Page 36 of The Cancer I Chose (BLP Signs of Love #4)

Nuri nervously looked at my sisters, who encouraged her to come.

I licked my lips, watching her strut over to me in her champagne-colored silk dress that stopped mid-thigh.

The fabric hugged every curve on her frame.

Of course, she wore heels that elongated her legs.

I couldn’t wait to get her home tonight and show her how much I loved her outfit.

“As many of you know, this is my beautiful wife, Nuri Symone, and tonight, I am releasing a special edition of my album that includes songs I made for my baby.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. I placed a kiss on her cheek and then helped her to sit on the stool.

While I was talking, the deejay had begun playing the beat to part one.

I backed away from Nuri a little as I began to sing the song.

Few people knew I could sing, too. The song was the perfect mixture of my breathy rapping and my melodic singing voice.

Nuri couldn’t stop smiling, so stumbling over my words wasn’t even possible. No one else existed but us right now.

When the sample from her mother came on, my girl burst into tears.

As planned, Jiah rushed out with the box of tissues.

I continued to perform for my girl while she bawled her eyes out.

I could tell she loved the songs by the way she nodded her head to the beat or swayed in her seat, even doing a little slow whine from time to time.

After I performed the last song, I took Nuri’s hand and pulled her to me for a hug.

“You keep me on my toes!” she yelled in my ear.

I nodded. “That’s my job, baby. I’ma always do that.

” For a minute, I forgot I was in the middle of a concert as I stared down at her.

I wrapped my arms around her waist and kissed her like no one else was there.

When I released her, I smacked her on the ass and winked. “I’ma handle that when I get home.”

She blushed as Jah came over to walk her off the stage. I turned back to the crowd and hyped them back up with one of my older, well-known tracks. Even during my performance with Nuri, they were engaged, and they kept that same energy all night long.

As I stood at the edge of the stage looking out over the sea of people, I felt nothing but gratitude.

I’d fought to get here. At times, I wasn’t even sure I would survive the brutal streets I was raised in, but here I was, standing tall, whole, and happier than I’d ever been in my life.

I was a trench baby who had made it out.

“You know we gotta do a roll call to see who’s in the building tonight,” DJ Roddy yelled over the microphone. “We got the south side in the building tonight?”

It was like crickets, causing me to laugh.

“We’re not serving ice cream tonight,” I joked on the microphone. If you knew about the beef, then you understood the reference.

Roddy moved on to the next part of the city. “What about the west? Y’all in this bitch tonight?”

There were loud waves of applause and screams. I smiled, clapping my hands a little.

I lifted the microphone to my mouth again. “I’on know, Roddy. It sounds like the west side’s fucking with your boy.”

Rod did some animated horn sounds before hopping back on the mic. “You’re right. The west side is definitely in the building tonight, but you know what I wanna know?”

“What you wanna know, Rod?” I folded my arms over my chest as I waited for him to answer.

“I wanna know if we got any east side babies in the fucking building tonight!”

When I say the crowd went wild, it wasn’t hard to know which part of the city fucked with me the most. The east was filling most of the seats in the stadium, so it was only right to shout out my people. They made this possible.

I placed a hand over my heart. “You know the east side will always and forever have my heart... after my wife though,” I jokingly added. “But seriously, before I get out of here tonight, y’all know I had to do something for my day ones. Drop that shit, Roddy.”

The beat of my very last song of the night dropped, and the crowd went berserk.

They probably thought I wouldn’t perform it, but I had to.

This was the song that started my climb to success.

As I rapped the lyrics to “East Side Baby,” my family and wife joined me on stage.

I lowered the mic and allowed everyone in the stadium to spit my hot shit back at me.

I nodded my head as tears came to my eyes. I’d been through a lot of bad shit, but I managed to turn my pain into something that could be felt, something that got the people on their feet, and something that made it all fucking worth it.

I pulled Nuri in front of me as we turned the arena out by how we vibed out.

All of us on the stage were in our own worlds as we jumped around, throwing up our set.

Who knew a lil ‘mute’ nigga from the Dutch would make it to Prosper Ave and then on stage performing in front of thousands. Shit... Only God saw that one coming.

“I might be quiet, but I’m deadly like a lion

For my fam know I’m clutchin’ that iron, ain’t no talkin’, ain’t no fightin’

And that’s my story, and I don’t give a fuck who judges

I’m still here, standing tall, money good, so my family up

East Side Baby for life.”

The End.