America's Top Player

Chapter 97 Welcome to Compton

"Leaving everyone far behind?"

Li Ang didn't understand this sentence at first, until Bonnie pulled up the real data on the computer, he was so surprised that he was completely speechless.

The data for "Rolling In The Deep" this week is equivalent to the sum of the second to fourth places.

That is to say, Katy Perry plus Rihanna, plus Robbie
Their combined hits were still beaten by Adele.

"Incredible, isn't it? No one could have thought of this number." Bonnie's eyes contained a hint of resentment.

How did this unattractive fat British girl do it?
The last time a single had such a dominant impact was in 2009 with Kesha’s “TIK TOK”.

"This girl's abilities are far more than just that! Her album '21' will be officially released next week." Old Mike paused and continued, "My friend who works at Sony Music told me that they're already opening champagne in advance to celebrate Adele's sweep of all the awards this year."

"You mean, Adele's new album has many songs like 'Rolling In The Deep'?" Li Ang showed a surprised expression again.

"I didn't say that. Even MJ or Bob Dylan couldn't make every song in an album a masterpiece, but Sony Records is indeed very ambitious about this album." Old Mike spread his hands and said.

The popularity of Adele's new song has completely overshadowed the recent beef between Leon and Chris Brown, and now no one cares about it anymore.

In fact, all the scandals and negative news about other singers were also swallowed up by the "Adele phenomenon".

In order to obtain the North American agency rights for the album "21", Sony paid a sky-high agency fee to the British XL Records.

Now it seems that the money was completely worth it.

According to media reports, Adele's entire album was inspired by her ex-boyfriend who was ten years older than her. The two have now broken up.

"Adele and Taylor are two amazing women who can always draw endless inspiration from men," Li Ang exclaimed.

A brilliant idea suddenly came to his mind: if he could sign Taylor and develop a relationship with her.
Then he could rely on repeatedly hurting Taylor so that he could gain inspiration repeatedly, and then truly become a perpetual power money printing machine.

This efficiency may be even better than the inspiration refresh mechanism plug-in.

Li Ang waved his hand and wanted to skip the topic of Adele.

Every year, phenomenal newcomers emerge in the music scene, some of whom even become historical superstars.

But none of this has anything to do with him, he can only be jealous and then increase his mental exhaustion.

He lit a cigarette, crossed his legs, and said, "Let's talk about Quincy Jones. You used to work for his company."

"Hey, man, why are you suddenly mentioning this black Jew?" Mike looked disgusted and didn't want to hear this name at all.

"Just asking." Li Ang replied.

"He's a mean, cunning bastard who should be locked up on Simon Legree's plantation and whipped forever!"

Old Mike seemed to have suddenly opened up and kept accusing Quincy Jones of crimes.

In the 90s, Mike, who had worked with George Lucas for many years, was already a well-known photographer in the circle.

In 1993, he was invited by Quincy Jones to join the newly established Vibe magazine.

In the golden age of gangsta rap, everyone wanted to get a piece of the pie.

"Vibe" was indeed a huge success. At its peak, the circulation of each issue remained at 30 copies, making it the undisputed number one hip-hop magazine.

"That jerk Quincy always likes to withhold wages, and the team has recruited a lot of editors and photographers from Eastern Europe."

"These people were forced to leave their homes because of the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, and upon arriving in America, they encountered cruel capitalists and slave owners."

"Because they had no legal status, Quincy exploited them recklessly, even more cruelly than the Southern plantation owners had exploited their ancestors."

"All those young Eastern European girls working at the magazine have been slept with by this old man, and their husbands have to swallow their anger to survive."

While recounting these past events, Mike unknowingly smoked a lot of cigarettes.

The more Li Ang listened, the tighter his brows furrowed.

It's not out of empathy for the victims in this story, nor is it out of disgust for Quincy Jones.

It's simply because doing business with a cunning villain is much more difficult than doing business with a decent and honest person.

It is not difficult to imagine that when he deals with Quincy in the future, they will inevitably scheme against each other, and it is easy to fall into a trap if he is not careful.

Mike took a deep puff of his cigarette and continued, "MJ once respected him as a teacher, and he blackmailed MJ over copyright issues more than once."

"In 2003, when MJ was embroiled in a scandal, he announced in front of the media that he had distanced himself from MJ."

"The fact that Quincy lived this long made me question my faith in God. Why didn't he punish this bastard?"

Li Ang snorted coldly and scoffed at this.

Crime and punishment was originally a term used by the medieval church to paralyze the lower classes.

The evil people who use all means to make money will go to hell, but you who work diligently will go to heaven!

The purpose is nothing more than to make these ignorant European peasants work like beasts of burden.

Li Ang refilled his coffee and asked, "Let's talk about something serious. Do you know what Quincy's hobbies are?"

"Money, women... or more money and younger women." Mike responded by spreading his hands.

"Gone?"

"This bastard is almost 80 years old and rarely appears in front of the camera anymore." Mike thought for a moment and then said, "But he never misses the Love Africa charity dinner held in Harlem every May to create an image of a good person."

"But there's a condition: participating celebrities must have proof of donations to African children. Attending this banquet means entering Quincy's circle."

Donate?

When Li Ang heard this word, every cell in his body resisted.

Despite this, he gritted his teeth and asked, "How much money do you need to donate?"

"I heard it would cost at least $100 million."

"WTF? Are they crazy?"

No one knows how much of this one million dollars will become food in the hands of children and how much will become ammunition in the hands of warlords.

Putting aside these emotions, there was no way he could pay this amount, not even by subtracting two zeros.

"Actually, donating some money won't do you any harm. It's not like the money gave Quincy your current status anyway. Having a good reputation for being philanthropic is quite important."

"Those titles mean nothing to me." Li Ang said with a pout.

"No, you're totally wrong! Think about Angelina Jolie's current status. It's inseparable from her contributions to international humanitarian causes!"

Mike became a little emotional as he spoke.

Although he is an old pervert, he has high moral standards for others and has white left tendencies. To put it bluntly, he has double standards.

Leon quickly ended the topic. He had already received news about Quincy Jones and did not want to engage in a meaningless debate with Mike on moral issues.

After Mike left, Leon arranged for Bonnie to plan the promotion of the Apocalypse label after the beginning of 2011.

Grande's debut album is currently in production and is expected to be released by the end of January.

The publicity focuses mainly on young groups in middle-class and Hispanic communities.

The popularity of Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" has long passed, and the title song of the same name is currently hovering outside the top 50 on the Billboard chart.

Li Ang’s request to her is to release a new album this year.

This is easy for Cardi B. Her tunnel is connected to her brain, and obscene inspiration is endless. Li Ang just listened to the new song demo sent by Cardi B a few days ago. His evaluation of it was: Compared with this new song, "Bodak Yellow" is as pure as a Disney fairy tale.

As for Robbie, "Faded" is very likely to become a divine song and a cultural symbol.

Like TIK TOK, it will remain popular for a long time.
After arranging all this, Li Ang bought a ticket to Los Angeles early the next morning.

Robbie had been calling to complain about his poor condition over the past few days and that he couldn't get into character on the set.

Director Martin Scorsese was extremely dissatisfied with her decision to cross over to become a singer.

There were even subtle hints that Robbie's scenes would be deleted and the female lead would be replaced.

All these changes made Robbie depressed and his menstrual cycle was disrupted.

Li Ang understood immediately after hearing this. Robbie was obviously lacking the nourishment of love and wanted to eat takeout.

In order to prevent his money printing machine from malfunctioning, he had to travel thousands of miles to arrange for the delivery of "lubricant".

When Robbie heard the news, the gloom was swept away, and he immediately said that he had done a deep beauty treatment on his whole body, especially his hair.

All the "hair" on the body.

Before Li Ang boarded the plane, he even posted a close-up selfie for him to appreciate.

The next day at noon, the first thing Leon did after getting off the plane was not to see Robbie, but to see Kendrick.

The trip to Los Angeles to reload Robbie's ammunition was just a side mission, as the main issue was the trouble with the licensing of the movie "Straight Outta Compton".

In order to prepare for the filming, Leon asked Phil to register a film company called Apocalypse Pictures a few days ago.

This company has nothing now and is completely an empty shell prepared to facilitate the signing of various subsequent agreements.

With Kendrick's intervention, Dre agreed to the authorization without any hesitation, and did not dwell too much on the box office share ratio.

He is so rich that it makes no difference to him whether he gets 1% or 2% of the box office share.

The only requirement is that the guy who plays him must be cool and gangster-like.

No one asked too much about the other two members, MC Ren and DJ Yela, as they have been eliminated by the times.

When they learned that they could get $50,000 in licensing fees at once, they couldn't wait to sign the authorization letter, fearing that Apocalypse Pictures would regret it if they signed too late.

The hardest one to deal with was Ice Cube, the guy who, besides Dre, benefited the most from the NWA legacy.

In the rap circle, he is a well-deserved OG, and in the film and television industry, he became a well-known movie star with "xXx: Return of Xander Cage".

Due to his strained relationship with Dre and Big E, he has no interest in the NWA biopic.

Kendrick knew he couldn't defeat Ice Cube on his own, so he had to send Leon to Los Angeles to find another way out.

They met in Compton, a notorious gangster town.

A city that cannot be avoided when talking about gangsta rap and the origins of gangsta culture.

In 1971, Stanley Williams, a young black man, founded the Crips in Los Angeles.

This poor boy, Niko, has been keen on using violence to win everything he wants since he was very young.

With his extreme cruelty and arrogance, as well as his strong physique like a 135-kilogram animal, he quickly expanded the influence of the Crip Gang.

In 1971 alone, the Crips claimed hundreds of lives in a gang war and "battle" for control of the drug trade.

The equally notorious Bloods were formed as an alliance among other black gangs in Los Angeles to protect themselves against the threat of the Crips.

Today, there are hundreds of thousands of black teenagers across the United States who claim to be associated with the Crips and Bloods, and it has even become an American cultural symbol.

Until Stanley was executed in California in 2005, Compton remained the poorest and most dangerous city in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Davis followed Leon closely.

He has been in the underground rap circle for a long time. Although he has not participated in criminal activities such as drug trafficking, he is proficient in various gang cultures.

Able to understand the meaning of various gang gestures and language.

As soon as they got off the bus, they felt Compton's "enthusiasm".

The guys on the street who were smoking heavily stopped what they were doing and stared at them.

Two unfamiliar faces appeared on the streets of Compton. The combination of one in black and one in white could hardly fail to attract attention.

"Hey Niko, where are you guys from?" A tall and thin Niko wearing a blue headscarf and leading a pit bull on the street asked loudly.

Although he was as thin as a bamboo pole and seemed to fall down at the slightest touch, he did not seem to be a match for Davis.

But Leon and Davis both knew that if they provoked the other party here, they would probably be beaten into a sieve in an instant!
Davis said nothing, just made a "C" gesture with his hand.

In Crip culture, this gesture represents the Crips, meaning we are one of them.

Davis didn't want to cause any more trouble, so he stuck close to Leon and tried to leave quickly, but the tall guy still wouldn't give in.

"Imi Mu Lei? Why haven't I seen you before? Where are you from?"

"New York, Bronx came here to see my Houmi, he told me there are a lot of hot chicks in Compton"

This explanation finally made the tall black man relax his guard and laugh.

He made a welcoming gesture. "Hey yo bro~ Compton girls are the best. I hope you have a good time here."

"By the way, remember not to get into conflict with anyone and keep a low profile. This is [Saints] Robinson's territory. You should have heard of this name."

After walking on the street for a while, Li Ang found the big house that Kendrick had mentioned on the phone.

Although this type of house looks a bit old, it is indeed very eye-catching in Compton, where shacks are everywhere.

The area of over 9000 square feet and the luxurious three-story building alone are far beyond the reach of other Negotiators here.

Li Ang called Kendrick and the door opened a minute later.

Behind Kendrick stood two tall men who covered their faces tightly with bandanas, but still revealed some twisted gang tattoos.

Just by looking at their appearance, you can tell that they are gang members, and they are the kind of die-hard gang members who regard joining a gang as their lifelong pursuit.

As soon as they met, Kendrick rushed over and gave him a bear hug, "Leon, welcome to Compton Bro!"

"Why are you always so mysterious on the phone? Can't you just tell me the specific meeting place?" Li Ang asked his question straight to the point.

"Hey, because some things are inconvenient to talk about on the phone. You know, surveillance is everywhere these days! You'll know what's going on later."

Kendrick led Leon into the house, and more gang members appeared in sight.

The gleaming guns could be clearly seen through their pulled-down jeans.

In the middle of the living room, a black man was lying leisurely on the sofa.

His image is different from all the other Negos here.

He was wearing a nice tailored suit and a high-end Rolex watch, and there was no trace of tattoos even on his exposed skin.

But the gangster-looking guys in the room kept a distance from him, as if they were separated by a wall of air.

At this moment, he was lazily rubbing the game controller in his hand, concentrating on controlling the protagonist CJ and the Ballas Gang in the "GTA: SA" game to fight for territory.

(End of this chapter)