From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel

The 6 of them stood in a loose line and waited for the music to begin.

Due to Levi being missing for days, instead of using the version that Ari had spliced and remixed, the team had decided to use the original song that Lil Pumpy had given them for several reasons.

One was a lack of practice, not only with Levi, who had the most critical parts, but as a collective team, since they weren't sure he would come back.

And secondly, because the rest of his team had some misguided faith that the rest of the judges would somehow find a conscience and make the producer change the song and make it better.

As the person who had consistently received the worst of the production teams' edits even after rightfully complaining and making the issue known, Ari thought that the rest of the judges were probably aware of their song situation, and even if they had complained, Production had the final say in most matters.

He thought that his team members' hope was misguided; however, since he was at fault for skipping practice twice, he didn't try to convince anyone and let the group decision stand.

Maybe he had become too jaded and was wrong this time.

As the beat began playing, a replica of their performance in the practice room was displayed, with the only difference being that Levi was there to do his part, and the added simple choreography that Mathew had created.

When they were done, there were looks of confusion, surprise, disdain, and laughter.

"So…where do I begin…" X-Ponent kept looking back and forth between their group and Lil Pumpy as if trying to figure out where to start untangling this mess.

The amateur lyrics that didn't really flow together were one thing; the lackluster performance from the contestants, who were clearly not confident in their abilities, was another.

However, the main issue was the actual instrumental. The music itself.

Putting it mildly, it was rough, even for an expert rapper to rap on this disjointed beat and make it flow into something that could be called a unified song.

It sounded more like a collection of different beats than anything.

As a rapper, he didn't know how to approach criticizing the song without being insulting to the person behind it, especially since he was aware of how sensitive other producers and rappers were.

Any little thing could be taken as a diss and start a feud, especially with rappers who were no longer as popular as they used to be and were seeking clout to regain their popularity.

It was moments like this that he missed Jelissa, who had a soft touch and personality that would have handled these delicate issues as a producer herself.

"There's no need to mince words, X-Ponent. This is trash. It's like none of the people on this team can actually rap. Just like I thought, they're not real rappers." Lil Pumpy brashly announced, looking at each of them with an exaggerated look of disappointment evident on his face.

"Now, I wouldn't go that far." X-ponent began, but DJ TV cut in, glad to find an opportunity to use his famous tag line.

"I would! I think it was a terrible performance, and if it were on TV, I would turn it off immediately! Compared to the quality of the previous rap performance, the difference between the two is more stark than the desert and the ocean. You, the fashionista with the big fur hat, who probably thinks you're so cool. What's your excuse for that terrible performance? You act like you've never rapped before, and your dancing isn't much to look at either."

Aware of the cameras, Ari glanced at the old rapper before giving a concise response.

"I'm a vocalist, not a rapper, so I'm still learning the ropes and doing my best to improve overall."

"And you think that's an excuse for your poor rap skills? A musician is a musician, and skills should translate across the board. If you can sing, you should be able to rap. From what you've shown here, there's no way you can be a good vocalist when you're this bad a rapper."

Please tell that to my stat window because it doesn't make sense to me either.

Even though he wanted to grumble, Ari just kept his face peaceful.

Now was not the time to fight back, as he had agreed that the performance was truly terrible, especially because he was saving his JukeBox Tokens.

"And you, Levi, is it?" DJ TV turned to Levi, with a disdainful expression.

"Yes."

"You must think that you did so well and made no mistakes."

Levi's expression made it clear that he thought that was obvious, and that made DJ TV even angrier as the sharp blue eyes seemed to be looking down on him.

"Heh. You are such a one-dimensional rapper. I can tell that you've modeled your whole style, attitude, and flow after the rapper M&M, the best white rapper in history. But you, you have no creativity in your rap. All your raps sound the same, and you sound like a cheap knock-off of the OG rappers on the block. It's clear that none of you know how to rap, including you, who's supposed to be the best on the team."

Despite his anger bubbling at the insult, Levi surprisingly stayed silent, and taking that as an opportunity, Lil Pumpy began criticizing him as well, using the moment to push his own agenda.

"Honestly, I was a bit excited to share this song, especially with such a high-ranking rapper performing my song, but clearly it was a mistake to do so since none of you are real rappers. You've all ruined my song with this terrible performance. It seems that I have no choice but to change the song and give you a simpler one to fit your limited skill."

"No, that's fine. Leave the song as is." Producer Benny cut in.

"What?"

"I said, leave it. If their skills are lacking, they should just get better, just like everything else. If not, they should fail because their peers are doing fine with the songs they have."

Seeing that things weren't going in the direction that he imagined, Lil Pumpy began to panic.

This wasn't a song that he wanted released with his name attached to it!

It was meant to be a placeholder!

"No, it's clear that the contestants aren't skilled enough, so I actually prepared a better song for them that would suit-"

"No, it's fine. We only purchased one song, and if they're not skilled enough to see the brilliance in this song that you said you poured your heart and soul into, then they deserve to have a terrible performance and to be humiliated. It's not a poor reflection on you but a poor reflection on them. Plus, it's not fair to the other teams who will not be getting a 'better song'." Producer Benny calmly interrupted as he took a sip of his drink.

He was aware that this was a terrible song, but he didn't care.

He had specifically chosen Lil Pumpy because of how terrible his beats were, and he curated this team because almost none of the members had extensive rap experience, and the one person who did would be leaving soon enough.

There was one slight worry, but according to the intel he received from one of the contestant informants, the one kid who was a great vocalist and had done all the excellent arrangements in his past teams was a terrible rapper.

He was so terrible that it actually made no sense whatsoever, especially when compared to his singing skill, but the informant had vouched for it. Clearly, that was true, given Ariel's current performance, which was perfect.

It meant he wouldn't be pulling some magic trick performance out of his ass and would embarrass himself and his team on stage.

The worse this team did, the better it would be for Benny, as his contestant would rise, while others would fall and get eliminated, and his paycheck would increase.

"But-" Lil Pumpy tried to protest, but Benny wasn't having it.

"Leave it." Producer Benny cut Lil Pumpy off, and seeing that his opportunity was fading away, Lil Pumpy went back to criticizing Levi, who was the only one glaring at him.

"Ahhh! I can't believe that you all plan to show this performance to other people without feeling any shame. I told you that nobody in this group was a real rapper. You're all just readers. Ugh! It's horrible! And you!"

Lil Pumpy pointed to Levi angrily, "I don't know why they keep ranking you among the top three rappers in this show when you deserve to be much lower. You're nothing compared to the rappers in the other group. It's clear that you're just here coasting off your family name."

"…Is that what you think?" Levi asked in his classic, sharp tone, staring the rapper down with his pale blue eyes.

Although Lil Pumpy thought that Levi actually looked a bit scary with an appearance that reminded him of a wild wolf that wanted to rip people apart, seeing that his peers surrounded him and remembering that he was the one with power here, not the contestant, he regained his confidence.

"Well, yes. You don't deserve to be considered one of the top 3 rappers on the show. Are you deaf? Or is it that you can't understand me?"

"No, I heard you." Showing off his sharp canines with a rarely seen smile that transformed the usual sharp features into one that was devlishly handsome, Levi cleaned his ears with a finger as the final thread on his short temper snapped, and he dropped a bomb: "I just thought that those were funny words coming from an almost irrelevant one hit wonder rapper who can't even produce a proper song."

At Levi's words, everyone simultaneously gasped, while Ari immediately looked down to hide his expression that was wavering between wanting to cheer for Levi for putting Lil Pumpy in his place and wanting to cover his mouth.

Thoughts were flying around in his head until his brain finally settled on the fact that the PDs would have a field day clipping this as they pleased.

His only hope was that he wouldn't be in the crossfire.

"Excuse me? What did you say to me?" Lil Pumpy asked incredulously, thinking what he heard was a mistake.

Wanting to stop things from going too far, Ari immediately kicked Levi's leg, trying to get him to shut up.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Levi was hellbent on causing trouble today.

"Don't worry, you're excused. This is a terrible song, you know it's a terrible song, anyone with ears can tell it's a terrible song, and yet we're going to pretend it's not and blame our performance? Don't piss me off with your bull-"

Kick!

Giving up on subtlety, Ari kicked him even harder this time and quickly interrupted Levi.

"Ahem, what Levi is trying to say is that we, as a team, are not talented enough to work with the song in its current state and would like to verify that we have permission to change some things to suit our skill level. We have a working prototype; we just want to verify in front of everyone that we have proper permission to edit the song to fit our performance goals without offending the person who created it. Naturally, we'll keep as many pieces of the original song as possible."

"That's definitely not what-"

Kick!

Ari kicked Levi's leg again to shut him up and completely ignored the glare he could feel burning into the side of his head.

Lil Pumpy turned his furious eyes from Levi to Ari, feeling even more embarrassed at the seemingly mocking exchange between the two of them.

"Oh? You're the kid everyone always praises for your arrangements. The one with the girly name who can't rap. You were the one who asked to edit the song last time, right? What, you think you can make a better song than me?"

"Yes, that's me. I'm Ariel, and it's actually a boy's name meaning lion. As of right now, no, I don't think I can make a better song than you from scratch." Ari said, and as Lil Pumpy began smiling before freezing as he processed the words.

"….as of right now? So you think that you can do something like that in the future?"

Ari stared at the rapper before giving him a cheeky smile.

"Yes. Of course, my skills aren't there yet, but I think I'm good at arranging songs to suit a group, and I've been working hard at it, and will definitely get better in the future."

"So you're saying I didn't make a good song, that it has to be tweaked by an amateur like you."

"I never said that, but if that's how you're taking my words, sure."

[Wow.]

[You've gotten real bold.]

[I don't know if I should be proud or concerned.]

Lil' Pumpy froze for a moment, shocked by the overly confident tone.

"Isn't this just sophistry? You're embarrassed that you performed badly, and now you're saying a whole bunch of empty words because you guys are not talented enough to work with the song in its pure form." DJ TV cut in, and Ari turned to him with a firm expression.

"I won't deny we performed badly. And since you're all rap experts here, could you please provide us with actionable items on how we can improve our performance with the song in its current state? Instead of telling us that we did terribly, we can't rap, we're just readers, we ruined the song, could you offer us some constructive feedback on how to make it better? And just for fun, I'd like to know if you, DJ TV, or Lil Pumpy were making an album or mixtape, would you even use this beat as is, or would you try to change it?"

Ari looked at each of their faces, watching as both Lil Pumpy and DJ TV avoided meeting his eyes.

Since they remained silent, Ari continued to press his point aggressively.

"Actually, I would like to hear what the creator Lil Pumpy would do with this beat. I remember that you told us that rappers back in your day could freestyle and slide on any beat, anytime, anywhere. The sound system is active, and we have the beat you created here. Please, give us a master class on sliding on a beat and delivering a great freestyle performance so we can take notes to improve our performance."

"Well…uh…that is…." Lil Pumpy looked around nervously, but Ari wouldn't let him off.

"Don't be shy; I'm sure everyone wants to hear what an expert like you can do. We want to learn from you."

As the rapper began stuttering, Ari turned to the production staff with an expectant look that was urging them to play their song again.

"Can the sound guy please play the track from the top?"

"Enough!" Larry Jackson finally cut in, seeing that Ari was hell bent on embarrassing Lil Pumpy.

"Levi, you know you shouldn't be speaking like that."

"He started it," Levi replied immediately, unfazed by the whole interaction.

Seeing that Levi really didn't care, Larry Jackson turned to Ariel.

"And you, Ariel, always causing trouble."

Ari didn't say anything and just stared ahead.

"Producer Benny, what do you think? About the situation? This task is your prerogative, and it's clear they're unhappy with the track?" Larry Jackson quickly tossed the issue to someone else since he wanted nothing to do with the horrible song he just heard.

Producer Benny thought it over for 2.5 seconds before shrugging drunkenly.

Even if things were rearranged, the song itself was terrible, and none of the kids were good rappers; the only good rapper on the team was clearly on his way out, given how he was picking fights with everyone.

It might be good to give them enough rope to hang themselves with.

That way, he looked generous.

"Well, the kid has already said he has a working prototype hic. Right? Let him have at it; however, every single piece of the original song that Lil Pumpy must be included in your little prototype, and no one is allowed to help him. Nobody from another team, no trainers, no body but his own teammates. Understood? And as I said, no singing. This is a rap song, you will rap."

"That's fine," Ari replied boldly.

"You really think you can do better than me?" Lil Pumpy looked completely incredulous at the thought.

"Yes."

One thing Ari had never lacked was confidence, even when bluffing and talking nonsense.

Besides, now that Levi was back, his original idea for the performance could be implemented in totality without a single thing being sacrificed.

"Fine. Whatever. This took long enough. Go sit down, hic."

As his entire team turned away, Ari stopped to say one last thing.

"And DJ TV. With all due respect, I would like to inform you that, although I appreciate your feedback, I heavily disagree with you. Levi isn't a one-dimensional rapper; he's extremely talented, and that goes for the rest of us. We're still learning, and we're going to continue to improve, so please wait for us. I guarantee that it'll be such a good performance that you'll turn your TV off out of embarrassment because of the words you said." Ari said confidently.

"Is that right?"

"That's right."

The older rapper gave him a pitying look as he shook his head.

"Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. Your head has swollen up because you have a bit of accomplishment, but in the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. I suggest you be careful of your pride and quit bragging before you make a statement you can't uphold."

"I'm not overly confident. I just think we have a good team that works hard, and I know how much the human body can be squeezed to extract maximum effort and potential, so we won't fail."

Ari thought he saw Vishal flinch off to the side, but ignored it to focus on DJ TV.

"Well, then, I look forward to seeing this supposed good team performance."

"Sure. Look forward to it. Heh."

As Ari turned away while laughing to himself, he was quite motivated with more ideas churning in his head, but the more Vishal stared at that striking face, the more goosebumps rose on his skin.

He began having horrible flashbacks to not sleeping, and being forced to practice 20 out of 24 hours a day as a person with white and black face paint ordered him around.

And the moment Ari sat down-

[Ding!]

[Surprise Mission: I think I'm Better Than You! It's Not Bragging, It's Not Pride, It's Confidence.]