Competitors Are Enemies

After saying goodbye to Cooper, Song Ya specifically went to buy a CD of his new album to listen to. The entire album was filled with women, drugs, money, street gangs, and violence—typical gangster rap. It seemed that in the face of accusations from the Black community that he "wasn't street enough," he had chosen a more "street" way to respond, leaving no stone unturned between his records and movies.

With the hot sales of the Thrift Shop single, it was hard for Old Joe and Little Lowry to avoid mentioning themselves during interviews. Now, everyone out there knew that the songwriter of Thrift Shop, APLUS, was a well-behaved student with good grades. This was a compliment, but to some extent, it also created a rift with certain segments of the Black community, like the one Cooper was currently facing.

Not to mention that the Black music scene in New York already had a bit of a "misunderstanding" with him.

"Don't you go learning from him."

During the flight, Hayden took off his headphones. "The things Cooper sings about will attract the attention of law enforcement. I've heard that in some places, white anti-drug cops will quietly plant 'gifts' in the cars of Black people they don't like. One moment of carelessness, and your whole life is ruined."

"I won't."

Ever since he transmigrated, Song Ya had been very careful. He didn't drive without a license, he tried to avoid even minor conflicts on campus, and he only participated in high-profile, respectable civil rights activities, taking a path completely opposite to Cooper's.

But Cooper's theory did have some merit: gathering the power of Black DJs to influence Billboard rankings and subsequently "push products" to sell records...

Song Ya carefully simulated this in his mind and felt that he couldn't pull this off. It was simple: Black DJs at small and medium-sized radio stations had low incomes and generally poor quality. If he relied purely on money to maintain his relationship with them, he would soon be unable to satisfy their greedy appetites. Unless, like Old Joe, he had gang backing—using an invisible big stick to deter them behind the carrot of money. Only by combining the two could those DJs be made to listen obediently. And even Old Joe only had a bit of face in Chicago; he had run into a wall when he went to New York.

"Having gang backing, a certain reputation in the local Black community—especially the music scene—and a significant amount of capital." Song Ya briefly sketched out the image of a person who could succeed. "Even such a person could only be regional. After all, gangs are very localized: the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest where Chicago is, and the South... You'd need at least four or five powerful figures working together..."

"What am I doing, organizing the Mafia?" He couldn't help but shake his head and laugh at the thought, shaking the idea out of his head.

Returning to New York this time, Song Ya went straight to the best recording studio at SBK, "Oak Barrel."

"Oak Barrel" was named for the oak-colored, long-strip sound-absorbing design in the studio. It was SBK's most advanced recording room, and it was quite large; besides the singer, it could easily accommodate a band and a backing vocal group.

Inside the booth, Mira was wearing headphones, swaying her body slightly to the music, not noticing Song Ya's arrival outside at all. It was clear she was in a good state. SBK had even brought in a small high-top bar table with a beautiful cocktail on it; she would bite the straw and take a small sip from time to time.

Sitting in front of the wide mixing console were two top-tier sound engineers from within SBK. They were white, and Eric and Al were assisting them on the side.

"APLUS? Those new synth sounds you came up with are good. At first, I thought Delay had messed up the synthesizer settings." Perhaps because Daniel had warned them, the two engineers only talked about work-related matters, maintained a polite distance from Eric and Al, and didn't give them any room to find fault.

"Thanks." Song Ya shook hands with them. "How is the recording going?"

"The rehearsal went well. Actually, we already have a few versions we're quite satisfied with; we were just waiting for you." One of the engineers took a few CDs from the rack in front of him.

"Let's listen to them then," Song Ya said.

"Sure." He inserted the CD into the player.

Song Ya picked the version closest to the original and then offered a few suggestions, all regarding very subtle details.

"Great idea, we'll make the adjustments according to your wishes right now." The other engineer agreed. He turned on the microphone and said to the inside, "Take a break for now, and then we'll modify the following parts..."

Only then did Mira notice Song Ya's arrival. She smiled happily in an instant, first blowing him a kiss through the glass, then rushing out and throwing herself into Song Ya's arms. "Honey, I missed you so much."

"I missed you too." Song Ya kissed her forehead.

Everyone else in the recording studio was busy with their own work, eyes fixed straight ahead.

However, a phone call came in immediately. "Daniel wants to see you." After hanging up, Eric reminded Song Ya, "He changed offices, but it's still on the same floor."

Right, Daniel's title had changed from VP of Marketing at SBK to VP and General Manager of SBK.

Song Ya was happy to see it.

"APLUS! Come in, watch your step."

Daniel's new office was very large, with an unbeatable skyline view outside the window. Many workers were moving cardboard boxes in, and a female assistant was silently taking items out of the boxes and placing them on the shelves against the wall. Meanwhile, he was playing golf quite leisurely; there was even a miniature indoor putting green on the floor. With a slight swing of his club, the white golf ball slowly rolled along the green and into the hole.

"Congratulations, Daniel." Song Ya complimented him.

"Haha, thanks. How's the recording?" He took the golf ball out of the hole and placed it back in its original position.

"I'm very satisfied. Just a few more minor tweaks to the feel and it'll be ready."

"Perfect!" The ball went into the hole again. "Once this song is recorded, we'll start the promotional tour immediately. At that time... APLUS, you'll have to adapt to the change in your role."

"I understand. I still have to go back to school." Song Ya knew that once this single was recorded, his first career as a producer would come to an end. The subsequent promotion was SBK's business; he could offer opinions, but he no longer had any real power to intervene.

"Haha, I almost forgot, you're still a high school student," Daniel laughed.

The two chatted casually, and Song Ya noticed that on the desk behind Daniel, a magazine was open, revealing a color photo of Mariah Carey.

"You know her?" After Song Ya looked a bit too long, Daniel noticed something was off.

"I happened to run into her in Detroit yesterday," Song Ya replied. He didn't want to mention to Daniel that he had met Mottola.

"The Palace of Auburn Hills?" Daniel turned his golf club upside down and tapped the photo of Mariah Carey with the grip. "It's everywhere. Look, 'Great Voice Stuns The Palace of Auburn Hills.' It happened yesterday, and today it's already on all the major music media. It seems Mottola is grooming her as the next DIVA. Hmph! He even fabricated a Cinderella story, claiming they met by chance at a banquet—what a joke! For Mariah Carey, he and Warner Records spent $350,000 just in bidding! Then he spent two years carefully cultivating her. And what about this year? He's even going to divorce his wife for this woman."

After spilling the gossip, he sneered and said, "Warner has Madonna and Cher, BMG has Whitney Houston, PolyGram has Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, but Columbia's Barbra Streisand is getting old. They're starting to get restless!"

Mottola looks down on you, you look down on Mottola. That saying is true: peers are enemies! Song Ya silently complained. He wanted to ask who SBK had, but he held back. He had heard that SBK's parent company, EMI, and Columbia Records had quite a history of grievances, so it was better to be careful and not provoke him.

"If nothing goes wrong, Mariah Carey's single will top the Billboard charts. Our Thrift Shop's momentum is looking a bit bad, though; it's estimated to drop a dozen spots in its sixth week."

Daniel pulled the conversation back to the main topic. "Little Lowry needs to create some news to grab attention... When it's about to drop out of the top 50, we'll release the studio version of Thrift Shop, and the next time, we'll do a dance remix... In short, we must stay in the Billboard top 50 for a long enough time."

"Is this what they call 'grinding the charts'?" Song Ya asked.

"Grind!"

Daniel said decisively, "Grind until there's nothing left to grind, and then we'll dump that trash album of Little Lowry's to make one last buck."

Isn't this what Mottola called overdrawing a singer's future?... It seems Mottola wasn't wrong after all. Although Daniel's strategy can lead to big sales in the short term, I'm afraid Little Lowry's audience appeal won't be good in the future... Song Ya thought to himself.