Ariana didn't understand at first and froze for half a minute.
After realizing what he meant, she gently kicked Leon twice with her fair little feet, looking coquettish.
The recipient address he mentioned was: Ariana's pssy.
"I heard you've been inspired lately and wrote a lot of songs?" Leon asked while putting on his jacket.
"Yes, but I'm not very satisfied with most of the works." Ariana hung her head and counted on her fingers. "You always say my lyrics are childish, like a kid."
"Aren't you a kid?"
"I am not a kid!" Ariana pouted. "You're only three years older than me..."
Her naive appearance made Leon unable to help laughing, and he pinched her fair and smooth cheek.
He admitted that his initial judgment of the market situation was wrong. The mistake lay in the unclear positioning of Ariana.
In this unrestrained era known as the "Second Sexual Liberation," the image of the girl-next-door cheerleader who loves gymnastics, chasing stars, and Barbie dolls still has a market.
In the public mind, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Britney Spears are the three giants symbolizing the American entertainment industry.
At her peak, Britney Spears ranked higher than Madonna on the Forbes Celebrity List and was recognized as the national sweetheart in the hearts of Americans.
Her first album debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard album chart, selling more than 30 million copies worldwide and topping the charts in 15 countries globally.
With the outbreak of scandals such as cheating, drug abuse, and shaving her head, her status plummeted rapidly.
In 2007 alone, one-fifth of the gossip news in the entire United States was related to Britney.
In other words, Britney single-handedly fed the paparazzi of the entire country.
Someone had to fill the market vacancy left by Britney's decline. At first, everyone thought this person would be Taylor Swift.
Although both took the sweet route, the audience soon discovered that the two were not on the same path at all.
And Ariana can perfectly take over Britney's ecological status in the music scene from any aspect.
The path of a teen idol is still promising; Justin Bieber's popularity has proven this.
"Tell me what songs you wrote and plan to put in the debut album." Leon asked.
Hearing the words "debut album," Ariana's eyes lit up. "Oh my God, are you going to release an album for me? Didn't you say before to wait until Señorita sells over two million copies?"
Leon pulled her into his arms. "You have proven how excellent you are. It doesn't matter if it's a little earlier. That record will break 2 million copies in three months at most."
The past was the past; now is now.
Leon doesn't need to worry about money at all now.
After buying the new office building, he still has nearly $46 million in liquid funds.
This money plus the funds in the account of Lion's Den Media is more than enough to film The Rap of America with top configuration.
"I wrote about forty songs."
"So many?"
Leon was very surprised; this creation efficiency was comparable to Taylor.
"Yes, but currently I feel that the works with quality enough to be put into the debut album can be counted on one hand." Ariana said, "The Way you heard before, and Problem I just sang, what do you think?"
"Awesome..." Leon said so, but his thoughts were different.
Not that those songs were bad, just not in line with his musical aesthetics.
Although he is only 21 years old, it is difficult to understand the musical taste of teenagers.
He thinks Justin Bieber's Baby should only appear as the ending song of children's programs.
The reality is that the popularity of this song has sparked heated discussions globally.
In countries other than the United States, many people haven't heard of Eminem, haven't heard of Taylor and Beyoncé...
But they all know Bieber's name.
"Leon..."
"What's wrong?"
The two chatted downstairs for a while. Just as Leon opened the car door to go home, he was stopped by Ariana.
She lowered her head and whispered: "My mom might come to New York in a while; she wants to see me."
Although Ariana has been mixing in the art circle since she was a child and is now a popular new star, she is only an 18-year-old girl after all.
She comes from a wealthy family, and her family dotes on her very much.
Leon just prayed that her mother wouldn't be a mean and difficult woman.
"How about I ask Jorge to drive the company car to pick up your mother then? Your father runs a design company, right? I'll arrange a city view cruise for her then, and see the Statue of Liberty by the way, letting your family know that the company values you very much."
Ariana waved her hand embarrassedly. "No need to be so troublesome. My mom just wants to see if I'm happy. After all, she knows nothing about my boss..."
Knows nothing?
Unless she knows nothing about entertainment news, probably no one doesn't know the name of "Street Jesus."
Leon had reason to suspect that Ariana said so deliberately; her mother knew his notoriety very well.
Otherwise, there was no need to fly specially from Miami, aiming to see if her daughter had signed with a Mafia-like company.
---
The next day, not long after Leon sat down in the office, he was disturbed by the noise from the corridor.
He yawned and lit a cigarette.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Lil Durk and King Von pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Sean.
"Boss! Sean is simply a genius! He plans to..." As soon as they met, King Von talked non-stop, flapping his thick lips.
"Sit down, let Sean speak for himself." Compared to the black way of speaking like rapping, Leon preferred to listen to Sean's awkward loli voice.
Sean cleared his throat and reported: "Currently, the audition work is more than half done, and there are 80 contestants shortlisted now."
"So many?"
Leon was a little confused.
According to the standard of 120 minutes per episode, this means many contestants can't even get half a minute of screen time.
"No way, there are too many interesting guys." Sean spread his hands. "Judging from the current situation, there will be at least 150 contestants shortlisted for the main competition. I plan to give up the idea of recording in a professional studio."
"I agree with your idea." Leon said.
The studio of Lion's Den Media is too small; recording podcast programs seems crowded, let alone such a large talent show.
Originally, Sean planned to rent the studio of CBS TV station; he has some connections in this TV station.
CBS has five large studios. Except for the studio recording Evening News, others can be rented out as long as the price is right.
But CBS's attitude towards this was very cold. They didn't refuse but offered a rent far higher than the market price.
The motive for doing so is not difficult to guess. An old TV station renting a studio to Netflix to produce a reality show is equivalent to cultivating a rival for itself.
Judging from the current scale of contestants, CBS's studio definitely cannot be used.
More than 150 street nggas swarming into the CBS building like an ant colony—just thinking about such a scene can make the management of CBS too scared to sleep.
By the time the recording is over, the valuable equipment in the studio might be moved cleanly away.
Leon continued: "How about renting an abandoned factory or warehouse as a recording location?"
"Decorate it like a street in a black community?" Sean's eyes lit up.
"That's right~" Leon snapped his fingers.
Doing so not only saves money, but the environment of the abandoned factory fits the temperament of the program very well.
Just need to hire a decoration team to handle the venue simply, set up a temporary studio, and paint gang graffiti everywhere.
The atmosphere is much stronger than a serious studio.
After reaching a consensus on the venue issue, Sean continued to talk about the design of the main competition unit of the program. "In order to make the program effect more intense, I plan to divide them into several camps according to the contestants' backgrounds and let them confront each other..."
Leon lifted his spirits, showing a very interested expression.
Just looking at Lil Durk and King Von gearing up, one knew this matter was not simple.
"Tell me in detail."
"Divide them into several major camps according to the contestants' hometown cities, such as New York camp, Los Angeles camp, Atlanta camp... of course, there is also the Chicago camp." Sean introduced.
These cities are the cities with the highest popularity of hip-hop music in the United States. Counting Detroit, they are called the "Five Holy Lands of Rap."
In addition to the strong rap atmosphere, grievances and friction between each other never stop.
They all think their hometown can represent the orthodoxy of hip-hop and lead future trends...
Therefore, scolding wars on the internet are constant, and incidents of directly picking up Glocks to get real with each other are countless.
King Von made strange monkey-like screams due to excessive excitement: "I will let those Detroit bastards taste the power of O-block! By the way, those sissies in New Orleans too, the Walking Dead is coming~ They have to run for their lives quickly~"
Chicago and Detroit both belong to the Great Lakes region, and rappers often clamor and diss each other.
But it has nothing to do with New Orleans; these two cities are far apart, one south and one north.
The starting point of the conflict lies in Lil Wayne.
This most popular rapper after the millennium comes from New Orleans. His unique tone and trendy style won him a large number of loyal fans.
In addition, he has achieved huge success commercially. The new label Young Money Entertainment he founded has always been a top-level existence in the rap circle.
Owning hot newcomers like Nicki Minaj, Drake, and Tyga, the momentum overshadows Leon's Apocalypse Music.
Lil Wayne also earned the nickname "Young OG (Young Godfather)" because of this.
He single-handedly made a city popular, and New Orleans rap is rising at an amazing speed.
These wild kids from the countryside of Louisiana are fiercer than those nggas from big cities.
Many newcomers often disappear before they have been popular for a few months.
Either die on the street or go to jail.
"God damn it... I really like you guy more and more." Leon praised. "Your parents gave you a strange voice because when creating you, they put all the talent on that big head."
Lil Wayne has a good relationship with Diddy, and New Orleans is full of rap talents.
Even if it is obvious that Leon will award the championship to his own people, he will definitely not miss this opportunity to cause trouble.
"By the way, some of the shortlisted contestants have backgrounds." Sean looked worried. "Two of the kids have signed with Roc Nation; they are JAY-Z's people."
"Isn't this a good thing?" Leon spread his hands. "The more such guys, the more interesting the program will be."
Before Diddy was arrested, he used various ways to hype himself by utilizing the other party.
Now he founded the first hip-hop talent show in history; JAY-Z will not let go of the good opportunity to consume him.
And it is retaliatory consumption.
"I'm worried there will be bloodshed or something..." Sean reminded in a low voice.
"It's okay, as long as no one dies, it doesn't matter." Leon was making a choice. The script with intense conflict was what he wanted to see, but he was worried about really causing death and getting the program into lawsuits or even taken off the air.
But in the end, he didn't refuse the gameplay with the most traffic, and reminded Sean to ensure good security work on site.
As long as they don't die, let them go wild.
The surprise brought by Sean was not over yet. He pinched his throat and continued: "There is also a special contestant at the Los Angeles audition site, Ray J. You may have heard this name."
"Sounds a bit familiar." Leon searched for this name in his brain but couldn't recall the other party's information for a while.
"Ray J is the male lead of the Kardashian sex tape incident." Sean grinned.
"Holy sht! That guy's thing down there is like a bull!" King Von screamed excitedly, then lowered his head to look, muttering: "Just a little worse than mine..."
The classic sex tape of Ray J and Kardashian shocked the eyeballs of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.
Leon also watched and appreciated it repeatedly during his time in Brownsville.
Both of them were not inferior to professional actors of Brazzers in terms of body and technique.
Ray J debuted in 1996, but remained lukewarm in the circle.
Until the sex tape with Kim Kardashian was exposed, he became famous, and since then made a fortune by exposing Kardashian's privacy on talk shows.
Sean smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying: "I heard grapevine news that after Ray J announced the news of participating in the competition on social media, Humphries tried hard to dissuade Kardashian from declining our program, and the two had a big fight over this."
Hearing this, Leon could no longer suppress the joy in his heart, grinning from ear to ear.
Kim Kardashian regards fame as everything in her life; it is impossible to decline such an important job for a man.
Even if that man is going to walk into the marriage hall with her in less than half a month.
Sean teased: "Do you think they will break off the engagement because of the program recording?"
Leon shook his head with a smile.
Where is this going?
Besides Humphries, there is another man drooling over Kardashian sitting on the mentor seat—Kanye West.
He is full of confidence in capturing Kardashian's heart in the program.
Looking at various situations, Humphries' fantasy of privatizing the "world's most famous butt" is likely to be shattered.
At this moment, Leon suddenly realized how correct his idea of producing a hip-hop talent show was when his brain got hot at first.
The program effect deliberately manufactured is far less interesting than what is delivered to the door.
This rotten and chaotic circle never lacks fierce material.
As long as this program is not taken off the air due to special reasons, becoming a hit is a foregone conclusion.
This will further improve his status in the rap circle and make it easier to swallow the vacant East Coast music market territory after P. Diddy's arrest.