"Don't know and don't care. He's been looking crazy as fuck since he got here. Mad at the fucking world." Dom's eyes shot over to Niles who grunted and lifted a finger in the air withoutremoving his eyes from the device. He pounded away at the screen right after.
Asao smirked, watching. "Since when do you let a woman get you in your feelings, Niles?" he asked.
Niles grunted again but didn't respond.
"He doesn't have feelings," Dom joked and Niles shot him a glare worse than his normal angry scowl.
Asao and Dom both looked at each other, speaking at the same time. "Definitely a woman."
"Fuck y'all," Niles mumbled.
Asao chuckled and pointed to the booth. "Who's that?"
"Nobody yet, but if we do this thing Niles has been talking about, he could be. He's nice, just young. Like fifteen, I think. Hang on." Dom pressed a button then spoke to the kid. He was tall, had to be over six feet, and skinny as hell. He wore glasses and had a short ’fro that was picked out. No twists or style, just a ’fro. Dressed in jeans and a hoodie both dark, there wasn't anything special about the kid just looking at him.
"Ay. Jo, run the last couple verses you just worked on."
The kid lifted his face, then pushed the tip of his finger into the frame of his glasses and moved them up before nodding with a scowl. He didn't appear angry, just focused. Determined.
Dom started the track and Asao was about to open his mouth to complain about how dope it was. The track should have been Asao’s, not some random person’s, but he quickly shut the fuck up when the kid began to flow. His cadence was fast but clear. The lyrics were smooth and flowed together but punctuated so anyone listening understood him. He also had a point to his words. They weren’t just random shit or things that rhymed. The kid was telling a story about judging a book by its cover. His story.
"Damn…" Asao muttered, watching the kid in the booth.
"Didn't see that coming, did you?"
"Hell no." He chuckled and Dom grinned.
"When he asked me for a track, said he didn't have much money but would pay overtime if I let him, I brushed his ass off. I stepped off, he grabbed my arm, stuck his chest out, and started rhyming. Blew my fucking mind to hear all that from him…”
Dom tossed his chin at the booth.
"And you gave him the track for free, didn't you?"
Dom shrugged. "I'm a businessman. The kid is in my pocket. If we do this thing with Cap, then we'll need artists."
Niles and Dom were always about business.
"Ay, you're good, Jo. Let me know when you're ready to finish." The kid lifted his chin and went back to scribbling on a notepad. Asao assumed he was writing lyrics.
"You see why we need to do this?" Dom asked.
"What I see is you giving Jo a fire ass track I would have executed," Asao stated.
"Dom has more tracks than he got hoes and this muthafucker has a lot of hoes, Sao. You know he's gonna always take care of home," Niles rattled off then locked his phone to officially join the conversation. "But he's right. We need to do this. The money is good. Cap is desperate, so he's taking pennies on the dollar ,which means we're coming out to the good. I checked on getting the booths set up and everything Dom needs. It's not unreasonable. He has most of that shit already. Enough to make it work until we turn a profit and can invest in making a real studio. It's a good look for us but we can't do it without you. You have to agree. There's some shit we can't do."
The mentorship. The craft. The growth of the artist. His role would be instrumental in the success of the "label".
"I'm in," Asao offered coolly.
"You are?" Niles looked confused. He was prepared to face more resistance, but after meeting Samari, Asao had taken her situation as a sign that they needed to do this.
"Yeah, damn." Asao chuckled and Dom nodded beside him.
"That's what the fuck I'm talking about," Niles said, nodding.
"But I need one thing…"
"Aww fuck, here we go,." Dom groaned.
