A week later, inside the Etched Music Studio.
Leon summoned Max and King Von to discuss the recording plan for Rockstar.
After a month of careful consideration, he decided to name the new album directly as Rockstar and use this song as the title track. Doing this could effectively make up for the lack of unity in the album and send a signal to fans—my identity is never defined by being a rock singer.
"You want bass in the second verse, a low sound like a wailing American bison?" Max asked.
"Exactly. I want a human subwoofer effect, then use plug-ins to create a distorted sound wave effect."
"Man, I get what you're saying. The main melody of your song is set in F minor, but you want Von's bass to go down to G2, right on the subdominant of the main melody?" Max looked at King Von with a blank expression. "Do you think this kid's vocal range can handle it?"
Being criticized, King Von immediately retorted, "Man! You're insulting me! Bass is an innate skill for black people; we don't need to practice at all!"
"My bass is as deep as my soul!"
Leon had already thought of the issues Max was considering.
Von was the most suitable singer he could think of to feature in the new song.
His voice was already quite deep, at least much stronger than Kendrick's thin timbre.
But to achieve the ultra-low bass effect below 80Hz in the original version, he might still be lacking a bit.
In this case, they had to use some technology.
"It can be handled through post-production tuning; that's your specialty," Leon said. "Take the original 808 drum sample and process it with distortion, low-pass clipping, and high-frequency attenuation. It's easy to achieve the effect."
"You look like a professional music producer now," Max teased with a shrug.
"I have to learn some new knowledge. It's the 21st century; singing skills are completely unimportant for a singer now."
After some discussion, Max returned to his studio to start making the accompaniment.
Leon also returned to the CEO's office, where lawyer Luca had been waiting for a long time.
"Look at you, high-spirited, like a Gatsby of the new century." Luca quickly stood up, flattering him instantly.
Since the establishment of the Apocalypse Copyright Company, Luca, as a legal consultant, had also made a lot of money. The $500,000 annual consulting fee was just an appetizer for him.
He took a percentage of legal fees from any contract he reviewed, and copyright infringement cases were also a major source of income.
In the three months since last October, there had been more than a dozen cases of infringement on the Apocalypse music copyright library alone.
Most cases involved third-rate singers performing Leon's works at obscure music festivals or electronic music festivals, or someone sampling the accompaniment without authorization.
"Thanks for getting Von out of the Brooklyn detention center. Excellent work." Leon handed Luca a cigarette.
Although the other party was a scum lawyer with no moral concepts, his ability was always online.
Taking a step back, a guy with moral concepts definitely couldn't be an excellent lawyer.
"When I heard about Von's trouble, I rushed back from El Paso, Texas, immediately." Luca lit the cigarette and touched his red tie. "No matter where you are in trouble in the world, Luca Vincent will always appear immediately."
"El Paso?" Leon asked casually. In his impression, that was a border city that even Texas locals didn't want to go to.
People living in this city were more or less involved in smuggling trade, and Mexican drug dealers from all walks of life used it as an important distribution center for goods.
Driven by curiosity, Leon asked, "Is it what I think? Are you still serving those damn drug dealers?"
This was a question he had always found strange. This shameless lawyer was already very rich; there was no need to earn blood money from drug dealers.
"No, a new business has become popular on the border. Those Mexican business geniuses are no longer satisfied with smuggling contraband."
"Then what do they smuggle?"
"People."
Luca grinned, revealing a gloomy smile. "Every year, tens of thousands of Latin Americans wait to enter the United States from the southern border and come to their dreamland of money."
Leon smiled and said, "Does anyone really believe the fairy tale that as long as you come to the United States and work as a truck driver alone, you can buy a big house and support four children plus two dogs?"
In the 50s and 60s, such things did exist. At that time, Khrushchev was still arguing with Nixon about which system could bring a better life to the people.
In this debate, the Nixon administration proclaimed that an American family only needed one man working to easily support the whole family.
Unfortunately, this golden age is long gone.
Luca pursed his lips. Based on lawyer ethics, he didn't talk much about client information. He turned around and took out a stack of documents from his briefcase. "That girl who accused you of getting her pregnant, I have officially filed a lawsuit against her."
"Very good. Remember to teach that bitch a profound lesson."
Late at night a week ago, many tweets suddenly appeared on Bluebird about Leon assaulting a 26-year-old white woman in a nightclub. The person involved tweeted a photo of herself with Leon in the nightclub.
Although Leon was wearing sunglasses in the photo, from facial details and the ring on his hand, it was not difficult for anyone to confirm his identity.
Leon quickly recognized that the girl was a dancer he met while partying at the 1OAK nightclub in Brooklyn on the day Not Like Us was released.
He didn't take it seriously at first. A top-tier singer faces at least a dozen lawsuits a year, most related to copyright disputes and defamation.
Sexual assault allegations are not few either.
Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant experienced a sexual assault case that shocked the whole country as early as 2003, and finally spent a huge amount of money to get the girl to drop the charges.
Boxing champion Tyson stumbled even harder on women, being convicted of rape in 1992 and serving three years in prison.
But the problem was, Leon didn't have improper relations with any woman present that day. At most, he used his hands to measure the size of their "headlights" a few times.
HIV rates in New York were rising year by year; he would be crazy to roll in the sheets with nightclub models casually.
What was laughable was that the girl even posted a photo of a pregnancy test stick, with two lines clearly visible as conclusive evidence.
She insisted she was pregnant with Street Jesus's child.
Leon didn't intend to respond to such an outrageous story, but after a week of fermentation, it had become bigger and bigger, and yesterday it reached Taylor's ears.
Leon could only explain patiently, bringing God out again as a talisman. "My little head is as pure as my brain. I promise God I am innocent."
Unexpectedly, Taylor chose to trust him unconditionally because the girl who exposed the scandal had ridiculously large breasts.
She naively thought her boyfriend wasn't interested in such overly voluptuous figures. "Do you think someone is manipulating that girl behind the scenes?" Luca asked. "Based on my experience, the more outrageous the case, the more the reasons behind it are worth digging into. I know some professionals who can investigate the behind-the-scenes story very quickly."
"No need. I already had someone investigate."
Shortly after the sexual assault scandal broke out, Leon immediately thought of Jay-Z's name.
Even though no one knows how the photos and videos that led to his divorce from Beyoncé were leaked until now, as long as he is not a fool, he can easily figure it out.
Multiple media outlets that published the photos received anonymous submissions at the same time. The submitter generously gave away these photos worth millions of dollars without asking for a single cent.
This made it clear that the entire event was not accidental.
There were few people with the ability and motive to do so.
Jay-Z is not a fool; he quickly thought of Leon's name.
Fierce retaliation was only a matter of time.
But according to Gary Fane's investigation results, the nightclub sexual assault incident seemed to have nothing to do with Jay-Z.
This woman simply wanted to extort a sum of money to support the three children she had with her ex-boyfriend.
Such a result did not surprise Leon. Diddy and Beyoncé left Jay-Z one after another; the former King of Brooklyn was like a deformed person who had lost his limbs.
If he wanted revenge, it certainly wouldn't be this kind of petty trouble—he would do everything possible to send Street Jesus to heaven to meet his loving father.
After chatting about the interlude of the sexual assault incident, Leon took Luca by car to the iHeartMedia headquarters four blocks away from Apocalypse Music.
After hearing Lion's Den Media's offer of $50 million, Bob finally couldn't sit still. He even disregarded dignity and called Sean to curse loudly, pinning words like "liar," "no credit," and "Merchant of Venice" on Leon's head.
Before the boss expressed his attitude, Sean remained calm and silent in the face of curses.
This cold treatment attitude made Bob break down even more, spraying for full two minutes.
After calming down, he took the initiative to propose a face-to-face communication with Leon.
As soon as Leon and Luca entered the iHeartMedia president's office, they felt the extremely unfriendly atmosphere there.
With such important guests coming to the company, the secretary didn't even have the basic courtesy to serve coffee.
Bob sat on the swivel chair with his arms crossed, the fat on his face stacking together due to his overly serious expression.
"Fk, why is it more serious here than the Cuban Missile Crisis negotiation scene?" Leon snapped his fingers and said to the secretary, "Sweetheart, bring us two cups of coffee, no sugar, thank you."
"This..."
The female secretary froze in place, looking at her boss Bob and then at Leon, not knowing what to do.
"Hmph, go ahead." Bob snorted coldly. "Remember to add some poison to the coffee. If it can't kill this guy, at least make him mute."
"Forget it then." Leon spread his hands. "Listen, Bob, I came with sincerity. Look, this is my lawyer Luca. As long as you accept our offer, you can see the contract as soon as tomorrow."
"Of course, there are also green dollars. Think about Benjamin Franklin's charming smile."
"I don't see your sincerity. I've been played around by you like a stupid black monkey." Bob tapped the table with his finger and said in a suppressed voice, "You changed the offer three times within a month. Do you have even a tiny bit of contractual spirit in your heart?"
Bob made his first pot of gold by lending money in Atlantic City casinos. The gambler industry can be said to gather the scum of humanity; he was used to seeing liars and rogues.
He understood now that even if he threw the young man in front of him among those degenerate gamblers, he would definitely win in a pot of scum.
"This is called value regression."
Luca chimed in from the side, "Great transactions are completed in repeated discussions. Mr. Leon will definitely give a price that satisfies you."
Bob glanced sideways and snorted twice. Judging from the current situation, his dream of making a big profit while Leon fought with Jay-Z was completely shattered.
In 2008, he spent $50 million to buy radio station Z100. Now, guaranteeing no loss would be a success.
Large media companies were busy laying out the streaming track and had little interest in the outdated radio business.
Jay-Z was busy dealing with the divorce lawsuit and had an ambiguous attitude towards acquisition. Currently, only Leon was left as a buyer.
After a moment of silence, Bob lit a cigar unhurriedly and talked about the history of this radio station: "Radio station Z100 is a miracle. Since its premiere on the 46.3 MHz frequency band in 1942, it has gone through 70 years of history."
"In 1983, the radio station was repositioned as a contemporary hit music station. It took us only 74 days to jump to the top of the listening ratings in the New York metropolitan area."
Since Z100 switched to the 100.3 MHz frequency band, facing fierce competition from many established radio stations in the New York market, it quickly attracted listeners through the "Morning Zoo" show combining a large number of interactive calls, prank calls, DJ tidbits, and hit music.
In just 74 days, it climbed from the bottom of the market at the start of broadcasting to first place in local listening ratings.
This history is known as "Worst to First".
When a businessman cannot obtain the ideal profit, he will throw out sentiment as a life-saving straw.
While Bob recounted this history, Leon yawned several times.
Deliberately putting on an indifferent look, he only cared about the profitability of radio station Z100.
From the financial analysis report given by Vontae, the annual revenue of radio station Z100 was around $15 million.
Revenue mainly came from three sectors: song requests, podcast programs, and advertiser and sponsorship income. The annual net profit fluctuated around $5 million.
It was one of the few profitable sectors under the parent company iHeartMedia, which had a net loss of over $100 million this year.
"I think $50 million is a sincere offer. The radio business is declining day by day." Leon changed his previous frivolous attitude, leaning his upper body forward to give the other party pressure. "Leaving with this money is also a good choice. Acquiring Z100 brought you a lot of financing, so you definitely won't lose out."
"$60 million is my final bottom line, otherwise our conversation today can end here, gentlemen." Bob said through gritted teeth.
"Are you sure, Bob? In the past two years, you have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of investors' money..." Leon narrowed his eyes. "Sailing in the sea, changing course in time is the choice of a smart person. This way, at least you can keep your position as captain. Walking one way to the dark is not a good thing. Is hitting your head and bleeding in front of an iceberg the result you want?"
Bob remained calm on the surface, puffing smoke heavily, always looking directly into the other party's eyes.
But at this moment, his heart began to waver.
iHeartMedia had more than just radio station Z100 up for sale publicly; at least a dozen radio stations were expected to be thrown into the market.
The streaming platform built with heavy investment was no longer regarded as not for sale. Time Warner, Spotify, and Sony Music all showed strong interest in it.
If Z100 was not sold quickly to get a mouthful of cash flow back, there would be even less confidence in negotiations when facing these giant companies.
"Look at you, young man. You are only 22 years old but as cunning as a seasoned businessman. I can even see the shadow of Murdoch in his youth in you."
"What do you want to do? Integrate New York's music radio business? Let the whole city listen to the gospel spread by Street Jesus 24 hours a day?"
"Maybe I thought too simply... Do you want to emulate Murdoch and build a 'Tomorrow Never Dies' belonging to music media?"