“Cool.” He sat back in his seat and turned back toward Merch and Rome. “How’s that bullshit y’all working on sounding?”
“Man, fuck you.” Rome chuckled. “My shit sounds good.”
“Shit sounds like two mothafuckin’ cats fighting in a dumpster, nigga.”
Rome and Merch both laughed and Drix looked down when his phone rang. He picked up and hopped to his feet, quickly excusing himself.
The three of us decided the theme of our song then worked together to settle on a chorus Charm would sing lead on. Then, we sat back with our phones and started writing our verses.
“So which one of you screwed your way into a song?” The woman at the soundboard spoke for the first time and I did a double take before I looked back down at my verse.
She wasn’t talking to me, so I wouldn’t dignify her ass with a response.
“Nobody is going to speak up?”
“Niecy, be cool,” Rome said. “Don’t start no shit in here.”
“It was a simple question.”
“You were being a bitch.”
“Which one are you fucking to care that much?”
“Unlike you, not every woman has to fuck someone for them to feel like they’re worth common decency,” I said simply.
“Oh? So you have a voice all of a sudden?”
“Bitch—”
I paused when Retta pinched my leg and shook her head.
“Yeah. Reel her ass in.” Niecy flipped her hair over her shoulder.
I locked my phone and ignored the sound of the door opening and closing while I stared Niecy down.
“Can’t nobody reel me in but I’m going to give you a warning to watch your mothafuckin’ mouth and stop talking to me for the rest of this session before I knock your head into that soundboard,” I warned.
“Ay, what’s going on in here?” Drix asked.
“Niecy wants to know which of the women you’re fucking to be working on their song,” Rome said.
Drix looked from us to her.
“Since when can you check me about who I’m fucking, Niecy?” he asked. “You’re not my bitch. You’ll never be my bitch and you fucking up the brand. Get out.” He nudged his head toward the door.
“What?” She did a quick glance around the room, obviously embarrassed by Drix’s words.
“You know how I feel about repeating myself. Grab your shit and get the fuck out. Fucking with an artist I’m working with is a bad look, and if you bad for business, you can’t be around me and I mean that shit.”
“But—”
Drix shot her a look that made her mouth snap shut. She didn’t say anything else. She climbed to her feet, grabbed her purse, and sauntered out of the room.
Drix didn’t comment on kicking her out, so neither did we. We just went back to working on our verses.
It was crazy to me that she’d let herself be spoken to that way but it didn’t have anything to do with me. I was in the presence of a living legend in the industry and wasn’t about to fuck it up for a woman who had already come at me crazy and would never do the same for me.
When we finished, Drix got us in and out of the booth. Whoever said he refused to put out anything he didn’t deem perfect was on point because the sun had gone down and Merch had left by the time Rome reached over and tapped Drix on the shoulder.