Alex seemed to be worrying unnecessarily. That evening, Little Lowry called directly at home to tell Tony that his first music video was about to start filming.
Ten days later, on Sunday at 1 p.m., the four siblings emerged from the cave together.
Tony was embracing a hot woman, the two of them sticking together so much that they could barely walk straight, their explicit whispers and giggles occasionally reaching the ears of those behind them.
"Bitch".
Connie scoffed at the exaggerated curves of the black woman's buttocks in front of her, and whispered to Alex, "Look at that disgusting ass. It definitely wasn't this big when she was with Tony. I wonder how many men she's slept with since they broke up!"
Alex , holding Emily's little hand, smiled but did not respond.
The relationships between men and women here are a mess; breaking up and getting back together is as common as eating and drinking. Tony made a phone call, and his ex-girlfriend immediately 'changed her mind' when she heard that she had a chance to appear in a music video.
No wonder Connie was unhappy.
However, having been in the time travel for almost a month, Alex had a thorough understanding of Tony's seemingly rough but actually shrewd personality, so it was still uncertain who was manipulating whose feelings.
The group crossed the street and arrived at the sign that read "XX Dance Studio". "Silencer", dressed in a suit and sunglasses, and AK stood guard on either side of the entrance.
"Hey~ Look, look who this is! I almost don't recognize him!"
Tony went up and teased the silencer' a couple of times, to which the other responded with a shy smile.
"Alright, let's get down to business. We only rented the venue until 5 p.m., and this area is very unsafe at night."
After greeting everyone, AK took out a stack of documents and neatly distributed them to the group.
Alex glanced at the paper handed to him; it seemed to be a document authorizing the use of his personal image in a music video. "We're not even eighteen yet, don't we need our guardians' consent to sign this?" he wondered.
"Will you die if you don't talk?"
Tony finished quickly, tossed the pen to Alex, pointed to his head, and said to AK, "Ignore him, he's had some problems lately."
AK patted Alex on the shoulder and explained with a smile, "No one usually pays attention to these little details."
While Alex was signing the papers, he said to Tony, "After you go inside, help El maintain order. Once filming officially starts, follow the director's instructions."
"Don't worry, leave everything to me."
Tony led the way through the doorway, then planted a hard kiss on his ex-girlfriend's cheek. "Did you hear that? From today onwards, I'm officially in the entertainment industry."
Connie rolled her eyes from behind.
From the very first day he transmigrated here, Alex never stopped observing everything around him. Since the deterioration of public security, Chicago has tightened its approval process for entertainment venues, especially nightclubs that are allowed to sell alcohol. It can be said that behind every one of them stands a person who has connections in both the legal and illegal worlds, making a fortune every day.
Judging from the graffiti in the 70s and 80s hippie style in the corridor after entering, the dilapidated facilities and decorations, the faint smell of urine in the corner, and the old-fashioned central dance floor, this 'dance studio' must have been a disco before it became outdated and had to be transformed into a dance teaching venue.
Apart from the director and a few staff members who were fiddling with the equipment, twenty or thirty young men and women on the dance floor had already started moving their bodies to the music, and the atmosphere was quite good.
The music playing was Lowry's rap album, and Alex first impression was... it really wasn't very good. Compared to other songs that were often played on the radio, Lowry's songs were noticeably more mediocre, especially the lyrics, which were easily forgotten.
Hey! Tony!
Al waved to Tony from the DJ booth, "Come here!"
Tony ran over and hung the monitoring headset around Tony's neck. "Don't change any settings, just remember this volume knob. When I give you a signal..." He taught Tony some simple operations.
"clear!"
Tony excitedly put on the monitoring headphones and immediately started dancing exaggeratedly to the music, his hands constantly making virtual gestures on the controller, acting quite convincingly.
"Hey! Isn't this Tony?"
As soon as El walked away, a young girl with heavy makeup immediately approached, "Do you remember me? I'm level 11..."
"Bitch!"
His ex-girlfriend cursed, and he rushed over to assert his ownership.
Alex saw everything and thought of the silencer' who looked so dignified at the door. Who would have thought that just ten days ago, the two of them were just losers who had been fired from the rugby team? And look at them now!
"So, Tony's 'career' plan has been a complete success!" he thought to himself.
"Hurry!"
Connie's attention was completely on the dance floor when she noticed that El had already started arranging the positions, so she quickly pulled Alex and Emily over.
"Hey, A+!" El winked at Alex. Well, ten days had passed, and his nickname was already known to everyone.
Connie got her wish and stood in a prominent position with Alex, Tony's ex-girlfriend moved to the side, and Emily and several other people her age were assigned to the front row.
"Everyone! Everyone!"
The director, the only white person on set today, set up the equipment, stood behind the camera, spread his arms, and shouted.
Al snapped his fingers at Tony, and Tony turned off the music.
"When we start filming, everyone's eyes should be focused on me..." The director began a long explanation of various precautions.
Actually, this is the cheapest kind of music video. The singer sings in front, and the people behind just dance to the music.
"OK, get ready to start." After giving the instructions, the director went back to stare at the viewfinder.
Several high-powered fill lights were turned on simultaneously.
At Al's signal, Tony restarted the music. "!" the director shouted.
Their natural talent is undeniable; everyone's movements were quite impressive, and everyone could improvise, making the atmosphere on the dance floor increasingly lively.
"Cut!" the director suddenly yelled, the music stopped, and he pointed at Alex, "You! I'm talking to you, don't look left or right! Find the beat! The beat!"
"Oh! Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Alex felt like he was in trouble.
Sure enough, after a short while, the director called "cut" again, this time to Alex.
"You stand in the back row!"
"Card!"
"You! It's still you! Step back!"
Alex was a bit annoyed. He couldn't dance to begin with, and the strong body odor mixed with perfume in the crowd made it hard for him to breathe. "Fine, I'm not dancing anymore." He simply left the stage and retreated to Tony's side.
"You have a problem! You have a huge problem!" Tony glared at him, furious. "Do you think these kinds of opportunities come around often?!"
Alex shrugged. "I'm not really comfortable in these kinds of situations."
The director was delighted, and just then, little Lowry appeared on the sidelines, immediately diverting everyone's attention.
"Everyone, welcome Lolo Lolo lori !" El shouted, trying to create a lively atmosphere.
All the young women started screaming...
Lowry was already made up and dressed very smartly. Unlike other rappers, he had no tattoos, did not wear any gang symbols, and his lyrics contained no mention of killing, drugs, or sex, and there were hardly any excessive profanities.
Aside from being a little self-centered, Alex had a good impression of him.
Little Lowry stood in the center, and the director announced the official start of filming.
While jumping around on the field, he didn't feel it, but as a spectator, time seemed to pass very slowly. "I'm going out for some fresh air," he told Tony.
Tony was dancing energetically with his headphones on, his eyes fixed on Al in the middle of the arena. He was completely focused, remembering Al's warning to pay attention to the signal.
However, Al is busy right now. He's in charge of the beatboxing part of the rap, which involves imitating the sounds of various instruments like drums. It seems like this kind of performance is quite popular right now. He's standing next to little Lowry, lip-syncing to the camera. Of course, it's all just lip-syncing.
So Alex avoided the cameras and walked out alone, but he remembered the wrong direction and followed the passage into an office inside the building.
"DJs in major cities have received our unofficial albums by mail. Do you want to know how they responded?"
A deep, resonant black male voice emanated from the office.
"Speak," the other person replied.
"Philby from Philadelphia said, if someone sings like a woman, looks like a woman, and writes like a woman, then he's a woman. Ruth from Miami said he wouldn't call it rap music. BOI from Atlanta told us to stay up north and eat shit, New Yorkers said the music in Brooklyn's dumpsters was better than ours, and Los Angeles sent us some records to show us what real music is!"
"Whose fault is it! You didn't listen to me, your agent! My plan was to first make a name for yourself in Chicago, and then nationwide..."
"I have no reputation! All the DJs in Chicago are only doing it because of me and my money!"
"We can also give money to Philadelphia, give money to New York…"
"F*** it! That's a bottomless pit! And it's too late to pay now. The only thing we can do is prevent them from being the first villains to jump out. Those shameless bastards who step on the weak and opportunistic will jump out and laugh at Lowry without any limits as soon as they smell blood! They'll laugh at you, laugh at me, laugh at everything!"
"Then... let's ignore them for now. Once the music video is out, we can focus on the young female market. Lowry's image is very popular with girls."
"This is the only way, but my record company is a small business and can't take any more big risks. The first batch of cassettes will be limited to 5,000 and will only be distributed in Chicago. We will stop recording vinyl records and digital CDs and make plans after the music videos are promoted on TV."
"F*** it! Five thousand? That's like admitting defeat before the war even starts, like us admitting we're finished!"
We're finished!
"No, at least ten thousand. These days, even a dog can sell a record for ten thousand."
"Six thousand."
"Eight thousand..."
"Seven thousand, FXXX! Why should we haggle over this!?"