Ice Cube's Theory of Selling Records

"His boss came to visit in person. It goes without saying how much Sony Columbia Records values Mariah Carey. You're not about to trot out that 'I can sleep with whoever I want' theory again, are you?"

Hayden was afraid Song Ya would cause trouble. "Sony Columbia is top-tier in both music and film. They're the ones who make the rules."

"You're overthinking it..."

Mariah Carey had a nice figure and was pretty, but Song Ya thought back to her tone and expression when she interacted with Mottola earlier. He didn't believe there was nothing going on between them, so he had no intention of sticking his nose in. "She's older than me, right?"

"Of course. I think she's about twenty." Hayden only stopped warning him once he was sure Song Ya wasn't interested in her.

Early the next morning, the two hurried to the radio station. The half-hour interview was over in a flash.

Afterward, the host was very unhappy. Song Ya had ignored every trap he'd set, leaving the whole interview devoid of anything worth broadcasting.

He brought up the Bulls' humiliating loss in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals not long ago. Song Ya replied that he didn't follow basketball much and didn't know enough to comment.

Then, while complaining that Old Joe hadn't dared to show up, the host casually mentioned Old Joe's ties to GD (the Gangster Disciples, a gang whose name means "Gangster Gospel"; Hell Bobcat is one of its branches). Song Ya pretended not to hear and only said he respected Old Joe greatly, since Old Joe had given him his chance.

He started talking about the chaos and poor public safety in the Black neighborhoods of Detroit and Chicago. Song Ya shifted the topic to the injustices Black people faced, then moved on to the situation in South Africa and his new song, To de Klerk.

Following up on the injustices Black people faced, the host tried to get Song Ya talking about the white people at SBK. Song Ya said he was generally satisfied with the standing of Black people in the music industry, adding that they had the Jackson siblings, Whitney Houston, and so on.

From the relatively decent standing of Black people in the music industry, the host moved on to Hollywood. Apart from Denzel Washington, Black stars like Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg could only play comic relief and other buffoonish roles. Even Morgan Freeman's award-winning part not long ago had been no more than a Jewish widow's chauffeur.

Song Ya said he didn't know much about Hollywood...

"Are you Old Joe's press secretary or something?" The host pulled off his headphones and complained to him directly.

Song Ya shrugged. "I'm only fifteen. I have to be careful."

"If you hadn't told me, I'd have thought you were fifty!" The host laughed in exasperation.

When they came out of the broadcast booth, Hayden was waiting with a group of Black men who looked like gangsters. "APLUS, let me introduce you. This is Ice Cube. Cube, this is APLUS." He introduced the man at the front to Song Ya.

Ice Cube was a former member of N.W.A. He'd fallen out with them and gone solo last year, and had released a new album last month, apparently called Amerikkka's Most Wanted. He was only in his twenties, with a full beard, and always held his chin high as if he couldn't care less about anyone. He wore dark blue from head to toe: jeans, a sweatshirt, and a baseball cap, all dark blue. On the front of the cap was a stylized letter "D," the logo of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit's Major League Baseball team. It was unusual that he wasn't wearing the other three staples of Black celebrity style: gold chains, a gold watch, and a gold ring.

"Hey..." Song Ya hurriedly bumped fists with the rap veteran before him.

"Yo! APLUS, I didn't realize you were so young... How old do you guys think he is?" Cube joked with his entourage, pointing at Song Ya, then slung an arm around his shoulders. "Let's go talk."

Song Ya glanced at Hayden, who nodded to show it was fine.

Cube was currently losing a war of words with his old N.W.A. friends. The situation went something like this:

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

"Big E" said, "Both your parents work at UCLA. You're not from the streets, so why are you pretending to be a gangsta rapper?"

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

"Big E" said he wasn't from the streets.

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

"Big E" said he wasn't from the streets.

Cube said...

"Big E" said, "Anyway, you're not from the streets."

Even so, opinion in the Black community really did favor "Big E," as if growing up in an educated family and getting a good education were sins.

But Cube was a very clever man. He'd lost face in the feud but come out ahead in the end. Most of the songs on his new album had been written during the feud. By attracting attention with the back-and-forth, he'd saved himself a fortune in promotion costs. It wouldn't be hard for the album to go gold—500,000 copies sold.

He didn't mean any harm. He happened to be at the radio station for a show, heard Song Ya's interview on the radio, and realized he was the one who'd written Thrift Shop. So he'd come over to meet him, ask him to write a song, and seek investment for a film project.

"A movie?" Song Ya had no song to give him, of course, but he was very surprised to hear that Cube was making a movie too.

"Yeah! It's being financed by Columbia Pictures. It tells the street story of Crips kids. We start shooting at the end of the year."

Cube pulled a corner of a blue bandanna patterned with white designs from his jeans pocket. "Look, I'm a bona fide Crip. Everyone knows it."

It seemed "Big E" had gotten into his head. He felt the need to prove he was really from the streets to everyone he met.

The movie was being financed by the same studio as Mira's, and they were both scheduled to start filming around the same time. Song Ya had been about to ask for more details, but the moment he heard it was connected to a gang, he pretended he wasn't interested.

Still, Cube spoke and thought on a much higher level than the other Black men from poor backgrounds. Song Ya took the opportunity to ask him for advice on marketing records.

"I know you like relying on big record companies..." Cube winked at him with a smile. "SBK, right? I heard what they thought of you when I was doing promotions in New York."

"They" here undoubtedly meant people in New York's Black music scene.

"Uh... I had a bit of a misunderstanding with them..." Song Ya hurriedly explained. "Those Black girls weren't what I was looking for. I'm only fifteen. I couldn't possibly have thought that far ahead."

"No problem, no problem. It's a small thing. If I run into them again, I'll put in a good word for you." Cube did him a favor, then continued, "As for selling records..."

"What's the point of promotion?" he said. "It's to sell more records. Any kind of promotion that sells records—in other words, that moves product—is good promotion. Look, white-owned major record companies have a firm grip on television. MTV, Saturday Night Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, the news, major sporting events—they can all be used to market records. Their ability to move product is undeniable. We Black people have no chance if we work alone, but if we cooperate..."

"You think there's a chance?" Song Ya wasn't convinced.

"Of course there is. You know what else has tremendous power to move product? The Billboard charts," Cube asked.

"I know."

"The Billboard Hot 100 isn't based purely on sales. Because of its long history, radio airplay carries a lot of weight. And radio these days... I've traveled all over the country doing promotion over the years. With television on the rise, white people generally don't think radio has much of a future. They see it as something that'll eventually be phased out. So now, at radio stations across the country, more and more of the DJ positions are being filled by our own people—the Black community. If someone could unite all the Black DJs across the country and get them to play the same song in the same time slot, that song would shoot straight up the Billboard charts. Everyone follows the latest trends these days. Wouldn't the record sell like crazy?"

Song Ya felt that Cube's theory about moving product was original and made sense, but he quickly spotted the problem. "What if white people change the way Billboard calculates the rankings?"

"Uh... well..."

Cube was stumped. "White people control everything. If that happens, they'll have shut down our path completely. All we can do is wait and see what new media might come along in the future."