Ice Cube's Theory of Product Promotion

"The president visited in person; it goes without saying how much Sony Columbia values Mariah Carey. You aren't going to bring up that 'whoever I want to sleep with, I sleep with' theory again, are you?"

Hayden was terrified that APLUS would stir up trouble. "Sony Columbia is top-tier in both the music and film industries. They are the ones who set the rules."

"You're overthinking it..."

Mariah Carey had a great figure and was quite beautiful, but after APLUS recalled the tone and demeanor of her interaction with Mottola earlier, he didn't believe for a second that there wasn't something going on between them. Naturally, he had no intention of trying to wedge himself in. "She's older than me, right?"

"Of course, she's around twenty or so." Hayden felt that APLUS truly didn't have any lecherous intentions, so he stopped trying to dissuade him.

Early the next morning, the two rushed to the radio station. The interview was scheduled for half an hour, and it passed in a flash.

After it ended, the radio host was very dissatisfied. All the traps he had set were ignored by APLUS, resulting in the entire interview having absolutely no entertainment value.

He brought up the Bulls' crushing defeat in the Eastern Conference Finals game seven not long ago, but APLUS replied that he didn't watch much basketball and didn't really understand it.

Then, while complaining that Old Joe didn't dare to come on the show, he pretended to casually mention the relationship between Old Joe and the GD (a gang name: the Gangster Disciples; the Hell Bobcat is a branch of them). APLUS also pretended not to hear, saying only that he respected Old Joe and that it was Old Joe who gave him his chance.

He started talking about the chaotic public security in the black neighborhoods of Detroit and Chicago, but APLUS shifted the topic to the injustices suffered by black people, leading into the current situation in South Africa and his new song: To de Klerk.

Following the thread of injustices suffered by black people, he began to bait APLUS into talking about the white people at SBK. APLUS stated that he was generally satisfied with the status of black people in the music industry, noting that we have the Jackson siblings, Whitney Houston, and so on.

Following the decent status of black people in the music industry, he turned the topic to Hollywood, where, apart from Denzel Washington, other popular stars like Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg could only play comic relief or buffoonish roles. Even the role that won Morgan Freeman an award not long ago was just a chauffeur for an elderly Jewish woman.

APLUS indicated that he wasn't familiar with Hollywood...

"Are you a press secretary sent by Old Joe?" The host took off his headphones and mocked him to his face.

APLUS shrugged. "I'm only fifteen; I have to be careful."

"If you hadn't said that, I would've thought you were fifty!" The host was so annoyed he laughed.

Coming out of the broadcast room, Hayden was waiting outside with a group of thugs. "APLUS, let me introduce you. This is Ice Cube. Cube, this is APLUS." He introduced the leader to APLUS.

Ice Cube was a former member of N.W.A who had broken away to go solo last year. He had also released a new album last month, something like Amerikkka's Most Wanted. He was only in his twenties, sporting a thick beard and a look that suggested he didn't care about anyone, always holding his head high. He was dressed in deep blue—jeans, a hoodie, and a baseball cap, all deep blue. The front of the cap had a cursive "D," the logo of the local Major League Baseball team, the Detroit Tigers. What was somewhat rare was that he didn't wear the "golden trio" of accessories seen on other black stars.

"Hey..." APLUS hurriedly bumped fists with this veteran of the rap world.

"YO! APLUS, turns out you're so young... how old do you guys think he is?" Cube and his entourage joked about APLUS, then he reached out and put an arm around APLUS's shoulder. "Let's go over there and talk."

APLUS looked at Hayden, and Hayden nodded to signal it was fine.

Cube was currently on the losing end of a long-distance war of words with his old friends from N.W.A. The situation was roughly like this:

Cube said he had been cheated out of a lot of money by "Big E" (the founder of N.W.A).

"Big E" said your parents are both employees at UCLA; you don't belong to our streets at all, so why are you pretending to be a gangsta rapper...

Cube said he wrote half of N.W.A's lyrics.

"Big E" said you don't belong to our streets.

Cube said he contributed a lot to N.W.A.

"Big E" said you don't belong to our streets.

Cube said...

"Big E" said anyway, you don't belong to our streets.

Just like that, public opinion in the black community really leaned toward "Big E," as if coming from a highly educated family and receiving a good education were original sins.

However, Cube was a very smart man. He lost face in the war of words but won the substance; most of the songs on his new album were written during the feud. Relying on the back-and-forth, he gained a lot of attention, indirectly saving a large amount of promotional costs. It wouldn't be difficult for the new album to go Gold (500,000 copies sold).

He didn't have any malicious intent; he just happened to be doing a show at the radio station too. He heard the interview with APLUS on the radio and knew he was the one who wrote Thrift Shop, so he came over to get to know him, and incidentally, to ask for a song and solicit investment for his film project.

"A film?" APLUS naturally had no songs to give him, but he was very surprised to hear that the other party was also making a movie.

"Yeah! It's invested in by Columbia Pictures. It depicts the street stories of us Crips teenagers. We start filming at the end of the year."

Cube pulled a corner of a blue-and-white patterned Crip bandana out of his jeans pocket. "Look, I'm a real-deal Crip; everyone recognizes it."

It seemed he had been driven mad by "Big E," feeling the need to prove his street credentials to everyone he met.

It turned out to be the same company investing in Mira's film, and the filming schedules were about the same. APLUS had originally wanted to ask for more details, but as soon as he heard it involved gangs, he immediately pretended to be uninterested.

However, Cube's way of speaking and his thinking were clearly on a much higher level than other black people from the bottom of society. APLUS took the opportunity to ask him for advice on record marketing techniques.

"I know, you like to rely on big record companies..." Cube winked and smiled at him. "SBK, right? I heard their opinions of you when I was in New York running promotions."

The "they" here undoubtedly referred to the black music scene in New York.

"Uh... I have some misunderstandings with them..." APLUS hurriedly defended himself. "Those black girls didn't meet my requirements. I'm only fifteen; I couldn't possibly think that deeply."

"It's fine, it's fine, all small problems. I'll speak up for you next time I see them." Cube did him a favor. "As for selling records..."

He said, "What is the purpose of promotion? It's nothing more than selling more records. Any kind of promotion that can sell records—in layman's terms, if it can move product—is good promotion. Look, the big white record companies firmly control the TV stations. MTV, Saturday Night Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, news programs, major sporting events—they can all be used to market records. The ability to move product is unquestionable. We black people have absolutely no chance if we fight alone, but if we cooperate..."

"Is there really a chance?" APLUS didn't feel it.

"Of course there's a chance. Do you know there's something else with super-strong product-moving power, the Billboard charts?" Cube asked.

"I know it."

"The Billboard singles chart isn't a chart based purely on sales. Because of its long history, the airplay on radio stations carries a lot of weight. And as for radio stations now... I've traveled all over the US promoting over the years. Due to the rise of television media, white people generally don't think highly of the prospects of radio stations, believing they are things that will be eliminated sooner or later. So now, in every radio station, our own people (the black community) have gradually occupied the majority of DJ positions. If someone could unite all the black DJs in the US to push the same song at the same time, then that song would inevitably be pushed to the top of Billboard in an instant. People nowadays follow trends, so wouldn't the records sell like crazy?"

APLUS felt that Cube's theory on moving product was very novel and made sense, but he quickly found the crux of the matter. "What if the white people change the way Billboard calculates its weighting?"

"Uh... this..."

Cube was stumped. "White people control everything. If that happens, our path will be completely blocked. We can only wait for the future and see what new media will appear."