High out of his mind, Kendrick simply took over as the DJ.
With a black female model wrapped around each arm, his fingers rubbed randomly on the turntable.
In the booth, Cube hooked his arm around Leon's shoulder and rambled on incessantly:
"I left N.W.A in 1989, and Eazy-E jumped out to accuse me of being a traitor. Fck, that was ridiculous. In our first album Straight Outta Compton, released in 1989, almost all the lyrics were written by me!"
"But look at what I got in the end? From then on, I decided that if a team can't distribute fairly according to everyone's contribution, then there's no reason for it to continue existing."
Being keen on complaining and digging up old scores when drunk seems to be a common ailment of all mankind.
"I understand how you feel, man. People are used to calling those who have the courage to defend their own interests 'traitors'." Leon patted Cube on the shoulder.
He had heard the grievances about N.W.A until his ears were calloused, but many details were heard from the other party for the first time.
"You know what? I don't hate Eazy. He had his own position, and maintaining the integrity of the team was his mission." Cube held a cigar in his mouth, his eyes vacant. "Everyone has their own destiny. Some guys are born to do big things."
"Eazy was a shorty less than 1.6 meters tall. Can you imagine him chasing those nggas who are 1.9 meters tall all over the street?"
"When he was dealing with various drug dealers on the streets of Compton, Dre was still busy having his mom pick him up from piano lessons..."
"Because of his height defect, he liked others calling him 'Big E'."
Speaking of this, Cube revealed a bitter smile and shook his head. "After he completed his mission, God took his life immediately. This was his destiny."
N.W.A was the pioneer of gangsta rap, but apart from Eazy-E, none of the other members were from the real bottom.
Dre grew up in a middle-class family. While other children were busy selling contraband to share family pressure, he could still immerse himself in music and writing.
Cube's parents both worked at UCLA, which was definitely considered a wealthy life in Compton.
Cube continued, "That guy Dre is the real traitor. In 1990, he said he would never leave N.W.A, but the next year he went to Death Row Records for money. You know that experience wasn't sweet for him. Betrayal and lies were his sharp tools for climbing up..."
Thinking about it carefully, Leon found many similarities between his own experience and Dre's.
On the surface, he nodded repeatedly to cope with the drunkard's complaints, holding back the urge to yawn.
"Man, I think I have to go."
"That's too early, Bro. The nightlife has just begun!"
Not only did Cube try to keep him, but the nightclub models appeared even more nervous.
They twisted their bodies harder, each showing off their best assets.
Racking their brains to keep this "New King of Brooklyn" in their beds.
"I have many secrets to show you..."
"Move your ass, bitch. Don't you know Leon doesn't like black girls!"
The models started bickering with each other, vividly displaying a wave of female competition.
Leon ruthlessly brushed off the girls' hands on him and got into the Bentley under Jorge's protection.
Outside the nightclub, fans who had heard the news had already crowded around, shouting his name in unison, falling into a frenzied state.
Unsurprisingly, they all found their way here through the nightclub girls' social media.
"Leon, we love you!"
"Take me to the hotel! I'm willing to do anything for you! Taylor won't know!"
The drunk girls laughed and danced against the car window.
Dozens of hands slapped the car window simultaneously, and bold girls unhooked their bras in public and threw them over.
"What are you waiting for? Drive quickly!" Leon urged.
Receiving the order, Jorge no longer cared about the safety of the onlookers and slammed on the gas pedal.
The roar of the engine and the shaking of the car body immediately dispersed the crowd.
The Bentley drove towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Even Jorge couldn't help teasing, "With so many girls crazy for you, why do you have the stupid idea of getting married? I've been there. Apart from shackles, marriage can't bring anything to a person..."
"As long as you want, you can be a debauched king every day. The entire Brooklyn is your hunting ground!"
Leon wanted to say something, but his brain suddenly crashed, and an MV scene gradually unfolded.
The hour hand on the dial pointed to 11:45. The inspiration refresh arrived before midnight.
In a dim room, a dark figure sat on a chair with his head tilted.
Legs crossed, draped in a heavy fur coat, every detail showing an arrogant posture.
The camera zoomed in quickly under the rendering of blur effects.
After the transition, a large amount of plasma poured down from the top of the man's head. The man with a samurai sword on his shoulder finally revealed his true face.
After a disturbing grin, the drum beat sounded.
Ayy—Ayy
I've been fuckin' hoes and poppin' pillies
(Cigars, bitches, crazy life)
Man, I feel just like a rockstar (star, ayy, ayy)
(Man, I feel just like a rockstar)
All my brothers got that gas
(All my brothers got that gas)
And they always be smokin' like a Rasta ('sta)
(We're like floating in the clouds)
Fuckin' with me, call up on a Uzi
(Messing with me, call up on a Uzi)
And show up, man, them the shottas ('tas)
(Load up, show them what we got.)
Just looking at the fierce lyrics, one might misunderstand this as a hardcore gangsta rap work, but unexpectedly, it adopted a lazy singing style.
Country music, psychedelic rock, Trap rap combined...
Stylistically somewhat similar to Blinding Lights, it's hard to define by a single music genre.
Samurai swords, Japanese women, tatami mats, slashing...
Numerous Japanese elements appeared in the MV, somewhat resembling Quentin's Kill Bill.
After the white singer's verse ended, the second verse was started by a thug-looking black singer.
He tried his best to lower his voice, making every pronunciation heavy like a lead block.
The MV ended, and the title unfolded—Rockstar.
"Boss, can you hear me?"
Jorge's voice pulled Leon back to reality from the MV scene. He shook his head vigorously. "Sht, looks like I really drank too much today..."
After returning home, he didn't even have the mind to review this new work.
The first thing he did was grab a can of soda from the fridge and chug it, then planted his head on the bed and fell asleep.
At nine o'clock the next morning, what woke him up was still the annoying ringtone of his mobile phone.
"Damn it..."
Leon slapped his head and picked up the phone impatiently to answer.
Jeff's questioning voice came from the other end of the phone: "You're not still sleeping, are you, man?"
"Not at all, just drank a bit too much last night."
"I'm going to Buffalo this afternoon to see the shooting progress of our movie." Jeff asked suddenly, "Have you been to the set recently?"
"No."
"Do you take our movie to heart or not?" Jeff's volume raised three degrees. "Listen, I know you've been busy promoting your new song recently, but you can't leave the movie behind. This is a big production worth 100 million dollars! I entrusted the director and casting to you!"
"Of course, man..." Leon responded casually.
For the filming of Ready Player One, Jeff took out $10 million in one go, and would inject at least another $10 million later.
If this money were converted into the annual salary of the president of Warner Bros., it would probably be enough for him to struggle for several years.
His anxiety was reasonable.
"I will arrive at the set on time at 2 PM! This is a temporary change of schedule I made, so I might bring some friends..." Jeff said, "Anyway, I don't care what you are busy with; I must see you on the set today!"
"I understand."
Leon had long had the idea of inspecting the set, but every time he couldn't get his wish due to schedule conflicts.
According to the daily behind-the-scenes footage sent by James Wan, the shooting method of Ready Player One had completely broken through the cognitive scope of him, a layman in special effects.
He almost completely copied James Cameron's method of shooting Avatar, creating a virtual reality camera with the special effects team.
This allowed him to see in real-time how the actors interacted with the digital set.
The "camera" had no lens, only an LCD screen and markers, which could read its position relative to the actors.
Previously, James Wan explained for a full five minutes before Leon barely understood what a virtual reality camera was.
After hanging up the phone, he immediately notified Bonnie to book the nearest flight to Buffalo. After washing up, he immediately asked Jorge to drive him to the airport.
Due to the hurried schedule, he didn't arrive at the scene until 3 PM.
An hour late for the agreed time with Jeff.
But fortunately, after the two met, the other party didn't complain and remained focused on observing everything on the set.
"Leon! Welcome to my set! Look, isn't it awesome here!"
James Wan shouted, looking very excited.
This also caught Anya's attention. During the shooting, she couldn't help but shift her gaze towards Leon.
She wore a helmet for capturing facial expressions and performed running, jumping, and other actions in the green screen according to instructions.
The helmet had a small camera that filmed her face continuously.
This technology was pioneered by Cameron. Previously, actors needed to stick hundreds of tiny spherical markers on their faces.
Therefore, they couldn't touch their faces throughout the shooting day, and had to waste several hours in the makeup chair before shooting started each time.
"I thought the set would be different, but I didn't expect it to be this kind of scene."
It was Leon's first time encountering such cutting-edge shooting equipment, and his lack of professional literacy made it difficult for him to express his insights.
On the set, there were fewer than ten actors actually participating in the performance, but there were more than 80 fixed cameras arranged around them.
These cameras were responsible for capturing the infrared reflections emitted by the special costumes on the actors. The more camera positions, the more perfect the details.
"These captured movements will be handed over to the Weta Digital team for rendering," James Wan explained.
"So the actors hardly have to do anything?" Leon asked.
"Although it's not good to say so, they really don't need to do too much." James Wan said, "Every movement of the actor follows the script precisely. If CGI is the skin and flesh, then the actor is the bone supporting the flesh."
"Alright." Leon shrugged and said nothing more.
The era when action stars broke bones or even almost lost their lives for a thrilling scene is gone forever.
Maybe in the near future, actors can even skip posing in front of a green screen; they just need to graft their exquisite faces over with special effects.
Jeff wandered around the set several times. Unlike Leon's half-knowledge, he was a true professional.
During the inspection of the props group and the camera crew, he communicated with the staff from time to time, trying to find some faults from the chat.
Investors always love to play the game of finding fault in projects; otherwise, they always feel uncomfortable somewhere.
But in the end, after wandering around a few times, he couldn't find anything to complain about.
"To be honest, I had doubts about your ability in the past. You don't have much experience in shooting big-budget special effects movies." Jeff walked to James Wan and said, "Now I know why Leon strongly recommended you. You indeed have a boundless future..."
"It's my honor to receive your praise!" James Wan grinned broadly.
As an Asian with ordinary looks and figure, he had never received respect from big shots in the film and television industry.
Filmmakers always treated him as a horror movie weirdo who was good at making big profits with small investments.
"Miss Dennings, come here quickly."
Jeff waved to the busty black-haired girl behind him.
Before the person arrived, the chest arrived first.
"Haven't you been looking for quality movie resources? Leon and this Mr. Wan are both capable of helping you."
After speaking, Jeff walked to Leon with a lewd smile on the corner of his mouth and whispered, "Since she met you last time, this girl has been obsessed with you. She insisted on following me to the set to see the world."
Leon and Kat Dennings had only met once. Except for that excessively voluptuous chest, he didn't have much impression of this girl.
But as 2 Broke Girls aired on CBS on September 19th, audiences across America got to know this sharp-tongued and optimistic busty girl.
When this show premiered, it set the record for the highest rating of a fall premiere since 2001.
It won a 7.0 rating among the 18-49 audience group. The first season averaged 11.5 million viewers per episode, and the rating remained around 4.0.
No one expected such a small-budget sitcom to achieve such success.
The character Max played by Kat Dennings showed powerful charm, which was the key factor for the success of this show.
"We meet again, Miss Dennings."
Leon opened his arms. Dennings was stunned for two seconds before welcoming him.
The two hugged each other.
The moment of contact, he could feel the elasticity and pressure.
"The magic you created in Times Square yesterday was simply incredible!" Dennings was excited like a fangirl, her chest shaking dizzyingly. "I wasn't that interested in hip-hop beef before, but because of this song, I specifically learned about the grudges between Kendrick and Drake."
"Thank you for your affirmation. Your performance in 2 Broke Girls was also amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off you when I watched that show." Leon curled his lips into a wicked smile.
A blush floated on Dennings' face.
She was a girl who blushed easily, often blushing at the dirty jokes she told in the TV series.
She tucked her hair behind her ear to cool down her body. "Everything here is amazing. I never saw such a novel shooting method even in the Thor crew."
Mentioning Paramount's Thor series, Jeff immediately perked up.
Based on the principle of opposing anything Marvel, he interrupted, "Only fools would like this old-fashioned superhero holding a hammer. Those audiences who bought tickets are stupid."
As soon as he finished speaking, the smile on Dennings' face froze instantly.
She played the assistant to the heroine Natalie Portman in Thor, barely counting as the second female lead.
"Sorry, Dennings, but I have to tell the truth." Jeff added with a smile, "There is no problem with your performance, but you should talk more with Mr. Leon. Maybe soon you can play the leading lady like Natalie."
Exchange of interests is a basic rule in Hollywood, but being teased in public by Jeff so nakedly, Dennings didn't know how to continue for a moment.
"Cut!"
"That's all for today's work. Everyone performed very well!"
James Wan's instruction saved Dennings from embarrassment.
Hearing the wrap instruction, Anya was the first to take off her equipment like an alert little deer and ran to Leon.
"Did you see my performance? What do you think?"
This question put Leon in a difficult position. Does posing a few moves in front of a green screen have anything to do with acting skills?
Thoughts were thoughts; he couldn't say it directly.
Especially seeing those big eyes that were about to drip water.
He rubbed Anya's head. "Audrey Hepburn pales in comparison to you."
"Really?"
Originally, everyone had no reaction, but seeing Anya actually take such ridiculous flattery seriously, they couldn't help laughing out loud one after another.
Anya realized it belatedly. After reacting, she rarely rolled her eyes at Leon slightly.