From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel

Levi Temple found himself more irritated than usual.

It might be the ache in his neck from sleeping awkwardly and in his wrist from being chained to a crazy person, the leftover tiredness after being dragged around for half a day, irritation from having to suddenly memorize choreography and pretend to get along with a team filled with people he didn't like and who didn't like him, or the fact that William kept nagging him despite several warnings to stop.

All he knew was that his short temper felt even shorter today, and he hoped that nobody else would bother him.

"Hello, contestants, welcome to our very special performance evaluation. How are you all doing?" MC Ryan Leary's voice rang out as he stared at the different groups of contestants taking their seats.

- gooood

- meh

- bruh, I'm tired.

"I'm sure you've all been hard at work perfecting your custom-made performances, and today, you'll be getting feedback not only from the judges, but from the different producers who made the songs you'll all be performing. Without further ado, please welcome Lil Pumpy, who brought us one of the most popular rap song trends in the past, Amelie, who's written many pop songs that you can't get out of your head, Mximillian with his soulful ballads, The Aviators, who are masters of mixing rock with various genres, Dijontae Vee aka DJ TV, one of the OG rappers and now a producer who's known for his intense trap rap beats and amazing music videos, and of course Producer Benny who has a variety of credits and is also one of our trainers and judges. Please give them all a round of applause."

As the MC called out each name, 5 people with completely different appearances and styles joined the six other judges at the long table they sat at, while the contestants gave a polite round of applause.

Levi glanced over at each of the new names that were called, vaguely recognizing one of the rappers with flashy jewelry and crazy dreadlocks from a trend he had seen in middle school, and the other rapper, whom he identified as an old head producer and rapper from New York.

He then looked over at the yawning person sitting beside him before asking.

"Which one is ours?"

"Dreads."

Levi glanced back at the rapper in dreadlocks, meeting his eyes as the MC began talking.

Seeing the rapper give him a smug smile, he just snorted and paid attention to the MC.

"Now, usually we let the contestants volunteer and perform in whatever order they want, but since we have special guests today, and they are the creators of the song, we allowed them to choose the order. So, for the team that is performing the song by DJ TV, Team Rainfall, please come forward."

At the MC's words, Benjamin, Daniel, Jerome, Alfonso, Nile, and Tae all stepped forward with Benjamin in the lead.

"DJ TV, would you like to say anything to the contestants before they perform?"

The old New York rapper grabbed his microphone and quickly spoke while looking at each of them before focusing on Benjamin.

"I specifically chose this team because out of everyone else on the show, you're the most talented and versatile rappers on the show, and I felt that you would do my song justice. I hope your performance is up to par with my expectations."

At DJ TV's words, Levi's brow twitched for a moment before settling into his usual scowl, while several contestants glanced at him to see his reaction before focusing on what Benjamin would say.

"Well, me and the mandem worked quite hard and took your advice, so I hope you're not too disappointed, innit? And as always, rap is rap, so I hope no one takes our words personally. It's all love, yeah?" Giving the judges a cheeky wink, Benjamin got in the center as the rest of his team spread out.

As the electronic beat sounded out, Benjamin began bouncing up and down in time with the intense bass, and when the beat dropped, he started beatboxing before transitioning into his verse.

I said, Say my name

Took a first-class flight to L.A., as soon as I land, I made it rain

Touch back in my ends, see my fam don't care about fame

First place boy, when I check that chart, all my foes, they all fell like rain

Cuz, where I come from, it's rain,

Monday to Friday, all day it's rain,

You said, "Wagwan, what's going on?"

"Why am I wet?" Let me tell you, that's rain,

My talent and skill, that's rain

I splashed and fought through all the pain

Now I'm at the top, and they've all dropped

Confused, nah, cause baby that's rain.

Making finger guns at the judges with a cocky tilt of his head, Benjamin slid over to the side to let Daniel start his verse.

Naturally, the performance with a team composed of good rappers was great, and the other team members aced their parts as well, but throughout the entire performance, Levi's eyes didn't leave Benjamin's smiling face.

This was the person he was always compared to, with everything from height to appearance to the position they were both vying for.

Usually, he didn't care, but the apparent disregard for him in DJ TV's words and even the difference in song quality that his team was grating on his nerves.

Even the verses that praised their own skill and talent rapped by the other contestants ticked him off.

"Thank you to Team Rainfall for the amazing performance. Judges, do you have anything to say?"

DJ TV picked up his microphone while nodding approvingly, "It seems that this team really took my words to heart. You all did great, displaying great versatility in your rap styles and fitting the song, rather than just showing the same old aggressive rap style over and over again. I hope you continue with this energy on the day of the performance."

At the pointed words that were clearly targeting him, Levi's eyebrow twitched once more as he glared at the old rapper, wondering what the hell this old geezer had against him.

"Well, thank you, DJ TV. Do the rest of our judges have anything to say?"

As the rest of the judges mainly gave positive feedback and encouragement, Team Rainfall took their seats, and the MC continued.

"Very well, then next up is the team that will be performing the song produced by Lil Pumpy. Please come up."

"Alright, team, let's go do a terrible job, ahem."

"Ari!" Vishal quickly elbowed him in the side, causing Ari to double over from the pain.

"What? It's the truth."

With a tired yawn, Ari cleared his throat before getting up to go embarrass himself for the umpteenth time in front of the cameras.

As they lined up, the MC glanced at Lil Pumpy and asked the standard question.

"Lil Pumpy, would you like to say anything to the contestants before they perform?"

The crazily dressed rapper with flashy jewelry glanced at the group with a serious expression before speaking passionately.

"While the contestants on this team weren't my first pick of rappers because I don't think any of them are true rappers, I hope that your performance does my song justice, because I put my heart and soul into making the song."

At the stray bullet that disregarded their skills, the expression on the faces of everyone on the team immediately hardened, Levi's eyebrow twitched again, while Ari just snorted in disbelief.

Firstly, he had looked up who Lil Pumpy was, and no offense to him, outside of his single hit, he wasn't that relevant as a rapper and a producer.

It was no offense to him, but Benjamin rapped better and Jamie produced better songs, and both boys were more than 20 years his junior.

And secondly.

Since when had he put his heart and soul into this song?

Even a primary school child could tell that this was a trash song that was scraped together by someone who didn't even try.

Knowing that his eyes were probably full of disbelief and anger, Ari just stared at his feet in silence while hoping that Lil Pumpy would stop talking nonsense so they could get this evaluation out of the way and go back to fixing their performance.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the rapper had a lot to say, because he kept rambling for 5 minutes before finally wrapping it up when the MC gave him an obvious sign.

"I also hope that you all understand the intricacies of what I tried to communicate here and the type of performance that I was imagining. Even if you were supposed to create all the details of the performance on your own, I was expecting that you would reach out to me as the producer of the song to advise you, and you never did, so I hope that this performance will live up to that expectation that I had when writing the song and won't be a disappointment."

Vishal, who was taking the position as the unofficial team leader, restrained a sigh before speaking as professionally as he could.

"While we're still working out the details to create the perfect performance, we will do our best to showcase what we have accomplished so far with the best of our abilities and look forward to any feedback that you have for us."

"I hope that's not a prepared excuse meant to justify your terrible performance? After all, 2 of your team members are within the top 10, and one of them is a rapper of exceptional skill." Producer Benny asked as he glanced at the dark faces of the team members before staring at Levi, who looked as if he didn't even want to be there.

Although Producer Benny was surprised to see him still there, it seemed that Levi was going to quit any minute now, which was good.

"Not that they were much help, they both skipped pract- ow"

Before Minjun, who was standing next to Ari, could finish muttering his sentence, Ari kicked his leg to shut him up while giving the judges a tight smile.

"Our performance is a work in progress, so please evaluate us kindly."

"We'll see. Get started with the performance."