting and talking and laughing with a Latino-looking man who had a bald head brighter than a light bulb and was particularly conspicuous.

Li Ang quickly recognized that it was the currently popular Cuban rapper Pip Paul, who also had a gang background.

In the 1980s, the Miami underworld was almost entirely dominated by Cuban gangs, and both of Pip's parents were members.

Halfway through the show, Leon took Ariana's hand and walked onto the runway.

The audience immediately applauded and cheered, except for the old rich people.

In their eyes, no matter how wonderful the performance is, it will only hinder their vision of choosing a pet.

As the prelude of "Senorita" sounded, Ariana, wearing a red mini dress, quickly got into the mood.

She looked young and innocent the last second, but immediately her eyes became more seductive than Kardashian.

"I love the way you call me 'my girl'. I wish I could pretend I didn't need you."

“But every touch was magical and real.”

Ariana's fingertips slid across Leon's chest, as if she was the main attacker now.

To the Caribbean-style melody, the models on the catwalk were obviously more relaxed.

They swung their "weapons" without hesitation. Li Ang even felt that if he made a mistake in his positioning, the thunder would hit his face.

(End of this chapter)