NOVEL NEXT Chapter 243: You're Not Real Rappers (2)
[Ding!]
[Mission Board #6]
1. [Your Physical Weakness Is Unacceptable! We'll Make A Man Out Of You Or Die Trying! - Permanently gain at least 6kg. Current Weight: 57 kg. Reward - 1 Dance Stat Point & 1 Visual Stat Point]
2. [When I grow up, I wanna be Famous, I wanna be a Star, I wanna be in Movies - Make an at least 30-second cameo in a music video, TV show, or movie. Reward - 1 Charm Stat point + Unlock Acting Stat]
3. [I'm not Bossy, I'm the Boss - Successfully become a team leader and lead your team to a first-place victory!
Time Limit: Until the final Pop Star Academy audience voting performance.
Reward - 1 Stat Point + Unlock Leadership Stat]
Ari quickly read through the new missions before he began asking clarifying questions.
"How do you know my weight?"
[Magic.]
"Haha, very funny. What if I add the weight and then lose it by accident? I'm in my growth period, and I'm exercising a lot, so it fluctuates."
[That's for you to figure out.]
[You must maintain the weight gain for at least 2 weeks for the task to be done.]
Although it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, Ari let it go.
He would just have to eat more.
"Fine. How am I supposed to end up in a TV show or movie? I'm assuming this one doesn't count?"
[For once, your assumption is correct.]
[By doing your best.]
[Good luck.]
"Tsk. None of this is immediately helpful in raising my rap stat. Don't you have a surprise mission for me somewhere?"
[No.]
[Do I look like a Surprise Mission Printer?]
[I just gave you one.]
[Rather than begging me for a Surprise Mission, I recommend using the skills you have and completing your rap repeat missions that you've been pretending don't exist for extra stat points.]
"….fine."
With a resigned sigh, Ari first went to ask around if anyone knew where Levi was, since he wanted to talk to him and apologize for being harsh.
Unfortunately, nobody, including Benjamin, knew where he was.
He wasn't on the roof, wasn't in his room or any of the bathrooms, but since his things were still there and hadn't been packed, Ari decided to find him the next day.
Returning to the practice room, Ari began his second day of staying awake all night.
He spent half the night trying to write meaningful lyrics to a beat he didn't particularly like or understand, and the other half trying to rap without wasting his Juke Box tokens.
By the time the sun came up, his throat was a little sore, but he had some rough lyrics written down.
After a quick breakfast and a search with Levi still not being found, Ari went to vocal class along with Jamie and Carlos.
And unfortunately, instead of seeing Jelissa's bright and friendly face, which he missed so much, it was the red, scruffy face of producer Benny standing at the front of the room wearing a red sparkly suit that exposed even more chest hair than the last one.
When Benny spotted Ari, he walked over while taking a sip from the black water bottle that production had made him switch to so their poor editors weren't overworked with blurring out an alcohol flask.
"Oh, look who finally decided to join us after skipping all of yesterday. That's a nice hat. Decided to go shopping?"
Producer Benny looked at the expensive-looking, oversized fur hat with covetous eyes.
Wasn't this kid supposed to be poor?
If his eyes didn't deceive him, this was from this year's runway spring collection from a luxury French brand that wasn't even available for celebrities to purchase yet, much less the public.
It seemed that there might be some merit to Forbes's suspicion that he had a secret sponsor, and a PR firm supporting him might be true.
A bit annoyed at the judgmental eyes that looked as if he didn't take him seriously, Benny began prodding him to bait a reaction.
"I asked you a question. Why weren't you in class yesterday?"
"I had permission to be out."
"Well, I don't recall giving your permission here."
"PD Emily gave me permission."
"You should have cleared it with me."
Seeing that the producer just wanted to be unreasonable, it took everything in Ari's power not to roll his eyes and be the bigger person.
"Okay."
"Didn't I tell you to call me sir?"
Taking a look at the camera in the back, Ari replied with textbook politeness.
"Okay, sir. Next time, I'll inform you when I won't be around. Sir."
Hoping this was the end of their interaction, Ari tried to step inside the room, but Producer Benny blocked the doorway again after allowing Carlos and Jamie to enter.
"What do you think you're doing, hat boy?"
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
What kind of stupid question was this?
Doing his best not to gag at the strong scent of alcohol and slight BO, Ari schooled his face to be neutral.
"Trying to enter the room in time for class."
"This isn't the class for you."
"Since when?"
"Since I said so."
"That's not a good reason for anything. What's the actual reason?
"Are you talking back to me?"
"No, I'm just asking a clarifying question?"
"Fine. For that alone, I'm dropping you down to B-grade rap."
"What does that even-"
"C grade rap. The more you backtalk to me, the more I'll send you to a lower rap class. Want to continue back-talking me? Aren't you performing a rap song? I don't think it's necessary for you to be here, so head to the rap class along with the rest of your team."
"That doesn't make any sense because I'm signed up as a vocalist and I've been attending vocal classes long before you got here."
"D grade rap. Shall we continue?"
At the producer's smug smile, Ari forced back his frustration and smiled politely before finishing what he had to say.
"I don't mean to be rude, but just because my team is working on a rap song doesn't mean you can kick me out of the vocalist class. I'll head out for now because I do actually need help figuring out how to rap properly. And a side note, you might not know because you're new, but X-ponent, the rap trainer, only teaches one rap class now, so even if you drop me down to Z-grade rap, I'll still be heading to the same training session as all the other rap contestants. It makes no difference at all…Sir."
"You cheeky brat!"
As the producer began getting in his face, spreading spit and his stinky breath, Ari blinked as his eyes started watering from the toxic fumes, before using the flap of the fur hat to cover his face.
"I'm going to go now, sir. I'll be back to the vocalist class when this team mission is done, sir."
"Bold of you to assume you won't be eliminated with that team of yours."
"I have full confidence in myself and the people that support me, that I definitely won't be."
Without waiting for Producer Benny to say anything else, Ari quickly left the room and walked to the practice room where X-ponent was holding class while taking a deep breath of fresh air.
He felt like throwing up and also wanted to punch Benny at least once, but restrained the feeling and calmed his breathing instead.
When he arrived at the right door, Ari knocked politely until it slid open, with X-ponent, the rap instructor, standing in the doorway.
The man was wearing an LA baseball hat that coordinated with his simple outfit, and he had always had sparkling jewelry on his neck and wrist.
"Contest Ariel, right? What's wrong? Aren't you in the wrong class, or are you looking to grab somebody for the PD?"
"No, I was sent here by Producer Benny. He said I should be here from now on." Ari replied in a slightly frustrated tone.
"Ahhh, got it, well, grab a seat, today we're working on free styling, writing bars, enunciation, and delivery. You might find it helpful since you're team is performing a rap song."
"Okay."
With a lazy shrug, Ari entered the practice room, looking at faces that he rarely saw.
Benjamin, Leo, Mathew, Daniel, etc.
All the people who rapped were there.
Except for Levi.
"Big man Ari with the Big Hat. Wagawan? Why are you here?"
Taking a seat next to Benjamin, Ari whispered two words.
"Sparkly suit."
"Ahhh. That's rough, mate. Well, welcome to our class. It's fun."
"All right, that's enough, let's get to it. Today we're free styling in a cipher format. No topic, just saying words as they come to your head on the beat. Since we have a new attendee, Ari, why don't you go first?"
Seeing that he didn't have a choice, Ari withheld a sigh and stood up as a simple beat began playing.
"My name is Ari."
Benjamin immediately began yelling out ad-libs.
- yeah
"I'm 18."
- Okay!
"This is really awkward, if you get what I mean…"
- Don't stop!
"I don't want to make a scene,"
- but what?
"Uhhh. I'm pretty nervous so I'd like to sit down like a queen?"
There was a moment of silence before everyone in the room, including X-Ponent, burst into laughter.
After wiping his tears, he began speaking.
"Hmmm. Well, it wasn't bad, but it's pretty surprising to me that you're nervous since you're usually very confident. Would you like to try again, get some coaching, or let someone else go?"
"I'll let someone else go."
Ari sat back down, glad that the fur hat was covering his ears, which felt a bit hotter than usual.
"Well, why don't we let Benjamin go. Your usual partner, Levi, isn't here today, but do you want to spit, or do you want to go against a partner?"
"Apart from him, no one ever wants to go against me, so I guess I'll drop a few bars innit?"
After Benjamin dropped a few rap bars, the beat switched, and everyone else in the room successfully went with X-Ponent, giving tips and a mini lecture throughout.
"Well, I hope that this lesson was useful to all of you. As I always say, rap is 70% attitude and delivery and 30% the content of your actual lyrics. When you're not confident, it shows and makes it hard for those watching to buy what you're selling, you feel me? And for those of you struggling to write lyrics, the closer to heart the issue is, the better your lyrics will be. Don't try rapping about a life of glitz and glam just because it's popular, especially if you can't do it confidently and sell it. Authenticity helps a lot, especially when you're starting out, and real rappers who write their verses use it as a way to tell stories and spark conversation about their lives, about issues, and the various things that affect them."
"It's kind of like country music," Ari muttered, but it seemed as if X-Ponent heard him because he smiled widely.
"It's exactly like country music. What both styles are trying to do is tell a story of life's triumphs, defeats, and everything in between. The mediums are just different."
"Hmmm."
Throughout the entire class, Ari watched and listened attentively to the coaching that X-ponent provided and the way Benjamin and others responded.
From catching the beat to changing the pronunciations of words to fit a particular rhyme scheme, he got an expert intro to rap class that he had never had before, and expanded his musical horizons in a different manner.
While X-Ponents' teaching style was a bit rougher than Jelissa's, Ari genuinely enjoyed it overall and by the end of the class his rap stat even went up by 1 point.
[Rap: E- -> E]
After the class was over…
"How'd you like it? Quite fun innit?" Benjamin rested his arm on top of the fluffy, oversized hat on Ari's head before beginning to rub his face against it aggressively because of the fluffiness and the perfumed scent.
"It wasn't bad. And get off of me. You're heavy."
Ari tolerated it for 2.5 seconds before he started shoving him away.
"I can't lie bruv, I quite like this hat. It's proper soft and smells fancy. And X-ponent is a good trainer, yeah? Come over to the rap side of things. There's less competition and it's more fun on this side."
"We'll see."
Ari replied noncommittally.
While learning to rap was fun, he wanted to get good at it before showing that skill to people.
After a quick lunch where Ari forced himself to eat double his usual portion in an effort to begin bulking up,
Once it was finished, taking the lyrics he had worked on, he went to their practice room where everyone was gathering, and once again Levi wasn't there.
When Vishal arrived, the indian boy looked around and not seeing Levi began questioning everyone.
"Has anyone seen Levi today?"
"…no. He wasn't at breakfast."
"He wasn't in rap class either."
"Okay. I'll ask the production team about him. For now, let's get started. Firstly, did everyone finish their lyrics?"
"Yes."
"Yeah."
"I mean, technically?"
"I guess."
"Good. Then, starting from the beginning, let's have everyone rap it in turn and begin nailing down the concept that we're going with. Does that sound good?"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Just as Vishal was about to start the music, the practice room door slid open, and they all turned to look in unison.
It was Producer Benny, along with a camera crew.
He looked over them with his characteristic smirk before trying to speak in a suave voice.
"Well, well, if it isn't the rap team. You should be honored, I came to listen to what you've all accomplished so far, and I even brought the person who produced the song."
As Producer Benny stepped aside, a loud voice could be heard as someone stepped forward.
"Yo, wassup, my ******!"
Ari stared from Producer Benny, who had found time to change to an obnoxiously blinding gold sparkly suit to the young, black man who had crazy dreadlocs and was dressed in baggy jeans with large holes in them, an oversized designer t-shirt with LV printed all over it, numerous oversized silver and diamond chains around his neck, as well as gold grills over all of his teeth, to the shocked camera person behind the two people wondering what the hell was going on.