Leon froze in place, his brain working at high speed to find a reasonable explanation.
At this time, Beyoncé stepped forward and took Jay-Z's arm, gently tapping on his face. "Honey, I was just discussing MV details with Leon. You know I'm a perfectionist..."
Saying this, Beyoncé hurriedly winked at Leon.
"Yes... Demons is the only song in the album for which the MV post-production work hasn't been completed yet."
Seeing Beyoncé, who was ready to ignite with passion with him a second ago, seamlessly switch to Jay-Z's embrace the next second...
Leon thought Mariah Carey's nickname "Elusive Chanteuse" (Flower Butterfly) should be ceded to Beyoncé.
Even though the messy clothes on the floor still made Jay-Z suspicious, Beyoncé's explanation was reasonable enough, and he didn't think in the worst direction.
He walked to his luxurious swivel chair and said in a deep voice, "Get up, kid! Who let you sit on the King's seat!"
Leon hurriedly got up, giving up the throne of the Roc Nation Kingdom.
"If there's nothing special, I'll leave first." The situation was a bit complicated, so Leon chose to slip away quickly. "Wish you stun the audience at the dinner party~"
Just as he walked to the door, he was stopped by Jay-Z.
"Wait a minute, kid! We haven't had a good talk for a while."
Leon returned to the office somewhat helplessly and sat opposite Jay-Z at his desk.
He could guess everything the other party wanted to say; it was nothing more than the record store shooting incident.
P. Diddy must have reported this matter to Jay-Z immediately.
Hoping the big brother would stand on his side and teach this fledgling kid a harsh lesson.
"Diddy has come to talk to me many times these days... Don't you think what you did in Los Angeles was too excessive?"
Leon spread his hands. "Excessive? That kid Chris chased me for two blocks with a group of nggas, did you know that?"
"I know all about the things between you guys. It's normal for young people to have some beef. When I was young, I carried a gun with me to various award ceremonies."
Speaking of this, Jay-Z paused, his eyes showing a fierce light. "But you shouldn't provoke Diddy to his face. You've only debuted for half a year, and you already don't put these renowned OGs of the East Coast rap circle in your eyes?"
At this time, Beyoncé couldn't sit still either.
She stood in front of Leon and shouted at Jay-Z: "This is completely unfair. Everyone knows that kid Chris was brought up by Diddy."
Jay-Z was obviously a bit dumbfounded. He knew his wife had a good relationship with Leon, but didn't expect it to be this good.
Seeing this scene, his anger rose to another level.
Facing Jay-Z's aggressiveness, Leon didn't retreat at all.
Roc Nation still adhered to the gang philosophy, prioritizing "respect" over profit in everything.
The reason Jay-Z took the opportunity to warn Leon was nothing more than because the other party didn't respect Diddy, and everyone in the circle knew Diddy rolled with Jay-Z.
What kind of muddled boss would teach his most promising cash cow a lesson because of such a small matter?
"Listen, Jay-Z... I've already chosen the most restrained and decent means to solve this problem."
"Never forget that I represent Roc Nation, and Diddy represents Bad Boy Records... as for Chris, he's not even worth mentioning."
Jay-Z was retorted into silence, not knowing what to say.
Leon's implication was that he represented the company's interests. If Jay-Z still turned his elbow outward at this time, stressing so-called homie friendship...
Then it was imaginable how the hundreds of "soldiers" in the company would view him as the "King."
Finally, Jay-Z gritted his teeth and said, "Let's see the performance of your debut album, kid... Don't disappoint me!"
Leon's biggest reliance now was that he still had value to Roc Nation.
It wasn't hard to imagine that if the debut album flopped, his outcome probably wouldn't be too good.
And he himself made up his mind that regardless of the results, he must find an opportunity to break away from this company.
Nggas are not to be conspired with!
A day later, Demons officially launched on streaming platforms.
Leon himself had a lot of "black traffic" boosting him, and various news related to him and Apocalypse Music emerged endlessly.
Once this song was released, it aroused widespread discussion among fans.
Results speak for everything. On the first day of launch, streaming downloads exceeded 70,000, trailing Adele by only a small margin in the same period.
Inside Apocalypse Music, except for Robbie who couldn't get away from filming in Los Angeles, all employees of the company gathered together to celebrate this exciting moment.
Phil said, "Currently, you and Adele only have a sales gap of 20,000 copies. Why not spend some money to boost the charts and surpass that chubby girl in one fell swoop?"
"This will be very helpful for your subsequent sales."
Leon glanced at Phil. "Did you forget that behind Adele is Sony Music?"
The exclusive North American distribution rights for Adele's 21 album had been taken by Columbia Records, and Columbia Records had been acquired by Sony.
Boosting charts is a shameful behavior in the American music scene. It is easy to be countered by opponents with equivalent means, and in the end, no one gains an advantage.
Competing in financial power with Sony?
How much wine did this old geezer drink to say such ridiculous things?
Phil noticed the gleaming gold watch on Leon's wrist and staggered forward to ask, "Beautiful watch. You kid finally got enlightened. Money is just a pile of waste paper if not spent."
Leon smiled smugly. "Didn't spend money."
To this, Phil's first reaction wasn't "Really didn't spend money?" but "Didn't spend money again?"
After witnessing Leon's showy operation of picking up a Porsche for free during the Atlantic City commercial performance, he was no longer surprised by such things.
Halfway through the party, Leon called DJ Marcus of Lion's Den Radio aside.
Ever since the radio community network was built, the benefits of this sector had been poor.
Even the Evil Angel brand had achieved profitability, but the radio stations were still in a loss-making state.
This was even after Leon cut half of the radio stations and diverted the original listener groups to Lion's Den Radio.
The core reason was that the profit model of radio stations was very single.
Apart from advertising, getting sponsorship, and promoting songs for others, there were almost no other profit methods.
And since the acquisition was completed, the radio network existed as the mouthpiece of Apocalypse Music, promoting almost only Apocalypse's works.
This led to a rapid reduction in business volume from other channels.
When Leon proposed to hear Marcus's opinion, the other party answered like this: "Bro, this radio industry survives on volume. I've been doing it for so many years out of passion. Forget about making money from this."
"You can see how iHeart is doing it. Relying on volume and diversified development is the kingly way in this industry."
DJ Marcus had summarized it very well with years of industry experience.
The implied meaning was just one thing: for radio business to develop long-term in the media industry, without combining with internet channels, it's a dead end.
iHeartRadio was just a company founded in 2008.
But it currently has more than 400 radio stations in the United States, as well as hundreds of radio stations from other media.
In addition, iHeartRadio has tens of thousands of podcasts, possesses a music recommendation system and on-demand functions, and allows listeners to save and replay songs currently playing on live broadcasts.
On-demand functions require an additional subscription fee.
In recent years, the most rapidly developing sector of this company is internet radio.
Such a profit model even allows it to get a share of the pie on the streaming media track.
While the two were chatting, Leon received a call from Robbie.
Robbie invited him to Los Angeles two days later to attend a movie premiere.
The director was Robbie's friend, James Wan, who also grew up in Australia and had attracted much attention in recent years.
Leon originally wanted to refuse. He had too many things to handle recently.
Ariana's debut single production, plus his own debut album release imminent...
But he did have a promotional event in Los Angeles tomorrow, which fit seamlessly into his schedule.
Especially after hearing James Wan's name, he immediately dispelled his hesitation.
As a horror movie enthusiast, Saw was a classic in Leon's heart that was hard to surpass; any subsequent installment couldn't compare to the first one.
And director James Wan was just a Chinese guy under thirty, extremely good at winning high box office with low costs.
Therefore, he was often crowned by the media as the "youngest horror movie master."
When the plane arrived in Los Angeles, it was already noon the next day. Leon saw the surging crowd and support light signs in the airport from far away.
"Leon!"
"Leon, OMG! I love you!"
His appearance instantly caused tsunami-like screams. These signs all indicated that he was now a big shot.
It was just that the quality of his fans wasn't very high. Female fans with exaggerated and weird styling constantly lifted their tops to show him their "big guns."
As the principal of Apocalypse, an all-female lineup label, plus the lyrics of Take Me to Church being overly interpreted in various ways on the internet...
He rightfully became the idol in the hearts of feminists and gays.
There were even many fanatical female fans who had already squeezed their "big guns" into his face.
"Damn... where did so many monsters come from..."
Leon quickened his pace, just wanting to flee here quickly under the personal protection of Davis and Bonnie.
The destination of his commercial performance this time was Los Angeles Music Radio, the station that did the interview program with Chris not long ago.
This time he would unite with Kendrick Lamar for an interview program, the theme being promoting the new album.
Dr. Dre spent a lot of money on radio stations for this event. For the next week, all music radio stations in Los Angeles would play Sucker for Pain at least five times a day.
Like Jay-Z, he was a shrewd businessman.
Such a good thing was certainly not a gift for no reason.
The reason was that Kendrick's debut album Section.80 was also about to be released.
It just happened to be an opportunity to hype up the friendship between the two, using Leon's current momentum to boost the sales of Section.80.
Inside the broadcasting room of Los Angeles Music Radio, Kendrick fully utilized his Black talent. As soon as he opened his mouth, it sounded like highly rhythmic rap; the host couldn't keep up with his rhythm at all.
"I must tell you, Leon and I are blood brothers thicker than water."
"Look what we did at the Moon Club before; Chris was intimidated by us like a little bitch."
"Yo~ listeners tuning in, I must tell you, Leon is the most gangsta white kid I've ever seen!"
"His nickname 'White Ngga' comes not only from his lower body but also from his deep soul!"
"If you don't agree with my view, you are welcome to come to Compton anytime and tell me to my face!"
In the first half of the podcast program, the host asked some drama questions irrelevant to the record.
Leon had no room to interject at all, watching Kendrick's fast mouth outputting constantly like a machine gun.
He could only sigh in his heart, "Worthy of being a rapper..."
Next, the host asked many questions about the relationship between Leon and Kendrick.
Including whether the two had plans to cooperate next;
How they met...
When Robbie was mentioned, Kendrick blurted out directly: "Leon cast magic on his lower body and conquered the blonde girl from Australia!"
Causing a burst of laughter in the broadcasting room.
And Robbie, who had been waiting in the studio lobby, glared fiercely at Kendrick, her fair face red like a ripe apple.
At the end of the podcast program, the host finally threw out a spicy question.
"Mr. Leon, the beef between you and Chris has come to an end, but Kanye West is still attacking you on Twitter. What do you think about this?"
Even after the "Record Store Incident" version spread in the music circle, Kanye's big mouth never stopped.
Leon suddenly remembered what Phil once said: Kanye's head isn't quite right; he's as difficult to deal with as a bitch.
After pondering for a moment, he picked up the microphone: "I don't know what to say. The last time I saw a guy as difficult as him was on Manhattan Beach... that was a streetwalker."
"A friend of mine owed that girl fifty dollars and was chased by her for two full blocks."
Laughter erupted in the broadcasting room again.
After Leon performed Demons live and performed Sucker for Pain together with Kendrick, the live program ended successfully.
Leon drove Robbie's car back to her luxury apartment in Beverly Hills together.
As soon as they got in the car, Robbie couldn't wait and took the initiative to launch an attack on Leon.
He was already mentally prepared for this. This girl always liked to launch fierce attacks on inappropriate occasions.
The more exciting the scene, the more excited she became.
Robbie bent down and parted her red lips lightly. Leon slammed on the gas pedal.
"Shxt! Faster! Faster!"
Robbie's pink Lamborghini sped wildly on the streets at midnight. If the two were stopped by the police at this time, it would be another story.
The next day, inside the ACE Theatre in Los Angeles, the premiere of James Wan's new film Insidious took place.
After watching the whole movie, Leon felt it was slightly plain, and the suspense reversal was slightly insufficient.
Compared to the mind-blowing setting of Saw, it was far behind, but it was still an excellent horror film.
In Hollywood, everyone understands that horror films are good projects with small investment and high returns, but there aren't many excellent horror films every year.
The root cause is that there are too few directors who know how to control the rhythm of horror films.
Most horror films either start strong and end weak or are simply blood-splattered.
And an excellent horror film director like James Wan, after making a masterpiece like Saw 1, actually stayed behind the scenes for three years...
Always working as a producer and screenwriter.
After exchanging pleasantries with a group of investors and film critics, he came to Robbie's side.
"How was it, Robbie? What do you think of my new movie?"
Robbie didn't skimp on praise for her friend, covering her chest and saying, "Words can't describe it... you really scared me!"
"I might not be able to sleep tonight."
James Wan couldn't suppress the smile on his face. Robbie's evaluation was the highest praise for a horror film.
At this time, Leon interrupted and said, "Excellent movie, but I think the plot design is too simple, and the reversals aren't enough... But this may not be your fault. Investors and studios always dislike overly brain-burning plots."
"That's right!" James Wan's eyes lit up. These words spoke completely to his heart.
No matter how talented a director is, they are subject to investors and cannot film completely according to their own ideas.
Kubrick, hailed as the "God of Cinema," filmed almost entirely as an independent filmmaker throughout his career, leaving many classics that went down in film history.
"You are..." James Wan stared at Leon, reacting only after about ten seconds. "You are Robbie's boyfriend, that Street Jesus who sings Take Me to Church?"