According to online information, Charlie Evans wasn't always a radical.
But after 2008, his political leanings took a sharp turn, and since then, under his guidance, New York State had plunged headfirst into the "blue abyss."
Various "woke" organizations popped up like a breeding ground for chaos, forming a force that could not be ignored, swaying the ideology of this country.
"Fxxk, this bastard will say any lie for votes." Leon threw down the mouse, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Compared to those politicians, even a bastard like you looks cute." Phil wrinkled his strawberry nose (bulbous nose from drinking) and continued, "Keep your distance from these guys. Your vision should be back on music. How's the new song with Robbie coming along?"
"I've paused all ongoing recording projects."
"What?!"
Hearing this answer, the old geezer instantly stood up from the sofa, his drunkenness fading by half.
"What are you doing? This is the rising period of your career. You could totally be like Lady Gaga, taking advantage of this momentum to completely establish your status within a year!"
Leon twirled the pen in his hand and responded in a low voice, "I'm worried that releasing new work now will cause some bad consequences later... Jay-Z will still take 15% of the share from works featuring me."
This explanation obviously didn't satisfy Phil.
It's common knowledge in this industry that when singers from two different companies collaborate on a record, both record companies take their respective share of sales.
It's impossible for a record company to lend its star to another company's singer for a feature without taking a penny.
Phil angrily complained about Leon's greed.
"Listen to me first!" Leon waved his hand to signal the other party to be quiet. "It's not about that 15% share. I'm worried about the dispute over master recording rights later!"
Hearing this, Phil's emotions eased somewhat. He lowered his head, wondering what he was thinking.
As a staunch supporter of jumping ship, Phil dreamed of scenes where Warner Music held a tempting signing bonus while he enjoyed kickbacks to his heart's content.
However, if Leon really parted ways with Roc Nation on bad terms, the ownership of the master recording rights of released records would be a big problem.
If this matter wasn't handled well, after switching labels, he wouldn't be able to press and sell previous records.
After a moment of silence, Phil said, "Seems you're not the only one encountering such trouble... a currently popular little diva is also facing this problem."
"Who?" Leon asked curiously.
"Taylor Swift!" Mentioning this name, Phil's eyes lit up. "In fact, you are not Warner's primary target at all; Taylor is the Venus most coveted within the circle!"
Since her debut in 2006, Taylor had been signed to Big Machine Records, a little-known record company.
This record company was founded by former DreamWorks Records executive Scott Borchetta, who personally profited tens of millions of dollars from Taylor's rise to fame.
Phil continued, "Big Machine isn't much bigger than Apocalypse Music in scale; it's completely supported by Taylor alone."
"But the cunning Scott has also been choking Taylor's neck through master rights and copyrights, leaving those drooling record giants helpless."
"Maybe I should talk to Taylor and ask how she handles this situation." A trace of bitterness appeared at the corner of Leon's mouth.
"No need." Phil shook his head. "Your situation is much better than hers. The boss of Big Machine Records once coaxed Taylor's father into giving up partial copyrights of Taylor's works."
"But Roc Nation doesn't own any copyright of your works."
Hearing this, Leon suddenly saw the light and asked hurriedly, "So I should prepare for future lawsuits now?"
Snap—
Phil snapped his fingers.
"Exactly! With the help of professional lawyers, in the absence of other economic disputes, even if there is a lawsuit, you are guaranteed to win!"
"However, when dealing with lawyers, you can't be as stingy as usual. Those elite lawyers are greedier than you can imagine!"
Leon understood in his heart. Apocalypse Music had never had a professional legal advisor, while the files of copyright lawsuits in the entertainment industry piled up as high as El Capitan every year.
As long as one mixed in this industry, infringement lawsuits were inevitable, so hiring a professional lawyer team was essential.
Thinking of this, Leon immediately gave instructions to Bonnie, asking her to contact authoritative law firms dealing with rights disputes.
"Shxt... no matter how much money I make, it's never enough." Thinking of the sky-high cost of signing a top law firm, Leon gritted his teeth anxiously.
With the expansion of the company scale, the monthly personnel salary alone was as high as tens of thousands of dollars.
The personnel expenses of the clothing studio in Los Angeles were roughly the same figure every month. Fortunately, the revenue of the Wicked Angel brand was enough to cover this part of the expenses independently.
Although nearly $700,000 was invested in the offline flagship store in Miami, since the opening of this store, the overall revenue of Wicked Angel had seen qualitative growth.
Just the most basic thong priced at $10 could sell over ten thousand pairs a month.
And the production cost of these panties was only a few dozen cents. Even for the more fancy transparent lace models, the production cost didn't exceed $1.
The underwear industry also had a big advantage reflected in tariffs.
Tariffs imposed by the US on textile products from the East were usually 16%, and double for chemical fiber products.
However, the tax rate for women's underwear was only 7%, and even chemical fiber products were less than 16%.
The tariff pressure was negligible. Relying solely on such cost advantages, Leon had the confidence to go head-to-head with Victoria's Secret.
Now, he already had the outline of a lingerie fashion show program in his head. It wouldn't take long to turn this idea into reality.
Knock knock—
While Leon and Phil were chatting enthusiastically, a knock sounded on the door.
"Come in."
"Open YouTube, quick!" Bonnie held a stack of colorful magazines in her hand, looking hurried.
"What happened?" With doubt, Leon opened YouTube as she said.
Refreshing the page randomly twice, several videos with the keyword "Leon" in the title appeared.
But the cover characters of the videos were all different.
Lil Wayne, Drake, Pitbull, and other popular singers all appeared in them.
The video titles were mostly unfriendly; words like "Fake Gangster Leon" and "Traitor Leon" appeared extremely frequently.
"What?" Leon frowned and clicked on a random video, showing Lil Wayne as a guest on an interview show.
In the show, Wayne, delirious from smoking weed, lay on the sofa in the broadcasting room pointing fingers at a crowd of singers.
Just the content involving Leon lasted for half an hour. In an extremely chaotic state, he attacked Leon from all angles with various vicious words.
From his works to his character.
"Do I know this ngga?" Leon tapped the table with his finger. He didn't have much interaction with this "avant-garde rap master."
If he had to say there was any, it was just a passing acquaintance at various music awards ceremonies.
Lil Wayne's short stature, thick dreadlocks, and face full of tattoos were hard not to leave a deep impression.
He and Kanye West were widely considered the leading figures among this generation of rappers.
"If it were just Lil Wayne, I completely understand why he would do this." Bonnie rubbed her head, seeming to have done a lot of homework in advance. "His new single Look at Me Now has been released as the lead single for his new album."
"And the singer featuring with him, you are definitely no stranger to."
"Who?" Leon leaned forward, eager to know the answer.
"Chris Brown..."
"Fxxk that damn ngga, looks like the lesson he got wasn't enough!" Leon raised his hand and threw the magazine on the table, feeling a bit depressed. "Does only eating bullets make this bastard settle down?"
If it were just Lil Wayne, he could understand. This ngga had a very good personal relationship with Diddy; both were heavy smokers who couldn't live a second without weed.
Using Leon to build momentum for his new album right before its release was completely understandable.
But what about the others?
Bonnie pondered for a while and answered, "Pitbull also released news of a new album. The lead single will be officially released in the middle of this month."
Hearing this, Leon understood everything. Whether it was Diddy, Lil Wayne, or Pitbull...
They all happened to be at the time node of releasing new albums and were intentionally using him to create topics.
Thinking of this, Leon's expression couldn't help but look a bit bitter. The master of playing with "black traffic" (controversy) was inevitably played for traffic by others again.
Bonnie continued, "Now the topic heat about you is very high. Your name was once placed together with former Egyptian President Mubarak..."
"This beef has such high heat? Can it be mentioned in the same breath as the Arab Spring?" Leon was full of suspicion, opening the Reddit community.
Under topics like "Rap," "Grammy," and "East vs. West Coast," his name appeared with extremely high frequency.
In the hearts of American people who amuse themselves to death, how could the "Arab Spring" thousands of miles away that shocked the world be as interesting as the drama in the entertainment circle?
Since West Coast rappers like 50 Cent and Kendrick spoke out on social media supporting Leon...
The flames of this beef quickly spread to the entire English internet community.
Music fans keen on memes and fanning the flames even called this beef the "Second East vs. West Coast Gang War."
What made people laugh was that the fuse of the incident was a white rock singer from the East Coast.
"Damn it..." Leon slapped his head. He had already sensed something big would happen when he heard Diddy dissing him with a group of people in the new album at 50 Cent's mansion.
He just didn't expect it to come so fast.
He had to surf this massive wave of traffic no matter what!
He not only wanted to surf it but also roll and ride in the monstrous waves.
If he could create a high-quality diss track during this period, this record would undoubtedly cause a buying frenzy among music fans all over the US!
According to the news brought by Bonnie, taking advantage of this wave of heat, the Demons album officially broke through the 1 million mark on Leon's way from Los Angeles to New York, achieving Platinum Record status.
Apart from this, sales of Leon's other records were also soaring.
This trend even drove the record sales of the entire Apocalypse Music.
Hearing this, Phil, who had already fallen asleep on the sofa, also got energized.
He suddenly sat up, dancing excitedly under the influence of alcohol: "Fxxk! This is a rare good opportunity! Bonnie, it seems you have fully proven you can handle the assistant job!"
"Your brain is now as plump as your butt!"
Immediately after, he limped to Leon's side. "Perk up, take advantage of now to write a diss track full of gunpowder to diss back, kick those nggas' asses hard!"
Leon stared at the old geezer like he was looking at an idiot for a full ten seconds. "You go back and sit down..."
If he really had talents like Eminem or Taylor, he would have buried his head in creation long ago.
The problem was he had absolutely no experience with rap. Now he could only pin his hopes on the Inspiration Refresh mechanism.
But there was still a week until the inspiration refresh on the 11th.
Leaving aside whether he could refresh a work with lethal power, just watching this wave of traffic without being able to catch it...
This was even more uncomfortable than Diddy sending two gunmen to shoot him from the dark!
After thinking for a moment, Leon asked Bonnie to call over the marketing planning director, Sean.
Sean had worked in the media industry for many years and knew better than anyone in this company how to use traffic reasonably.
Leon talked with him for nearly half an hour. The plan the other party gave was very simple and crude.
Leech off it!
Leech off it by any means necessary!
"If you're not afraid of trouble, you can push aside all commercial performance plans for this period..."
"Go on podcasts, go on talk shows, accept magazine interviews... spew trash talk intensely on social media..."
"Incite the fans' emotions! It would be best if they could cause some group incidents with the opposing fans."
"If there are bloody conflicts, the effect will be even better!"
After the conversation, Leon had great respect for Sean. This guy's ideas were as perverted as his voice.
Leon's fans were mostly extreme white leftist groups; they were easily incited.
And those who were keen on Diddy and Lil Wayne's music were mostly a group of Black street thugs.
When such two groups collided, causing bloody conflict incidents was just too normal.
Although doing so was really treating fans as disposable, Leon didn't mind doing it.
There were plenty of fanatical fans willing to sacrifice for their idols. Shouldn't fans charge for love for their idols at critical moments?
Just do it.
He immediately asked Bonnie to contact a professional paid troll team ("water army") to concoct a massive amount of inflammatory soft articles on social media.
About four hours later, with the influx of a large number of paid trolls, the war of words on social media was unprecedentedly lively.
Fans on both sides greeted each other's family trees in the comment section, and people constantly issued challenges for street fights.
What Leon didn't expect was that the female artists under Apocalypse Music, without receiving any notice, all issued strong statements of taking sides on social media.
Even Ariana's wording was unusually fierce. A string of slang curse words unexpectedly popped out in her tweet taking a stand.
Cardi B directly posted a photo of herself in an abandoned factory in the Bronx with a group of cousins wearing red bandanas.
The caption read: "Diss recording in progress. M-fxxkers who mess with my boss, prepare to be crushed to death by this old lady's ass!"
On the West Coast side, under pressure from 50 Cent, rap king Eminem also wrote on social media: "West side is back!"
Although he didn't explicitly say he stood with Leon, everyone knew the West Coast stood on the same side as Leon.
Under such circumstances, more and more celebrities joined in taking sides, wanting to get a piece of this massive traffic.
The "Second East vs. West Coast Gang War," eagerly awaited by music fans all over the US, was quietly becoming a reality.
The intensity rivaled the largest beef incident in rap history in 1996.
The war between Death Row Records led by Tupac on the West Coast and Bad Boy Records led by Diddy and Biggie on the East Coast, which came at the cost of bloody conflicts.