From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel

"Y'all lil ****** don't know how to talk? I said What's up, my ******?" The rapper who came in behind Producer Benny loudly yelled again as he stared at the contestants in the room.

The five contestants in the room exchanged awkward glances as nobody was quite sure how to respond.

Thankfully, Kate, one of the writers, came into the room behind the cameraman and tried to take control of the situation.

"Uhm, Lil Pumpy sir, please don't speak to the contestants like that."

"Alright, b****. Whatever you say. I guess there's no ****** on the team anyway. Just a bunch of suburban white boys and a bunch of Asian kids who think they can rap."

At the crazy insults that continued coming out of the rapper's mouth, Ari turned to stare at Kate, who looked as if she were about to cry from stress, the cameraman who seemed confused as to whether he should be recording this, and then at Producer Benny, who looked like he didn't plan on doing anything to stop it.

As the rest of his teammates just stared in shock, unsure of what to do, Ari stood up and began pushing Kate toward the door. "Go get the PD."

"Are you trying to snitch on me, lil ******?" Lil Pumpy, the rapper, grabbed Ari's arm but was quickly shrugged off with surprising strength.

"Yes. Because you shouldn't be speaking that way to any of us that way, and especially not to our staff member like that. It's disrespectful."

"And if I don't stop?"

"Then leave. I'll take responsibility and tell the PD what happened myself. Then you can explain why you had to come in here cursing at a bunch of kids and calling our staff names."

Seeing that Ari was actually serious and had a crazy look in his eye, Lil Pumpy held his hand up.

"Fine. Chill out. My bad, damn. Can't take a joke? You too bit- I mean, woman. Chill out."

"Uh…"

Kate glanced between the rapper and Ari, and Ari pointedly glanced at the door and her, mentally urging her to get the PD so they didn't have to deal with this crazy person!

"I'll be back!"

As Kate quickly dashed out, Producer Benny followed her, and Lil Pumpy rolled his eyes before continuing to speak.

"Anyway, I'm Lil Pumpy, the coolest and the baddest rapper alive. I'm the one who made the song your team will be performing. I'm sure you've heard of me and are honored to meet me. Don't bother asking for an autograph, I only sign those for people who pay."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Ari was not honored in the slightest and had no plans of ever paying anyone a single cent for an autograph, much less a random rapper that he had never heard of.

The rest of his teammates just stared in silence since nobody actually knew who the rapper was and why he had previously acted as if he were crazy, and now was acting somewhat normal.

Seeing that they were looking at him with an unimpressed stare, Lil Pumpy got a bit upset.

He was a one-hit wonder who had failed to have a career despite the numerous songs he had released after his hit song had faded from the charts.

While trying his hand at producing, he got this opportunity by being drinking buddies with Benny.

After doing some research on the Pop Star Academy show and realizing how big and popular the show and the contestants were becoming, with several of them, including the so-called rappers, having more followers and getting more praise than he ever did, Lil Pumpy's jealousy grew, and he began to plot.

These weren't even real rappers who had to grind.

They were just snotty idol rapper brats who were pretty and just read what they were given.

Annoyed, he presented a decoy song, wanting the contestants to struggle fruitlessly so that he could take on the role of the miraculous rap coach who would teach them how to become real rappers and give them the real song that would wow the audience and catapult the team into an amazing victory.

With that success on his resume, he could then transition into getting a permanent trainer role like X-Ponent, possibly even replacing him, regain his former limelight, and reignite his career with the new eyes that would see his greatness.

After all, all of the judges from Larry Jackson to Selena had experienced a boost in their music streaming and sales just from appearing on the show, so the same could happen to him.

Reconfirming the plan in his mind, Lil Pumpy smirked at the contestants, especially the green-eyed one whose face constantly popped up each time he searched for the show.

It was time to humble them so they would come crawling back for his help.

Clearing his throat and posing coolly for the camera, Lil Pumpy deepened his voice and began to speak.

"As Producer Benny said, I heard that you all are performing my song, right? I came to do a little review and give some feedback to make sure you don't disgrace me, so let me see what you have."

Ari quickly raised his hand to try to stop this impromptu performance since none of them had actually practiced anything.

"We're actually missing a team member right now, so I don't think we can give you the performance you're looking for."

After a quick glance around the room, Lil Pumpy immediately identified who was missing from the report he had been given.

It was the boy whose parents were both popular actors, and he was one of the ones who was super popular, even though Lil Pumpy thought his skill wasn't that great.

"Ah? That sharp-looking white boy who thinks he can rap just because he can speak fast, right? Where is he?"

"He's Skipp-"

"He's taking some personal time off. If you want to see a full performance, you should probably come back tomorrow or another day so we can do your song justice." Ari calmly cut Minjun off while sincerely hoping that this rapper would go away.

"That's fine. Perform anyway."

"We haven't practiced yet."

"Just do it. It's my song, and I want to see what you guys have achieved in the past couple of days. Everyone keeps saying that this is the most talented batch of contestants in an idol show ever. Let me see that talent then. Perform."

The five of them exchanged glances before Vishal sighed and grabbed the tablet.

Everybody grabbed their lyrics and waited for the intro to finish.

Once that was done, Minjun stepped forward first, reading from his paper as the music played in the background.

With the sound of the bell,

I step in the ring like I'm a boxer,

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,

Conviction on my fist, I'm stronger than any other

There's no round twos

I want that knockout

Right hook, left hook

Beat him up, like I'm Pacquiao

Lil Pumpy found himself nodding along, a bit pleased with the lyrics, before straightening his face so that he looked disapproving.

It was a short little verse, and Minjun quickly stepped back, letting Leo step forward.

Traveling toward my destiny faster than light

The sun and my spaceship are the only things in sight

My enemies appear from wormholes and planets

I draw in everything like I created gravity

And my lasers to implode your reality.

At the complete change of topic that broke the flow from the previous verse, the smug expression on Lil Pump's face slowly began morphing into anger, which grew even more when Vishal started his verse on an entirely different topic.

By the time Mathew went, the rapper looked upset and was tapping his feet impatiently as he waited for Ari, who had the second-worst performance on the team.

When the music finally turned off, Lil Pumpy began angrily berating them.

"I knew it. My song is wasted here. You idol people are used to just regurgitating songs, lyrics, and concepts that are given to you, and can barely create a cohesive song by yourselves. This is shit, man! It's terrible. You're not real rappers. Back in my day, anyone could give me a beat and I would slide on it…."

Well, first of all, I'm not a rapper at all; I'm a vocalist.

And secondly, we haven't even had a chance to organize everything because of you!

Although he wanted to start an argument with the rapper, Ari just decided to zone out.

If there were something valuable being said, he would try to remember it, but getting scolded so that someone could hear their own voice and preach their own superiority rather than actually help them was a waste of time.

Subtly hiding a yawn, when Ari finally looked forward, the rapper was standing in front of him, blinding Ari with the reflection coming from his necklaces.

"Oh, so you think this is boring. You had the worst verse here! It's like you've never rapped before. If I had to give you a grade, it would be an F!"

Hey!

I'll have you know that it's at least an E now!

Since he couldn't let his true thoughts be known, Ari quickly changed the subject.

"I'm sorry about that. But I have a question about your song. The beat seems incomplete, as if several different songs have been spliced together. Could you give us tips on how to navigate it and make it a more cohesive song for the performance? Or maybe what you were thinking as you made it?"

Seeing that Ari had accurately identified the real issue of the song, Lil Pumpy began deflecting.

"Heh. You don't even know that much? Are you trying to get me to do the work for you?"

"Not at all. It just sounds a bit chaotic and off to my ears. When you were making this song, what was your intention? What were you trying to convey? Was there a particular story? A vibe? What did you envision it sounding like, and what was your mood when you were creating it? Anything at all could be helpful so that we don't embarrass your song."

Ari began walking close to the rapper as his mind started spinning faster with ideas.

Since the creator was here, he might as well squeeze all the information that he could out of him.

"I was uh….thinking about a battle?" at the barrage of questions, Lil Pumpy spit out the first thing that came to mind.

"A battle? A rap battle?"

"Yeah…a rap battle. You fake rappers wouldn't know, but back in my day, real rappers like me participated in rap battles and cyphers where you come up with your own lyrics to any beat that you're given while building off what the person who goes before you says. Anytime you got on the radio or performed, you could be called to battle or freestyle. I thought you guys were talented, but all I heard today was random gibberish being read off a paper. It was complete trash. You guys are not rappers, you're readers. You ruined my song."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but to clarify, you gave us a rap battle song? It's not actually meant to flow together? It's actually separate pieces?" Ari clarified, trying to dig into the bottom of the issue, as an idea began forming in his head.

"I didn't say that." Lil Pumpy quickly changed his story.

He had honestly just thrown some half-made beats together and tried to make them sound cohesive before giving up.

It wasn't like this was the final version of the song.

The new beat he planned on presenting to the team once they begged for his help was completely different and very reminiscent of his original song that had blown up years ago.

But he needed them to be desperate, which meant he would answer no more questions.

"Anyways, I'm leaving now. Just know that I hated this performance. Fix everything from the beginning! The lyrics, the order, everything!" Lil Pumpy yelled as he began backing away while Ari walked toward him with his eyes flashing with a strange light.

"Wait! Before you go, do you mind if we add some things to your song? Or switch the order of some things around? Producer Benny said we couldn't, but it's your song, right? You're the boss, right?"

"You've already ruined it, so how bad can it be? Change whatever you want. Just know that unless you tell your staff to beg me nicely, I won't give you any help or advice!"

Thud!

Before Ari could say anything else, the rapper quickly left, slamming the door behind him.

Ari quickly turned to the cameraman, giving him a cheeky smile.

"You captured that last bit, right?"

"Yep."

"Sweet."

The room was silent before Mathew sadly plopped to the ground.

"There's nothing sweet about it. We have to start from the beginning again? It took forever to come up with those lyrics. And we haven't even talked about choreography. Are we even going to have choreography?"

"What can we do? The song owner literally said we should," Minjun grumbled.

"If he had all these things to say, he should have given us a concept too," Leo added with a sigh.

"I really think it's sweet. He literally gave us a concept, and I don't think we need to change our verses all that much." Ari told them as he began cracking his neck.

His head was working overtime, consolidating and discarding ideas.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"When did he say that?"

"He said he was thinking of a rap battle or cipher when he made the song, so let's do that. Let's make our performance a 3 vs 3 rap battle. Mathew remember? Our team had one led by Benjamin when we were in Vegas. Let's do the same thing here, only a bit more polished."

"A rap battle performance? That doesn't even make sense."

"He's lost it."

"He's finally gone crazy."

As his teammates stared at him in confusion, Ari gave them a bright smile and brought out the sticky notes and pen that he always carried in his pocket.

"Listen well, okay? I'll explain it to you from beginning to end."

Highjacking the mirror to paste sticky notes on it, Ari began explaining their concept and how they would integrate each person's unique verse along with a custom chorus to imitate a rap battle and have one cohesive performance.

Not having a better idea, and seeing the full picture slowly fleshed out, everyone slowly agreed to the concept of a 3 on 3 battle.

The only issue now was…

"Where is Levi?"