The frolic in the pool lasted until 9 AM. Taylor dried her wet hair, wrapped in a bath towel, and patrolled the mansion barefoot.
Wandering barefoot while pointing at the decorations, "These classical oil paintings are really too old-fashioned. I thought Diesel would prefer modern art more... Honey, can I replace these decorative paintings?"
"As you wish." The valuable paintings in the mansion had long been moved away by Diesel. Last time Leon came, there was an authentic Lucian Freud painting left here.
He originally expected the other party to forget this painting in a hurry, but such a good thing didn't happen.
Even a superstar like Vin Diesel wouldn't be careless about artworks worth millions of dollars.
Now only a pile of imitation decorative oil paintings remains here, mostly from a village in the south of East Asia, worth no more than a few hundred dollars.
"Do you like Pop Art works? I collected some great works."
"Of course I like it; no one loves Pop Art more than me!" Leon blurted out without any hesitation. In fact, he didn't understand what Pop Art was at all.
He only knew that these brightly colored paintings that looked worthless had been favored by the capital market in recent years and frequently sold for sky-high prices.
Pop master Andy Warhol's work Shot Sage Blue Marilyn was auctioned at Christie's in New York and finally sold for $195 million.
Breaking the record held by Picasso, it became the most expensive artwork in 20th-century auctions.
No matter how art critics justify avant-garde art and explain its value in various ways.
In Leon's eyes, its greatest value is money laundering and asset transfer, a game of passing the parcel only circulating among the rich.
He chatted with Taylor while drinking coffee leisurely. Just then, Dre finally called back.
After exchanging a few simple pleasantries, they agreed to meet at Aftermath Entertainment in half an hour.
"I have an important job; I have to go now, honey~" Leon kissed Taylor lightly on the lips and left under her reluctant gaze.
At the headquarters of Aftermath Entertainment, Dre was leading the recording team to record a new album for Kendrick.
The title track m.A.A.d city of the new album good kid, m.A.A.d city.
This album absorbed the lessons from the failure of the debut album, themed on the violence and struggle of street life, tailoring a brand-new image of "Son of Compton" for Kendrick.
Going against the current market dominated by R&B melodic rap, returning to the most traditional West Coast style.
"Singing not bad; I can even hear some shadow of Tupac." Leon wore monitor headphones, beating time while praising.
After the recording ended, Kendrick took off his headphones and was the first to run to him. "Bro Leon! Congratulations on releasing another masterpiece. Old Town Road is undoubtedly a phenomenal hit single!"
"Looks like you officially started to explode. Since September, your songs can be heard even in shopping mall restrooms." Dre echoed.
Neither could hide the look of jealousy in their eyes.
Leon's first promotional song for the new album We Don't Talk Anymore topped the Billboard weekly chart, and the second promotional song Old Town Road has a high probability of reaching the top too.
Having one chart-topping single in an album is already a very good result.
If there are two or three, this album is already qualified to be called a divine album.
The key point is that there are at least eight songs in his new album that have not been released yet, and it is not impossible to produce another one or two chart-topping singles.
A veritable hit-making machine.
Kendrick looked at Leon with deep affection, his eyes full of the fantasy version of himself.
Facing Dre's enthusiasm, Leon responded quite coldly.
According to his idea, with his relationship with the West Coast hip-hop circle, as long as Dre exerted a little effort, Eminem wouldn't be so hard to settle.
Not to the extent of making him run to Los Angeles personally.
Dre lit a cigar and explained in a rather helpless tone: "Em is focusing on his own things. Not only The Rap of America, he turned down all invitations for variety shows and talk shows in the second half of the year. And you know, his mental state hasn't been very good recently."
"Stop joking; you are his big brother. If even your words don't work, then I think there are no words in this world worth his care." Leon lowered his voice, faintly revealing a trace of anger.
"You are right; that guy indeed cares about nothing."
Eminem has been suffering from drug and alcohol torture. Not to mention big brother Dre, he even went to court with his own parents.
In 1999, his mother sued Eminem for personal defamation, claiming $10 million in compensation.
In 2003, Eminem, who was in full swing, spoke wildly about then-President Bush Jr. in his works, repeatedly mocking the most powerful person in America in public.
Eventually led to him being tracked and investigated by the Secret Service for a year.
"Eminem is busy creating a new song to diss Mariah Carey and her husband Nick. I once enlightened him that there is no need to do this. This beef has lasted for more than a decade and has long lost its hype value." Dre said.
The romance between Eminem and Mariah Carey can be called the biggest entertainment industry mystery of the 21st century.
The former insisted he loved and slept with her; the latter always stated she never paid attention to this perverted delusional maniac.
This protracted beef reached its peak with Bagpipes from Baghdad released by Eminem in 2009, dealing a heavy blow to Mariah and her second husband Nick Cannon.
This song was full of simping posture at first, with a lot of plaintive lyrics like "Mariah, whatever happened to us?" and "Remember the time we applauded for love?"
Then it became vicious, "Nick Cannon, you prick, I wish you luck with the fckin' whore."
The dispute continues to this day. Both sides took out highly lethal diss tracks to attack each other.
Nick even threatened many times to get real with Eminem and teach him to shut up.
"Man, you have to do something." Leon sat on the sofa, crossed his arms, and wrote dissatisfaction on his face.
The other party is not strong enough in handling many things, especially in beef incidents.
Since taking over the West Coast banner of Tupac and N.W.A in the late 90s, Dre has not continued the West Coast thug temperament.
After reaching a reconciliation with JAY-Z and Diddy, he mostly presents himself as a gentle and introverted businessman.
Eminem's popularity in the circle is notoriously bad, so much so that few people spoke for him after such a big beef with Nick.
As the big brother, Dre chose silence.
Kendrick was slapped by Will Smith in public, and he still chose to smooth things over.
Now his reduced control over his singers is completely reaping what he sowed.
"What do you want me to do? Find a few gang members to make Nick submit? Take him out on the street?" Dre issued a soul interrogation. "I want to do this too, but it's already the 21st century."
"So fcking weak!" Leon almost sprayed out his real thoughts.
Now it seems that to settle Eminem, he must first get involved in the messy pants crotch affairs between the other party, Nick, and Mariah Carey.
And these things that should have been done by Dre inevitably fell on his head.
Seeing the atmosphere a bit awkward, Phil played with the wine glass and made dirty jokes to smooth things over. "Eminem and Mariah's beef spans ten years. When I worked at Epic Records, this matter was buzzing. There is one thing I am curious about."
"What is it?" Dre looked up and glanced at him.
"Did they sleep together? I've read a lot of tabloid news about this. This is simply the fcking unsolved mystery of the century..."
"I don't know." Dre shook his head.
"Even you don't know?"
"That's right. Em once said he fcked Donald Trump's daughter. How credible do you think this is?" Dre spread his hands. "Anyway, what I can be sure of is that he has raped Mariah a hundred times in his spiritual world."
Speaking of this, he suddenly looked at Leon and lowered his voice: "Bro, I know what you are thinking. I can also solve problems with some more street methods like you. Believe me, I am fully capable of doing this."
Leon had no doubt about this.
Although Dre has long been separated from the real street, his life surrounded by golf and various charity dinners every day, thinking about how to become a glorious and decent capitalist.
But he still maintains huge influence on the street. The name Dr. Dre still calls the shots on the West Coast.
Not to mention he is a billionaire.
As long as he is willing, he can let a group of thugs break into Nick's house at any time and spin him like a top.
He just isn't willing to do so.
After nearly a minute of silence, Leon understood everything. The other party's meaning was obvious—to settle Eminem, you can only rely on yourself.
"Buddy, Eminem is my friend. The success of Billy cannot be separated from his guidance; there is no doubt about this." Saying that, his gaze fell on Kendrick again. "And you, K, you took a slap to defend my reputation. I won't forget this."
"Fck..." Kendrick was moved into a mess. After being depressed for so long, he finally waited for a response. "I will always stand with you."
Leon's words were already very clear. He planned to intervene in the dog blood (melodramatic) incident between Eminem and Mariah Carey.
This is no loss for him. Anyway, the reputation of "Street Jesus" has long been notorious.
What's more, Nick is Will Smith's hardcore little brother. Not only did he play important roles in TV series produced by Will, but he also made a cameo appearance in Men in Black II.
Now Leon has offended almost all popular rappers, leaving only the West Coast camp still standing by his side. Taking this opportunity to counterattack Will Smith, he can also consolidate his base in the West Coast rap circle and hype a wave of heat for the release of new songs in October.
The word "win" jumped repeatedly in Leon's head, and it was a win-win.
Win-win means he wins twice himself.
Thinking of this, he had no more worries. "Can you ask Eminem out for a chat? I want to talk to him personally."
"Of course no problem." Dre said, "It's best if you can convince him. Maybe it can save you a large appearance fee..."
On the way back from Aftermath Entertainment, Leon opened social media and locked onto Nick's homepage.
Besides various commercial promotions, the homepage was almost entirely occupied by trash talk responding to Eminem.
Most were implicit sarcasms, including new age quotes, proverbs, and even scriptures from the Bible.
The latest tweet read "Never argue with a fool, because from a distance, people can't tell who is who."
In the lower right corner, the like marks of Lil Wayne, Will Smith, and others could be seen.
Leon thought for a moment, retweeted this tweet, and tagged Nick, writing—"Really? I want to talk to you, face to face."
A minute after the tweet was sent, the number of retweets exceeded a thousand.
Onlookers (netizens) exploded. Why did Street Jesus, who had nothing to do with this melodramatic romance, get involved?
Where there is a topic about Leon, there is heat.
Within ten minutes, the heat of the old melon between Eminem and Mariah Carey rose exponentially.
When he returned to his home in Beverly Hills, related topics had occupied the number one hot search.
Nick didn't reply for half an hour. Obviously, he hadn't figured out where he offended this evil star who confronted half of the hip-hop circle.
"Is the aggressiveness not strong enough?"
Leon curved the corners of his mouth into a wicked smile, casually retweeted a picture photoshopped by a netizen—"Eminem checking in on Mariah Carey's mouth."
And tagged the diva's current husband Nick again.
Just opening the door, he saw Taylor curled up on the sofa, eating melon happily with her phone.
"Why did you suddenly tweet to attack Nick and Mariah Carey? You seem to have no relationship with them."
"Of course there is a relationship; Eminem is my good homie." Leon looked serious. "Beef is the primary productive force in the music scene. I happen to have multiple new songs to release in October, so I'll use this ngga to hype the heat by the way."
"Okay." Taylor spread her hands. She rarely relied on disputes to hype heat.
The only "mic-grabbing incident" that shocked the music scene was when she was involved in a completely passive state.
Leon walked to the wine cabinet and opened a bottle of white wine. "Want a glass?"
"Why not?"
Holding wine glasses, the two lay on the beach chairs by the open-air pool.
"Listen, I won't let these beefs involve you. Your career won't be affected by my negative news." Leon took the initiative to speak, full of nutritionally devoid PUA output.
Entertainment industry couples are highly bound together from the moment they announce their relationship. Negative news from one side will definitely affect the other.
"Don't worry about this; I'm used to you being like this." Taylor shook the wine glass, revealing a playful smile.
Since meeting Leon, she has witnessed various troubles with her own eyes.
Compared to the white-hot stage of Leon's struggle with Diddy, watching him being handcuffed and stuffed into a police car with her own eyes, these things now are nothing at all.
These words still made Leon feel a trance, as if he had heard them somewhere before.
Previously, when he just decided to use the negative persona of "Street Jesus" to start the hype road, Robbie said the same thing when facing reporters.
October in Los Angeles hasn't ushered in a significant temperature drop yet. Wearing only underwear, the two finished the whole bottle of wine comfortably under the shroud of the starry sky.
Lying on the beach chair, Taylor fell asleep quietly unknowingly.
At 11 PM, a guitar solo sounded in Leon's cochlea.
In the inspiration refresh screen, a middle-aged white man with stubble was singing on a dim stage holding a guitar.
Leon felt this man looked familiar. Although he had a bit more vicissitudes, it was not difficult to recognize Bradley Cooper, the star of The Hangover series.
When the female vocal part sounded, the real climax arrived.
In all the good times I find myself longing for change
And in the bad times I fear myself
I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in
I'll never meet the ground
Crash through the surface, where they can't hurt us
We're far from the shallow now
In the shallow, shallow
In the shallow, shallow
In the shallow, shallow
We're far from the shallow now
"Holy sht..." After confirming again and again that he didn't mistake the identity of the female lead singer, Leon almost cursed out loud.
This blonde woman who looked melancholy and classical, extremely like a Hollywood actress in the 90s, turned out to be Lady Gaga.
If he hadn't seen Lady Gaga completely without makeup and bangs backstage at the awards ceremony, Leon couldn't convince himself to believe this reality no matter what.
The mellow and husky voice, deep and melodious, majestic musical style is completely different from the other party's current avant-garde electronic music, even having some shadows of powerful divas like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
The MV screen slowly froze and stilled in his amazement, and the title emerged—Shallow.