Page 22 of For the Love of City

“He had a mixtape out and I got a copy of it. Went to hunt his ass down and nigga thought I was gone rob him before he realized who I was. He got heart and he got talent. Since we don’t have him signed yet, I didn’t put his shit in the system. I got it in my bag though, if you wanna listen to it.”

“I ain’t gone bother if he don’t bring his ass in here. Who his people?”

“Red and them.”

“Bet. I’ll get him in here before we leave.”

“Still rushing to get your ass back to the house, huh?” He was laughing but wasn’t shit funny to me.

“Damn right, if you had a girl you’d feel the same.”

A look came across his face before he smirked. “Maybe, but we’ll never know will we?”

I started to say something but there was a knock on the door. Trav’s gun was out and to his side out of habit and I couldn’t blame him. My shit was right by my leg in a special holder I made sure this desk had.

“Yeah?”

The girl that Lyric hired to work reception peeked in the door. She was timid with us but kept shit completely organized and handled the acts that came in like a pro. Her name was something weird like Rue or Atlas or some shit I was never going to remember.

“The groups are ready Mr. Chambers and Mr. Pettiway.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you.”

I glanced up sparing a look at Trav before I acknowledged the words of the person who spoke.

“Oh, for real?”

“Yeah, both of y’all. Y’all legends around Atlanta.

” This goofy muthafucka that had come in here trying his damndest to rap and failed really thought he was going to impress us by bringing up some street shit.

His first mistake was walking in here dressed like he’d made it.

I was never one to look for a man to take advantage of and exploit, but I damn sure wanted someone that was hungry.

A nigga who already felt like he had an image to uphold with icy chains and designer clothes was one who wasn’t serious about music.

He was only serious about fame, which wasn’t going to work for us.

“You hear that, City? We legends and shit.”

I looked at Travis and the smile on his face was one that people often mistook as friendly. In reality, that fool was trying to see which house we could shut down for a few days and not take too much of a loss so he could start a foundation renovation to bury this nigga’s body in.

“Heard that.”

I was doing my best to dead the conversation before this fool got Travis’ ass spooked and ended up on a slab on Pryor Street. But he seemed to be ready to get sliced up cause he kept fucking talking.

“Yeah this music shit is just one way I’m trying to get to the money, feel me? Y’all and Finesse making way for other folks to come up. Show they can be an asset to the hood.”

“An asset. And how you wanna do that? You starting a breakfast program and helping to police our streets so that we can get rid of the boys in blue who’d rather do us in than see us win?

You the next Black Panther party?” Travis had leaned all the way up and now I could see I was gone have to put a bullet in this innocent receptionist's head because Trav was pissed.

This nigga was rhyming his words and shit and I knew he was getting worked up.

“Nah, you know what I’m saying.” That glance around the room was the dead giveaway that he was on bullshit and now I was getting angry.

We’d just spent money to add the sound system to this room for playing back demos and records and everything was going to need to be stripped out when we killed this boy.

“We don’t play around with shit like that. You throw out accusations and that’s how rumors and shit get started. I don’t know what you heard but you need to be deaf dumb and blind to bullshit when it comes to us, feel me?”

He, I think this fool’s name was T-Lo or some shit, nodded like he finally understood he’d crossed lines. It was already too late for him because now he put himself on my radar for some shit other than not being able to find a word that rhymed with street instead of neat.

“So what y’all think about my sound? I played it for my niggas and they feeling it.” His hopes were raising and I was about to reach two generations back and three layers up in the atmosphere to smack them down.

“Gotta be real, we gone pass on this.” I interlaced my hands and that had Trav grinning. He knew I was doing it to keep myself occupied from reacting. T-Lo or whatever the fuck his name was needed to get out of my space real fast.

“Okay. And the other shit?”

And he was back to pressing us about some shit he shouldn’t even know about.

“Where you working at now?” My brow quirked and I moved my chair side to side slowly while I watched him.

“What you mean where?”

“You gotta be doing something to pay for this demo.”

“This some shit I got the Laws to do for me when they were running their lil’ contest looking for fresh talent. I came out on some fake support shit so they could jumpstart my career. They can’t fuck wit’ what y’all got going on around here.”

He had to go. Admitting to the both of us that he’d worked with the opps and then came to us was his first mistake.

If we signed his no talent having ass it would put us in the middle of some more shit with the Laws.

That beef making its rounds in the news had finally calmed down and we didn’t need it to stir up again.

Not with us being so close to having it dealt with.

His second mistake was proving that he wasn’t loyal or trustworthy. Having somebody like him in my space reminded me of King and that wasn’t a good thing.

“Appreciate the compliment but that don’t change shit.” Travis was trying to help T-Lo out but dude came with a mission to get signed to something before he left.

He was a I’m leaving here with something ass nigga and little did he know it would probably be a newly installed sunroof to his skull.

“Shit, y’all came lookin’ for me. What da fuck is up wit’ the attitude?”

Trav and I shared a look before he helped this man find the common sense he lost.

“Nah, muhfucka you confused. We came looking for talent. Not a nigga who is only out for self and had the nerve to call himself a street rapper with a line like ‘ Just one look and you see I’m from the street. You wanna be my bitch you better be neat .’”

Trav rapped that shit back to him harder than he’d said it and T-Lo looked pissed. It didn’t help that my ass was cracking up because I couldn’t keep a straight face the second time around hearing that line. Shit was trash and he was wasting everybody’s time coming in here.

“You know you gone try to steal that shit.” He tried to play off his embarrassment but how the fuck could you rap stupid shit like that?

“My nigga I can get better rhymes from the riddles off a Banana Laffy Taffy paper. And nobody but this oversized ass nigga eats the banana ones.” He pointed at me and I could tell he’d finally lost the murderous haze if he was making jokes.

“Say what you want. Maybe you wouldn’t be so damn short if you’d ate ‘em.”

“Why are y’all talking about candy?” T-Lo’s attitude was even louder than his lack of talent and I had to take a breath to calm my nerves.

“Bruh do you lack a sense of self-preservation? I know we were just saying you were for self but damn do you know when to shut up? Us laughing is putting more minutes on your life clock but nah you gotta interject because you wanna laugh too. Keep on thinking something is funny and I’mma show you something hilarious.

” Travis was damn near frothing at the mouth and when that vein popped in his forehead and I knew T-Lo needed to get low.

“Oh, so now you bout that life you ain’t know nothing about a few minutes ago?”

I wasn’t arguing with this nigga a minute longer. For my peace of mind and our freedom, I pressed a button that immediately had security walking in the room.

T-Low turned when he heard the door open and smirked. “Oh, you gotta call somebody else to handle me? Y’all supposed to be them niggas, though. Gotta get tossed out by security cause City and Trigga went Hollywood. Wait til the hood hears this shit.”

“Considering the source and the subject, I doubt we as the subject have to worry about much. Our hood knows us far better than you could ever say you did. Be careful who you spread that lie too, though. Some of these niggas ain’t wrapped too tight and they get down for their big bros real crazy.”

I leaned back after delivering that word of warning.

He could go running off at the mouth but people knew how we moved.

More than anything else, they knew how we moved for and with them.

Besides street shit, we’d been crucial in setting up opportunities for our folks to do more than just following in our footsteps.

Hell, one of the niggas from our block worked directly with Yacouba as his assistant.

“Oh, so a threat, too? To get some YNs to handle me? Not y’all afraid of T-Lo.” He was laughing but it was either bravado or he hadn’t really done his homework on us like he said he had. T-Lo was about to have more problems than being a shitty rapper.

I gestured toward T-Lo so the guards knew what they needed to do. “I need y’all to gone head and send him on his way.”

He didn’t know how blessed he was to be walking out of this office mainly of his own free will instead of being carried out rolled in a tarp.

When the two guards we had in place for shit like this snatched him up by his arms he tried to jerk away.

They were more than happy to take his ass out.

He went talking shit, kicking and screaming but at least he was gone.

As soon as the door was closed Trav turned to me and I knew he was about to start.

“He really tried to play in our face.”

A surprisingly calm response for what transpired but I wasn’t going to acknowledge it. I knew Trav was trying to keep shit professional but T-Lo was now on his radar.