The chorus of Old Town Road is incredibly catchy, featuring a unique Country Trap style.
This was the first male solo track produced by the inspiration refresh in months.
Although it wasn't the rock music Leon excelled at most, it didn't matter anymore.
Rock music was generally considered to have a certain ceiling in the current music market.
With the success of Senorita, Leon had already proven to the market that he was capable of handling other musical styles.
Moreover, rock music and country music have certain commonalities.
The works of the immortal Beatles and the Eagles blurred the boundaries between rock and country significantly.
Three days later, accompanied by Phil, Leon flew to Portland, the North American headquarters of Adidas.
On the same day, the record Bang Bang was released and logged onto streaming platforms simultaneously.
Sales data hadn't come out yet, but the heat on the internet showed a dominant performance.
The combination of award harvester Beyoncé and sales queen Taylor Swift achieved the expected effect.
Especially after the mic-snatching incident, no one expected the two Divas at the center of the topic to collaborate.
Plus, with the recently unparalleled "Street Jesus" as the producer, regardless of the quality of this work, it had already won in terms of topicality.
"These fools..." On the plane, Phil fiddled with his phone. "Leon, look at this!"
As Cardi B's manager, the explosion of Bang Bang brought him tangible benefits.
Cardi's status was elevated with this collaboration, and her value rose with the tide.
Phil almost dreamed back to his heyday at the beginning of the millennium.
Leon stared at the other party's phone; the page stayed on a newly breaking news story.
A shooting occurred at the entrance of a record store in Los Angeles.
The suspect was a white teenager, or perhaps should be called a teenage girl.
Because he was a "woke" person.
His motive for the crime was very bizarre; after queuing for two hours, he still failed to snatch a vinyl copy of Bang Bang.
As a triple die-hard fan of Beyoncé, Taylor, and Leon, this fan's mentality collapsed.
He shot and wounded a person on the street, snatching the vinyl record from the other party's hand...
Just for a record.
Leon's first reaction to this was: The brain circuits of woke people might be even stranger than the young nggas.
This news made it onto TV news, adding fuel to the sales heat of Bang Bang.
Even those who didn't care about music were curious about what kind of magical record this was.
"Very good..." Leon suddenly thought of something and asked, "Don't you know a group of professional paid trolls?"
"You mean Terrance?" Phil scratched his head.
Terrance was a famous troll leader in Brooklyn, a grandmaster-level figure in this industry.
He was a parasite living off the entertainment industry, specializing in flipping paid trolls and scalping concert tickets.
When Leon's first record Take Me to Church held a signing session in Brownsville, the paid trolls T-ray hired were Terrance's people.
"I don't remember his name very well, give him a call."
"Why?" Phil was even more puzzled. "Our records are in short supply; do we still need to hire paid trolls?"
"Of course." Leon revealed a mysterious smile. "I'm not asking this group to queue up to build momentum... let them create more incidents of physical conflicts due to snatching records; this is very good for the heat on the internet."
"Your ideas are always unexpected..."
After 2010, the landscape of the music industry underwent fundamental changes.
In the past, the public measured whether a singer was hot based on radio request data and solid record sales.
Look at whose works were played more frequently in barber shops, nightclubs, and fast-food restaurants, and it was clear at a glance who was hotter.
But now is the era of the Internet; smartphones allow people to surf the web anytime, anywhere.
Online search indices and playback indices are the standards for measuring a singer's heat.
Although this view has not yet reached a consensus within the industry, Leon thinks so.
Due to the extremely fast spread of the Internet, authenticity is difficult to guarantee.
In this case, hype must be pervasive and use every means possible.
If there is no conflict, create conflict; if there is no hot spot, create a hot spot!
Adidas Headquarters Building, Kanye and his manager had arrived one step ahead in the conference room.
Kanye changed his previous dazed expression, looking calm and confident.
Compared to street life experience, he was far inferior to Leon, but when it came to the design industry, he was full of confidence.
Even more confident than in music.
Whether it was sports brands like Adidas and Nike, or luxury goods like LV and Chanel.
Their market-tested designs were all scolded by Kanye on social media.
He genuinely believed he was a genius designer, and whatever product he launched would sell out.
Even if it was a fleshlight, he was way ahead of those professional manufacturers.
"Kanye~"
Kanye was staring at his phone screen with relish, completely unaware of Leon and his group.
Until his name was called did he react.
He immediately got up and greeted enthusiastically, "Leon Bro! How have you been recently?"
"As you can see, I'm still alive." Leon quipped.
Kanye clutched his stomach and laughed, taking more than ten seconds to recover. "I told Diddy that it couldn't be you. You've always been misunderstood."
"Bro, what else can I say?" Leon patted Kanye's shoulder. "As long as you understand."
"Shxt... that group of punks from O-Block will pay for their actions; Diddy won't let them go."
The mutual appreciation between the two confused even Adidas Vice President Torben, who was presiding over the meeting.
Are these two really here to compete for an endorsement contract?
Until Leon and Kanye both took their seats, their discussion still didn't stop.
Only then did Leon notice that T-ray's podcast program Above Ground Rap was playing on the other party's phone.
In the program, T-ray was bragging heavily about the work Bang Bang.
"Beyoncé, Taylor, Cardi B... Bro, as long as you are a normal American male youth, one of the three must be your type..."
"You must have done something to their posters or MVs..."
"And now you only need to spend the money for one record to have all three of them at the same time! Think about how cool this will be!"
"Don't hesitate, if you don't want to queue at the record store, you can move your fingers on streaming media now... your good homies have already rushed in, what are you still hesitating for?"
T-ray's eloquence was as good as ever; even advertising could accurately cut into the audience's psychology.
"Gentlemen, thank you for coming to Adidas out of your busy schedules; we feel very honored." Torben quickly brought the topic back on track. "Both are equally talented musicians, making it difficult for us to make a choice."
"So, just like we said two months ago, the final decision will be based on your design works."
Leon and Kanye's laughter stopped abruptly.
The atmosphere became somewhat serious.
However, Kanye still looked relaxed; he didn't think Leon could come up with any decent sneaker design.
He even felt a bit guilty towards Leon, whispering in his ear: "Sorry Bro..."
He firmly believed he was going to win.
"It's okay, I'll be happy for you." Leon said. "In fact, I'm here to congratulate you today."
A heartfelt speech put a light in Kanye's eyes.
He nodded to Leon in greeting, signaling his manager with his phone to hand over a white shoe box.
The trademark "Yeezy" was engraved on the box.
Leon couldn't help but crane his neck to look; he was also very curious about what kind of work the other party could produce after his thoughts were hijacked by him.
Torben opened the shoe box, which contained a pair of pure white sneakers.
After being stunned for two seconds, his face instantly darkened. "Mr. West, the design sense of your shoe is very good, indeed looks extremely street style... but..."
"This shoe looks a bit familiar."
Leon breathed a sigh of relief, unable to hide the smile on his face.
This clumsy sneaker was exactly the same as the Air Yeezy Kanye designed for Nike.
Could it not look familiar?
Facing doubt, Kanye remained calm throughout. "Look again, if you are not an idiot, you should be able to see the difference."
Hearing this, Torben and a group of executives gathered around the shoe to study it.
Soon they discovered the differences.
Compared to Air Yeezy, this shoe used Adidas's unique Boost sole technology, making it look much less clumsy.
The strap was completely removed, turned entirely into laces.
"This is an excellent application of Boost technology."
"Avant-garde style..."
"Compared to Air Yeezy, there is indeed a big breakthrough."
Watching the Adidas executives praising repeatedly, Leon almost couldn't hold back.
Changing straps to laces is called a major breakthrough?
Kanye also spread his hands to Leon, looking innocent.
That expression seemed to say: Bro, can't help it, I'm just this excellent.
"We are very satisfied with Mr. West's design." Torben put the shoe box aside. "At the same time, it makes us look forward even more to what kind of work Mr. Leon will produce..."
As soon as the words fell, Leon signaled Phil to bring a paper box over.
There were no markings on the crude white shoe box.
Even so, it still shocked Kanye; this script seemed a bit wrong.
Someone prepared to give up still spent time and effort preparing a pair of samples?
This pair of sample shoes was exquisitely shaped and complex in workmanship.
What puzzled Kanye even more was that it looked déjà vu.
Possessing the design patent, Leon contacted a shoe factory in China through the Wicked Angel foundry manufacturer.
In a magical city called Putian, a shoe could be perfectly restored with just a picture.
Looking at the crudely made pure white shoe box, Torben's expression was a bit disdainful at first.
But the moment he opened the shoe box, he was completely speechless.
The design of this shoe was extremely recognizable.
The shoe body used unique weaving technology, presenting a unique texture, making the whole shoe look both fashionable and technological.
This was a design never seen on the market, distinguishable from Nike's AJ series products at a glance.
The key point was that the Boost sole technology Adidas valued most was completely integrated with the design of the entire shoe.
Competitor Kanye was dumbfounded.
He was extremely conceited about his talent in design.
The works of those famous designers were all trash in his eyes; he only recognized his own designs.
And the sample Leon produced left him unable to pick out any faults.
Kanye even felt that if he were the brand representative, he would hand the endorsement contract to Leon without hesitation.
"Woven upper... bold design." Marketing Director Thomas praised. "Few people have thought of applying it to a sneaker."
After gasps of admiration, Torben recovered first. "Is this a bit too bold?"
Nike defined the standard of a perfect sneaker with the AJ series.
Since then, no matter what competing products other brands launched, they were all in the shadow of the AJ series.
Their products were just clumsy imitations of the AJ series.
The only reason for doing this was: only by imitating Nike could they barely survive.
And the sneakers designed by Leon had nothing to do with the AJ series, and were even different from any similar products on the market.
This was a very bold approach.
"Bold?" Leon said. "Are you willing to follow behind Nike as imitators? Don't be silly, man. For Gen Z, individuality is superior to practicality."
"Individuality is the first demand."
Adidas executives nodded repeatedly.
Even if Leon didn't respond, the answer was obvious.
Kanye's design was just an upgraded version of Air Yeezy 1.
And that shoe had already failed once.
And Leon's fan base was those rebellious young people.
They hated all traditions.
Wearing revealing clothes on the street, shaking their asses and raising middle fingers at country rednecks.
Wishing to destroy all old things.
Even if only this fan base was willing to pay for this sneaker, this endorsement contract would definitely not be a loss.
Five minutes later, Adidas management made the final decision.
Torben stood up, shaking hands with the loser Kanye first.
Then he said to Leon: "Congratulations Mr. Leon, this is the beginning of our great cooperation."
"What?" Leon scratched his head pretending to be confused, glancing at Kanye.
"Bro, you deserve this." Kanye looked sincere. "You are the first designer who can move me; it seems I still have things to learn."
These were his heartfelt words.
The moment he saw Leon's work, his mind was filled with only one thought—I'm jealous of him, why wasn't I the one who designed this sneaker?
"This is my honor, Mr. Torben." Leon shook the other party's hand, then shook hands with a group of executives in turn.
Torben's assistant took out the contract prepared long ago.
The contract content was the same as previously agreed; Adidas would pay Leon an endorsement fee of 3 million dollars a year.
The term was three years.
The endorsement fee was paid in one lump sum, and the clauses regulated a series of breach behaviors.
The most important one was that during the contract period, Leon could not endorse any clothing or footwear products of other sports brands.
Otherwise, it would be regarded as a breach of contract with double compensation for the endorsement fee.
In addition, he would also receive a 10% share of the sales profit of this series of sneakers.
"If you have no objection to the contract content, we will officially sign in three days." Torben said.
"I have no objection."
"This is a great start."
"Happy cooperation."
Both sides reached a cooperation right in front of Kanye, and his face instantly became extremely ugly.
"By the way, Mr. Leon, do you have any ideas about the name of this new series of brand sneakers?" Torben said. "I mean, if there is no name for the time being, our marketing department can provide help."
"Of course." Leon had long thought of the name for this new series of sneakers. "Leezy."
"Leezy?"
"Yes, Leezy (Chestnut Shoe)." Leon said. "You can hear my personal label immediately."
"Good..." Adidas executives felt this name was a bit too close to Yeezy at first.
But after careful consideration, they felt it was very suitable.
Only Kanye, after hearing the name "Leezy," had his head full of bold capitalized question marks.
"WTF..." He stared at Leon, falling into endless confusion.
At this moment, his eyes were glazed and lost.
Even more lost than the scene where he stumbled upon Kardashian performing magic tricks for Leon at the crazy party.