Controlling Everything

Song Ya did not let Daniel's flattery go to his head this time. He calmly weighed Daniel's bottom line and ultimately decided to board Daniel's ship once more.

The entertainment industry of this era still retained many archaic rules. Just as singers had agents, record labels had internal mechanisms for interfacing with signed artists. Depending on which executive a singer was under, that person would receive a portion of the revenue from the records the singer released. Of course, the way things worked varied slightly from company to company, but that was the general gist. Daniel had made his bottom line very clear: Milla's mother had to transfer Milla under his management. And as a partner to SBK, while the folks at Joe Music weren't bound by these rules, since Daniel had facilitated this collaboration, they should tacitly offer him their support.

Joe was easy to handle, and with Tony acting as the intermediary for Little Lowry and Pablo, there wasn't much of an issue there either. When there were no conflicts of interest, playing up the "family" and "brotherhood" angle among Black people was still quite effective.

What remained was winning over Milla's mother. If he couldn't induce her to flip, the song FXXXYOU would simply have no connection to Milla...

After all, the most critical red line hanging over Song Ya's head was the deadline given by Michelle; prioritizing the single's release was the top priority.

He and Hayden stayed in New York to finalize the copyrights first (the details of copyright will not be repeated hereafter). Utilizing the limited legal and accounting assistance provided by BMI to its members, they signed a contract with SBK regarding the production of the single. He officially became the producer of the single FXXXYOU as a non-SBK employee, while also enjoying approximately three percent of the revenue from this portion, plus six percent each for lyrics and composition, totaling fifteen percent.

After spending about a week wrapping these things up, Song Ya changed into a new outfit and officially started work.

Hayden was already waiting in the SBK recording studio. As soon as they met, he offered a compliment, "You look very sharp today. Finally bid farewell to the thrift shop finds?"

"Is that so? Thanks. This is New York; I don't want to be laughed at."

Song Ya touched the tan suede leather jacket he was wearing. The jacket had flashy fringe on the chest and from the elbows to the cuffs. Underneath, he wore a black T-shirt with the Japanese kanji for "courage" printed on the chest (they didn't sell mainland fonts), paired with standard blue jeans and classic Converse canvas shoes. The whole outfit actually cost little more than a hundred bucks. This combination was something he had stolen from the original music video in the thrift shop in his mind. Since the apocalypse came from the future, and the future was definitely stylish, dressing this way couldn't be wrong.

Hayden let him into the recording studio. This studio wasn't much bigger than the one at Joe Music, and the layout was identical, though the equipment was much more advanced. It was definitely sufficient for handling the current primary singer auditions.

"Come on, let me introduce you. This is Lisa."

Standing in the control room was a young white woman with above-average looks, dressed in a standard white-collar suit. She held a thick stack of documents and could only nod and smile, "Hi, APLUS. I'm Lisa. I'll be responsible for all the paperwork and coordination during the single's production."

"This is Isco..."

A young white man with a rock-and-roll vibe sat in front of the mixing console. He tossed his long hair, looked back at Song Ya, then used his feet to push off the ground, sliding his rolling office chair a distance until he reached Song Ya, extending his hand with an expressionless face.

"Hello." Song Ya smiled and shook his hand.

Isco slid back to the mixing console.

"The one inside is the keyboardist, Delay..."

The white man wearing headphones in the recording booth, playing the accompaniment for FXXXYOU, smiled kindly at Song Ya.

Song Ya waved to acknowledge him, "So, what's the work schedule for today?" he asked Lisa.

"Today is the first round of auditions. Here is the list." Lisa took a document from her arms and handed it to Song Ya.

"So many people?" The list was very long, spanning three pages. Song Ya took it and counted; there were actually over seventy names, and he couldn't find Milla Jovovich among them...

"What's going on?" Whether he wanted to hook up with Milla or induce her mother to flip, he needed to apply pressure first. Putting Milla in the highly competitive first round of auditions was exactly the strategy Song Ya had agreed upon with Hayden.

Hayden tilted his head, signaling to go outside to talk. Song Ya followed him to a secluded spot, "Milla's mother pulled some strings and moved her to the second round." Hayden reported a name—it was the very executive who was competing with Daniel for the general manager position.

"Daniel is only a vice president. The internal interpersonal relationships at SBK are more complex than we imagined. By the time the list reached me, many changes had already occurred, and it wasn't just Milla..." Hayden went back and asked Lisa for another document, "Look at this second-round audition list."

Besides the female singer Daniel favored and the three pre-determined "filler" candidates, five handwritten names in different scripts had been added below. Milla Jovovich was one of them.

"FXXX!" The good mood Song Ya had upon arriving was completely ruined, "Damn office politics."

"No choice. Office politics are unavoidable in a big company like this," Hayden said, "At least it doesn't affect the big picture."

"I hate getting caught in the boring whirlpool of office politics again." Song Ya rubbed his temples in distress.

"Again?" Hayden caught the oddity in that sentence.

Huh? Why did I say 'again'? Song Ya shook his head, "Just a slip of the tongue. There are too many people on this first-round list, too. Is SBK's appeal really that strong?"

"This is New York. Ever since Madonna earned a massive amount of money for Warner, countless record labels have wanted their own trendy diva. I suspect SBK had similar thoughts when they signed Milla the year before last. Milla is pretty, a former child star, has a certain status in the fashion world, and can sing. If not for her bad temper and greedy parents, she would indeed be a good prospect. Right now, there is a severe oversupply of white girls on the market. Any song suitable for them to sing will be fought over tooth and nail."

Hayden pointed his finger at the names added to the second-round list, "Your song isn't hard to sing, it touches on equality, and songs with female profanity come with built-in, decent controversy... Like I said, this is New York. Once the news gets out, there will always be people with good backgrounds who see the opportunity ahead of time."

"Oversupply..." Song Ya shook his head and chuckled, "You make it sound like human trafficking."

"You don't know. When an agent has a bunch of nobodies under their wing, it really feels like human trafficking—the kind you can't even sell." Hayden gave a wry smile; he had plenty of experience with that.

The two couldn't think of any good solutions, so they had to return to the control room.

"Fourth bar, can you make it crisper?" Isco was giving suggestions into the microphone.

"OK, let me try again." Delay in the recording booth started playing again.

Song Ya's face darkened. It was one thing for Isco to ignore him, but to dare point fingers at his song to his face was another.

He went outside again, wandering slowly through the SBK offices, trying to calm his mood.

"Give it up. Your girl is Black; she won't make it past the first round." Walking into a quiet area, the wording of a man caught his attention.

"You idiot, don't you know yet? The songwriter and producer of this song is APLUS from Chicago, and he is a Black man! According to the one-drop rule," another woman retorted competitively, "Your girl is the one who won't have a chance. So many white chicks came today."

"What! APLUS is Black!?" The man's tone was clearly panicked.

"You need to update your sources." The woman said triumphantly, "Black people will definitely favor their own."

Taking advantage of the fact that the two agents hadn't noticed him, Song Ya turned and left.

"Enough, I hate this feeling of being unable to control anything!" He rushed into the recording studio, pulled Hayden out, and said in a low voice, "Help me set up another meeting with Daniel."

"Heh heh... You're still young. You'll get used to the complexity of society once you experience it a few more times. Everything is a process of compromise." Hayden laughed instead, misunderstanding Song Ya's intent. He flicked the first-round list in his hand, "To the seventy-plus girls on this list, you're already a big shot. Whoever you take a fancy to, just say the word—no, just give a hint. I went to the waiting room; among those who came just this morning, there are some whose looks and figures don't lose to Milla's. Why be so inflexible?"

"BULLSHXT!"

Song Ya cursed, "A real big shot chooses whoever they want. Is someone who can only compromise on another target a big shot? Make your call!"

He chased Hayden off to make the call, while he dialed Joe's number himself, "Boss, are you already out promoting? That... is Eric free? I want to borrow him for a while... Okay, thank you, Boss."

The next day, standing at the doorway and watching the back of Isco as he carried a cardboard box away, Song Ya said to Eric beside him, "I'm leaving this place to you, Eric."

"Thank you, APLUS, thank you for giving me this opportunity." Eric was very excited, walking into the control room and starting to fiddle with the mixing console.

"The equipment here is brand new, you know how to use it all, right?"

"No problem, it's just got a few more new features; I'll get familiar with it quickly."

"Right, don't you dare touch any of the girls here without my permission. This is New York, not the South Side of Chicago."

"I understand."

"Good."

Ending the conversation, Song Ya looked at the list in his hand with satisfaction. Mira's name had reappeared in the first round of auditions, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a faint, cold sneer.

"Oh, right, you should watch MTV in a bit," Eric reminded him.

There was a small television in the control room. Song Ya turned it on right on time and switched to the MTV channel. The familiar melody began to play—it was none other than his song, "Thrift Shop."