The shy performance of the two younger sisters left Kardashian quite disappointed.
Although they were young, being born into a family that had hype in its blood, they had been immersed in the limelight since childhood.
They had long shown a maturity inconsistent with their age.
According to gossip media revelations, although young, both had already dated multiple black boyfriends.
This family was always on the front line of "loving black men."
However, this maturity vanished completely in front of Leon.
Street Jesus' powerful aura and notorious past brought them back to their true girlish state.
"No problem." Leon agreed to the two girls' request without thinking much.
Kardashian joked half-heartedly, "Maybe Mr. Leon will sign you two... he likes smart girls."
"Nothing is impossible," Leon said. "It would be my honor if I could sign these two excellent sisters."
Kardashian and her sisters' eyes lit up upon hearing this.
They didn't know if this sentence was true or false.
In fact, Leon was indeed a little tempted.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians was the hottest TV reality show at the moment, with an average weekly viewership of up to 3.5 million.
The success of this show allowed the Kardashian family to rake in 65 million dollars last year.
Relying on the fame of the Kardashian family, the waves these two little girls would stir up in the entertainment industry in the future might be even bigger than their sister Kim Kardashian.
However, judging from the current situation, the resources of the Kardashian family were exclusively enjoyed internally.
The mother of the three sisters, Kris Jenner, was the manager for all the girls in the family.
An existence like the Empress Dowager.
"Look at you, so popular with girls wherever you go." Mars watched Kardashian's receding figure, swallowing saliva at that exaggerated butt.
"We're just ordinary friends," Leon said.
"Come on~ We all know what happened between you and Kardashian... that btch's skills are recognized by people all over the world." Mars rolled his eyes.
Leon just smiled at this and didn't explain much.
Half an hour later, the venue was packed.
Sitting in the first row were the superstars and executives of the top labels of the three major record groups.
After experiencing the capital chaos of the 80s and 90s, the record industry had formed a pattern of three dominating powers.
Universal, Sony, and Warner swallowed other record companies with their strong capital, leading to the current market where the relationship between record companies is like matryoshka dolls.
One ring linking another.
For example, Kanye West's GOOD Music label is a sub-brand of Def Jam.
And Def Jam is a sub-brand of Universal Music.
Except for capital being controlled by the parent company, the company basically operates independently at other times.
In addition, there is another business model similar to affiliation.
The label is affiliated with a record giant, paying a certain proportion of management fees annually in exchange for the other party's promotional resources.
There is no actual capital control relationship between the two parties.
In any case, it is difficult for the current record industry to develop independently from the three giants.
Even the fast-growing streaming music platform Spotify has the three giants as its backers.
Beyoncé and JAY-Z sat in the first row, chatting enthusiastically with Def Jam executives.
P. Diddy's seat wasn't far from them, and young rappers kept coming up to talk to him.
Provocative glances were cast at Leon intentionally or unintentionally.
"Look at the way these guys look at you, like they want to eat you." Mars chattered incessantly. "Man, why didn't you just hire two professional hitmen to take out Diddy back then?"
His eyes were full of disdain, as if saying: Even my grandma shoots better than those two nggas from South Side Chicago.
These words surprised Leon a bit. "Do you have beef with Diddy?"
Although Mars wasn't Diddy's underling, the benefactors on his road to fame were more or less related to Diddy.
Sean Kingston, Wiz Khalifa, Flo Rida...
They had all received favors from Diddy.
"Beef?" Mars shook his head. "Bro, I'm an easygoing person, no one has beef with me."
"Oh... sounds like you have a lot of opinions about Diddy." While chatting casually, Leon asked a waiter in the venue for a glass of champagne.
"Bro, do you think I'm black?"
The unexpected question stunned Leon for a moment. He took a sip of champagne and looked Mars up and down.
Curly hair, dark skin—he didn't lack these elements.
But his head looked a bit big, lips not thick enough, and skin didn't reach the noble black gold quality.
"To be honest, man, you look a bit lacking," Leon said truthfully.
"Fxxk! Look, even you say that!" Mars's face turned purple. "Diddy's gang always mocks me for not being a pure black person!"
"Black people also have ranks?" Leon shook his glass, showing a rather interested expression.
"Of course!" Mars solemnly explained the chain of contempt among black people.
In American society, standing at the top of society are native black people, descendants of beneficiaries of the abolitionist movement.
They pride themselves as the old American stars and stripes.
The second tier are black people who drifted across the ocean from Africa to seek the American dream around World War II.
At the bottom of the contempt chain are mixed-race people like Mars.
And a weird mix of Jewish and Puerto Rican at that.
"Wow... interesting." Leon exclaimed while listening to the explanation.
This fit perfectly with his stereotype of the extreme double standards of this skin color.
They shouted against racial discrimination while fairly discriminating against all other new immigrants.
During their chat, the award ceremony officially began.
Rihanna, Eminem, and Lady Gaga led with 18, 16, and 12 nominations respectively.
The opening performance was the hit single Bad Romance by Lady Gaga.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
A series of strange vocals mixed with synthesized audio.
Lady Gaga, with silver hair, stepped onto the stage in 18-centimeter high heels and her signature weird costume.
The diamonds and sequins on her body dazzled under the spotlight with her movements.
Her unique music completely merged with her persona.
"I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free."
"I want your love, love-love-love, I want your love~"
"I want your love and I want your revenge~"
"You and me could write a bad romance~"
The rhythmic drumbeats made the guests in the audience clap along.
In a relatively back position, Cardi B was already dancing high to the melody.
"I like this girl," Leon praised.
"Is she your type too?" Mars widened his eyes. "Bro, I thought you only liked those with curves and long legs."
"It's not like that," Ariana protested, pouting on the side.
The "like" Leon mentioned was from the perspective of a record company boss.
Lady Gaga had top-notch creative ability and worked hard in commercial performances.
Together with Kesha and Rihanna, they pushed the genre of electronic dance music to new heights.
She was like a tireless money-printing machine; no record company would dislike such an artist.
Compared to Apocalypse Music, Robbie's creative ability was zero, and under the shroud of emotional haze, her future was unclear.
Cardi B had only released one EP.
The only one to look forward to was Ariana; whether she could hand in a satisfactory answer sheet would have to wait until her debut album was released.
What made Leon jealous was that Lady Gaga signed with Interscope Records, and the head of the artist management department was that old woman Gray whom he had conflicts with.
It is reported that Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons, was ruthlessly abandoned by Gray after being stripped of his inspiration.
Now he could only maintain his life by performing in bars.
Soon, the first heavyweight award was announced.
Justin Bieber defeated a group of competitors including Kesha, Mars, and Nicki Minaj.
Winning the Best New Artist Award.
Bieber got up and trotted all the way.
First, instead of going to the main stage, he came to P. Diddy and hugged him affectionately.
Sitting in the back row, Leon could clearly see Diddy's rough black hand pinching Bieber's butt.
"Disgusting," Leon spat lightly.
"Shxt, this kid's music is a pile of Bullshxt!" Mars cursed. "Baby~ baby~ baby~ even if he had one day of serious education, he wouldn't write such lyrics!"
At last year's American Music Awards, Bieber becoming the biggest winner made Leon scoff.
Cursing the shamelessness of the judging panel and Diddy's black-box operations.
But the Billboard Awards data was rigorously calculated and supervised.
This left Leon speechless.
This kind of bubblegum song coaxing little girls exploded globally and gained market recognition.
For a long time afterwards, it was watching Eminem and Bieber take turns going on stage to receive awards.
"Next is the Top Radio Song..."
Leon and Ariana sat up straight at the same time.
Mars also shook; his work was also selected for this award.
Radio data is an important indicator for the annual Grammy Awards selection. Whoever can win this award usually represents the popularity of the work.
The shortlist was as fierce as a superhero brawl.
Bruno Mars's Just the Way You Are, Rihanna and Eminem's Love the Way You Lie, Usher and Pitbull's DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love...
Plus Ariana and Robbie's works.
The ownership of the award was confusing.
Ariana held Leon's arm tightly, palms full of sweat from nervousness.
"The winner is... Margot Robbie—Faded!"
"Wow..." Ariana first showed a disappointed expression, but quickly returned to normal, standing up and applauding.
Almost no one expected that a Hollywood actor who switched careers halfway would defeat a group of big shots in the music award selection.
But Leon was not surprised by this.
The popularity of Faded was comparable to Kesha's TiK ToK back then.
The melody of this song could be heard in almost any corner of the world.
Robbie walked through the aisle in a white dress, pausing when passing by Leon.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
Leon smiled freely, but Robbie was a bit forced.
"Congratulations Robbie~ You did it, your mom will be proud of you~"
"Thank you..." Facing this compliment like a stranger, Robbie didn't know what to say.
"Fxxk, this kid's eye for discovering newcomers is really sharp..." Leonard, sitting in the first row, stared at Robbie, eyes almost spitting fire.
A label signed only three artists.
Their works all entered the Billboard TOP 10, with Robbie and Ariana launching global hits.
This was something many large record companies couldn't do.
Robbie stood in the center of the stage, spotlights hitting her.
She first thanked her parents, company, manager in a conventional way...
Then emphasized thanking Taylor Swift.
At the end of the speech, she finally mentioned Leon's name amidst great expectations.
"I want to thank Leon. The things he taught me were heavy." Robbie weighed the trophy in her hand. "Heavier than this trophy."
Warm applause rang out at the scene.
Entertainment reporters took photos while speculating on this confusing speech.
Did they break up or not?
"You can still smile~" Taylor walked to Leon's side.
She was preparing to go backstage to prepare for the next performance.
"Why not? She looks great." Leon maintained his smile.
"You heartless guy~ Dating you is simply a disaster for any girl." Taylor glanced at Ariana intentionally while speaking.
After Taylor performed Love Story, Leon held his breath.
His moment was coming.
The competition for the Top Radio Artist award was fierce.
Rihanna, Usher, Mars, and Katy Perry were all nominated for this award.
Currently, Leon's biggest competitor was Rihanna.
This new era Diva had just switched to JAY-Z's Roc Nation at the end of last year, and could be considered a fellow disciple with Leon now.
JAY-Z frantically bought data for Rihanna on major radio stations across the US.
At the critical moment of Leon's contract renewal, the ownership of the award was extremely important to JAY-Z.
He sat in the first row, excitedly rubbing his wife Beyoncé's thigh.
He wanted to use this opportunity to tell Leon: Without me, you get nothing!
"The winner of the Top Radio Artist of the Year is..."
"Leon Smith!"
Wu...
For a moment, cheers and boos merged into one.
Mixed with harsh cursing.
JAY-Z looked dull, unable to figure out where his millions of dollars in radio PR fees went.
This was a victory of traffic over money.
Since the start of the Second East Coast vs. West Coast Gang War, every music radio station used Leon's bragging stories as the best way to attract listeners.
This was an effect money couldn't achieve.
"Congratulations Bro." Mars got up and hugged him.
He admitted defeat this time.
Leon hugged Ariana, Taylor, and Robbie one by one to pay respects.
Then he leisurely came to the front row and hugged Beyoncé in front of JAY-Z.
"I don't know what to say~"
"Enjoy your moment~"
The intimacy between the two far exceeded the scope of ordinary friends.
JAY-Z stared with blank eyes, so angry he didn't say a word.
In the center of the stage, Leon didn't need an expensive haute couture suit, just wearing a white Adidas tracksuit.
Even so, his aura was fully activated, looking like a new king ascending the throne.
"Thank you everyone." Leon took the trophy, and his first sentence stunned the whole venue.
When did this kid start having manners?
"There are too many people to thank, I don't know where to start..."
"I want to emphasize thanking one person first, Mr. Sean Combs."
The guests didn't realize who Leon was talking about at first, only whispering after ten seconds.
Discussion drowned the venue.
P. Diddy gritted his back teeth, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
Sean Combs was his real name.
He had personally stated many times that except for his mother and JAY-Z, no one could call him by his real name!
Entertainment reporters instantly went crazy, scrambling around the stage for the best shooting position.
"I have to thank Sean. Without him, radio and the internet wouldn't report news about me endlessly..."
"Half of this trophy belongs to him." Saying that, Leon kissed the trophy.
"Sean." Leon looked at P. Diddy. "Promise me, don't stop... let our wonderful story continue."
This speech full of provocation heated up the atmosphere at the scene.
"I don't understand what he means."
"Does this white trash really want to eat bullets?"
Beside Diddy, Pitbull and Lil Wayne couldn't help cursing out loud.
But the main character Diddy remained silent throughout.
Leon once again chose the gameplay with the biggest traffic under the attention of the whole world.