CHAPTER 4
Vertigo walked into the Eighth Avenue building that had been his second home for over a decade. Every time he came to Mandingo Records, he felt a creative spark. Vertigo reflected on all of the late-night studio sessions and wild parties. He thought of how he’d gone from producing gold albums to double-platinum albums there. The walls were covered with framed pictures of the label’s superstars, especially ones of him. There were also several Grammy Awards on display and even an Oscar Vertigo received for the soundtrack he produced for Don Cheadle's movie three years ago.
“Hey, how are you?” The secretary Gina smiled at him. She was a petite sista with a Nia Long pixie cut and deep dimples. Vertigo had always thought her natural beauty made her attractive, and after his night with Shontay’s silicone curves, he appreciated Gina on a new level.
“I’m good. What’s up with you, cutie?”
“Just trying my best to hold down the fort here.”
“Well, you always do.”
“Thanks.” She paused. “They’re waiting for you in the conference room.”
“Yeah, I know; I’m late. What I really want to know is when are me and you gonna kick it, for real?”
Gina smiled and shook her head. “You know I don’t believe in dating co-workers. It’s never pretty if it doesn’t work out.”
“But what if it does work out?”
“You’d better get in that conference room.”
“I know. I’ll catch you later, cutie,” he said while flashing a flirtatious grin. Vertigo then walked down the hallway. A few people greeted him as he passed by their cubicles. He was a very important man at Mandingo Records. Although Big Buck wore the official titles of President and CEO, Vertigo was his number one artist, so he had a lot of pull at the label. Big Buck didn’t make any moves without Vertigo’s blessing.
When Vertigo opened the door to the conference room, he saw Big Buck seated at the head of the mahogany boardroom table. He was a bulky, light-skinned man with a bald head and a thick, black beard. Big Buck was casually dressed in a white Mandingo Records t-shirt, dark blue jeans, butter Timberland boots and a big gold chain. He wore diamond studs in both of his ears and certainly looked the part of a hip hop label president, but Big Buck possessed a business savvy superseding that of any Wall Street executive.
He’d built his multi-million dollar empire from scratch, but unlike many record company founders, Big Buck was not musically inclined. In fact, he got his start in the entertainment industry in the early nineties as a pornstar. Back in those days, Big Buck was muscular, trim and clean-shaven. He was in such high-demand that he booked over a hundred adult videos.
But his career path changed when a film director suggested that Big Buck rap during one of his threesome scenes. Since Big Buck’s rhyming abilities were lackluster, to say the least, the film was so bad, it became a cult classic. Still, Big Buck used the flop as a means to cross over into mainstream pop culture after he was invited to showcase his horrible rhymes in an Ice Cube movie. Although his scene ended up on the cutting room floor, he transformed that gig into a record deal. His album “Perform Under Pressure” bombed in the US, but managed to top the charts in Japan and Australia.
With his small fortune, he launched Mandingo Records. Big Buck branded his label as the home of “hip hop with sex appeal.” Videos of his artists often featured porn stars instead of video vixens. Every time a group or organization petitioned to censor his music, his sales doubled. It got to the point where Big Buck kept family value advocates on his payroll to stage large protests against his artists just for publicity.
Big Buck was the king of transforming a crisis into an opportunity. But these days, the music industry had changed, and those antics were useless. People who used to buy CDs often were now listening to songs online for free. Revenues at Mandingo Records were steadily falling, and he needed something dramatic to save his company.
“How’s my number one artist?” Big Buck stood up to greet Vertigo.
“I’m good.” Vertigo walked over and gave Big Buck a pound. “What’s up? I thought the meeting was at ten?” He glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was a ten-fifty.
“Naw, it’s at eleven. But I know your ass, and I didn’t want you to be late. I’m paying these consultants by the hour, and that shit is expensive.”
Vertigo sat down in the seat closest to Big Buck. “I don’t even understand why you’re doing this. No offense, but I think it’s stupid.”
“I know it’s a big change…” Big Buck sipped his coffee. “But in life, you gotta go big, or go home.”
Vertigo shook his head while placing his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist. “If you’re so sure about it, then I don’t get why you gotta pay these expensive-ass consultants. They just gonna take your money to tell you some shit you already know.”
“I respect professionals. Plus, when you meet Mona and Angelique, I know you’ll like them ‘cause…”
“Two chicks? Seriously? So this is about pussy? Come on man; don’t play Dejah for a fuckin’ consultant? What the hell that look like? If you gonna step out on your wife, it should be with…”
“Somebody like Shontay?” Big Buck grinned. “Naw, man; you know I ain’t about to cheat on Dejah. I done had enough pussy to last me ten millenniums.” He paused. “So what went down last night? I can tell by the way you walked in here that you tore that ass up.”
Vertigo smiled. “Hell yeah nigga! Man, I fucked that bitch three times last night and twice this morning. Shit! That pussy was hella nice, and she can suck a mean dick. And her ass is perfect.” He smacked his hand across the air like he was smacking Shontay’s ass. “I had that bitch screaming. PhDee might have his name tattooed on her ass, but it belongs to me!”
Big Buck chuckled. “Shut the fuck up, man.”
“You know that Shontay has always been my fantasy bitch, and she lived up to the dream,” Vertigo said. He would never tell Big Buck what really happened. The truth was, after Vertigo faked his orgasm with Shontay, he paid for a car service to drive her back to the Saddle River, New Jersey mansion PhDee bought for her. Even though Shontay claimed she had broken up with her long-time boyfriend, Vertigo wouldn’t have been surprised if PhDee was waiting for her between the sheets. Not that he cared. In one night, she had gone from being his dream girl to just another jump off.
“Man, I always knew you were gonna get at Shontay. So when are you gonna see her again? Better yet, when are you gonna break the news to PhDee that you stole his woman?”
“Trust me when I say, it’s gonna be soon.” Lying came quite naturally to Vertigo, especially after he’d told the lie of a lifetime ten years ago about the shooting incident on the basketball court. A big part of Vertigo wanted to be honest, but an even bigger part of him found comfort in distortions and exaggerations. In his opinion, the truth was painful and overrated.
“Well, I think you need to make your next album all about it. You don’t have to use her name, or maybe you can? I don’t know; we can talk to legal about that. But your fans would eat that shit up. I can see triple-platinum in your future…”
The intercom on the phone lit up, and Gina’s voice could be heard from the speaker phone. “Your eleven o’clock appointment has arrived.”
“Send them in,” Big Buck said.
Vertigo yawned. “Shontay wore me out last night. If I fall asleep, I’ll try my best not to snore.”
The conference room door opened, and Big Buck’s personal assistant Renee escorted Mona and Angelique inside. Vertigo grinned at the sight of the attractive Italian woman and the fine sista at her side. He took in Angelique’s natural hair, her pretty, youthful face and her bright brown eyes. Despite the pantsuit she wore, he could make out her voluptuous shape. She was anti-Shontay, in every sense of the word, and far more beautiful. He had no doubt that her B-cup breasts were real.
Vertigo stood up and extended his hand. He looked her up and down and said, “I’m Vertigo; nice
to meet you.”
“I’m Angelique Shaw and this is my partner Mona De Napoli.”
Vertigo shook Mona’s hand warmly and smiled as his mind began to work. The way Angelique said “partner” made Vertigo’s dick tingle. He took in the vision of the slender brunette and couldn’t help but wonder what kind of partners they were. The possibility of ménage à trois with the pair got him intrigued. After the lackluster sex he’d had with Shontay, he was sure that Mona and Angelique could get him back on the right track.
But before Vertigo could make his move, Big Buck cock-blocked by stepping in front of him. “It’s so good to see both of you,” he said, shaking their hands. “Why don’t we get started?”
“No problem,” Angelique said as she turned around and set up her laptop at the other end of the boardroom table and connected it to the projector. The large screen behind her glowed with the first slide of a PowerPoint presentation.
Whatever focus Vertigo had was directed to Angelique’s plump ass and round hips. He liked what he saw, but he smiled a little inside at the sight of her panty lines. He was shocked to see such a sexy woman wearing bloomers. Granny panties neared the top of his list of turn-offs, but there was something about Angelique that intrigued Vertigo nonetheless. Besides, what was underneath the drawers mattered most to him. And if Angelique was the kind of chick who wore bloomers, it meant one of two things; either Angelique was single and hadn’t had a man in ages, or she had a man who hadn’t fucked her in ages.
Vertigo couldn’t help but contemplate how Angelique’s pussy would feel wrapped around his dick. He was sure it would be tight...maybe even virgin tight. It was easy for him to smash a different girl every night of the week, but a good girl like Angelique would be a completely new experience.
“We ran the numbers on Mandingo Records, and you don’t need us to tell you that sales have been down for the last two years, and this past quarter has been especially rough,” Mona said as Angelique showed a screen with a graph displaying their plunging sales with a big red arrow pointing downward. “But this trend isn’t exclusive to Mandingo Records. Many of your competitors are experiencing the same problem and…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. So did you come up with a way to make my idea work?”
“Well, what you’re proposing takes your company in an entirely new direction.” Angelique looked up and over her laptop screen.
“Are y’all politicians? Why is it so hard for you to answer yes or no? Y’all are startin’ to get on my nerves; this is a waste of time. Can you help me or not? I want to Disneyfy my shit. Let me take that back; I’m tryin’ to take my company from NC-17 to PG-13. Can you make that happen?”
“Yes, but it is a high risk, high reward strategy, sir,” Angelique said, refusing to call him Big Buck. “But if you’re willing to make bold changes in your organization, it’s feasible.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” Big Buck smiled. “I see where the industry is headed. I mean, look at Ice Cube. He went from NWA to Are We There Yet? And LL, Mr. Big Ole Butt is doin’ NCIS and shit like that. Queen Latifah got a talk show. Hell, hip hop is family-friendly now. A couple years back, I noticed we sold more albums in the ‘burbs than in the ‘hood. I wanna rebrand Mandingo Records, and I wanna produce more than just music. I’m talking movies, TV shows and new media shit like Netflix. I want stuff the whole family can enjoy…”
“Hold up a minute,” Vertigo cut in. “Y’all said we gotta make changes. What kind of changes?”
Mona took a deep breath. “Well, for starters, the name…”
“I always thought Mandingo was positive,” Big Buck explained. “A Mandingo is an African warrior.”
“But when most people think of Mandingo, they think of…”
“A nigga with a big dick,” Vertigo cut in.
Big Buck smiled. “I don’t know what could be more family friendly than that.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Mona questioned.
“A few minutes ago, you said we were wasting your time. Now, I think you’re wasting our time.” Angelique closed her laptop.
“My bad,” Big Buck said. “I’m here to listen. Seriously. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m sure this move is gonna make me some more green. But the other reason why I wanna do this is because now that I have kids, I wanna be a better example for them.”
“We respect that, sir,” Angelique said. “But this isn’t going to be an easy change.”
“So did y’all come up with a new name?”
Mona nodded. “We’d be happy to share it with you after you sign our engagement letter.” She handed the proposal to Big Buck.
He paged through it and hurried to the last page. His eyes got wide. “3.5 million! Damn!”
“Think of it as an investment.”
“This is some bullshit!” Vertigo stood up and looked at Big Buck in disbelief. “Look man, I’m out. If you wanna waste your money, that’s on you.” He walked toward the door.
“Three-point-five million might seem like a significant sum, but based on our analysis, your business won’t survive much longer,” Angelique said. “You can continue on your current path or make this investment with us to revive your company and be on the road to record profits.”
Vertigo turned around. He had to admit that he was impressed with Angelique’s business acumen, and he was aroused at the same time. He smiled and said, “You really ran all the numbers?”
“We did.” Angelique grinned.
“You sound like a bookie to me, and 3.5 mil is a big fuckin’ gamble.”
“But it’s an even bigger gamble if you don’t take this risk.”
“I need some more time to think about this,” Big Buck said.
“The longer we wait, the harder it will be for us to implement our plan of action,” Mona said.
Big Buck took a deep breath and picked up his pen. “Damn, I’m probably gonna regret this, but fuck it…” He signed the engagement letter.
“You’re making the right decision,” Mona said.
Vertigo’s phone rang. He took the iPhone out of his pocket and saw his mother’s name light up the screen. “My bad, but I need to take this,” he said as he stepped out into the hallway.
“I sho miss my baby-baby boy…my su-superstar. When you gonna...gonna come and visit?” His mother Keisha slurred her words. It wasn’t even noon yet, and Vertigo could tell that she was already drunk.
“What do you want, Keisha?” he demanded. He’d always called his mother by her first name. In his eyes, she never earned the title of “Mom.” Some of his earliest memories were of seeing Keisha slumped over in an easy chair surrounded by empty 40 ounce bottles of High Life. He could still recall the stench of malt liquor on her breath and the smell of her urine when she was too lazy and inebriated to go to the bathroom. As the oldest of Keisha’s children, Vertigo was forced into the role of caregiver, washing up her filthy body.
“Baby boy, ConEd fend ta cut da lights off. I cussed that man out on the phone…told him he can’t be cuttin’ my lights off. I asked him if he knew who he was dealin’ with. I told him, straight up, that you was my son, but he didn’t care nothin’ ‘bout that.” She paused. “I need... I need thirteen hundred dollars by five o’clock or else... I know I can count on my...on my baby boy, right?”
“What happened to the five grand I gave you last week?”
“Oh...oh…Tatianna needed that for something. You … you know how your sister is. She…she asked me, and… Look, I know I shouldn’t be asking you at the last-last minute but …”
“I’ll have my accountant take care of it.”
“Thank you baby boy; you da best. I know you always gonna take care of your mama…” As Keisha rattled on, Vertigo noticed Angelique and Mona exiting the conference room. Seeing them, especially Angelique, was a welcome distraction from his mother’s drama. He flashed his most debonair smile and waved at them.
They waved bac
k. He watched Angelique’s backside as she walked away. I’m gonna have to take her sexy ass on a Victoria’s Secret shopping spree, he thought.
“Did you-you hear me, baby boy?” Keisha asked.
“Yeah, I told you my accountant would take care of the ConEd.”
“And I appreciate that; I really do, but-but, I need some money for groceries too. I swear, Tatianna’s kids are gonna eat me out of house and home. They some greedy little bastards.”
“Okay, Keisha, I’ll have him take care of that too. I gotta go,” Vertigo said, anxious to get off the phone with her.
“I love you, baby boy.”
“Bye, Keisha.” He hung up and took a deep breath. Vertigo was disgusted by his mother’s lies. Despite the five-thousand dollar a week allowance he gave Keisha and the fact that he paid the mortgage on her house, she was always calling him with stories of delinquent bills. He knew that she’d probably spent the money he’d given her last week on drugs and alcohol and only God knew what else.
Fuck if I care, Vertigo thought as he pressed the elevator button. He needed a release. While people like his mother turned to drugs and alcohol, Vertigo got high off of making music. He got exited on the sixth floor and hurried toward the studio. It was a place where he could stay for hours, a peaceful place where the beat was all that mattered and his painful past faded as he grabbed the microphone and spoke lyrics from his soul.