At 9 AM the next morning, Leon led the team to the Criminal Court of Cook County, Illinois.
There were no surprises during the first hearing. King Von's act of shooting back was temporarily characterized as self-defense, with a bail of $50,000.
He will attend an investigation hearing led by the prosecution in November. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be announced that all charges are dropped.
Hearing the result announced, Leon finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the episode of the trip to Chicago would not affect King Von's performance on the night of the The Rap of America finals in October.
"Boss, you didn't need to get me out so quickly!"
"I love this place; going to jail is like going home."
"I even saw my aunt's little cousin Tommy in there. I thought that kid would be the first college student in the whole family."
On the court aisle, facing Von's chatter, Leon slowed down and said solemnly: "Save these words for outside. There are damn cameras everywhere outside the court. This is an excellent opportunity for you to perform."
"Perform what?" King Von looked confused.
"You bravely shot back facing more than a dozen GD gang members. You are a hero of Chicago, understand what I mean?"
"I understand..." King Von pouted his thick lips and nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.
Unsurprisingly, the stone steps at the entrance of the court were already crowded with reporters. Where there is Leon, there is heat. For more than a year, nearly half of the shooting violence incidents in the entertainment industry can be related to his name.
"Mr. Leon, talk about your views on this shooting. Do you see this as a premeditated attack?"
"JAY-Z and Will Smith posted sharply worded attacks on social platforms. Do you plan to respond to them?"
"There are rumors that this group of GD members is related to Duane. Do you think so too?"
Facing the questions from the media, Leon chose to ignore them all, covered his head with the hood of his black hoodie, and revealed a mysterious smile to the camera.
Being surrounded in the jungle of lenses, looking exactly like the famous historical photo of "Al Capone walking out of court."
He left the stage to King Von. Standing in front of the camera, the young ngga immediately activated his acting talent, proficiently switching between dirty words and slang combinations to spray trash talk wildly.
Those seemingly sharp and tricky questions from reporters were not trouble at all in his ears.
"GD is just a bunch of soft eggs! They only do things like extorting students at the gate of public schools!"
"They know where to find me; I'm right in O-Block."
"JAY-Z? He is outdated. Do you believe he can't even find where the safety of a Glock is now?"
King Von got more and more high as he sprayed, accidentally crossing the line to talk about sensitive topics. "You tabloid news always rumor that there is a deep relationship between Beyoncé and my boss Leon. I would rather believe this is true. That soft egg JAY-Z doesn't deserve a perfect woman like Beyoncé at all!"
Seeing his firepower getting fiercer and fiercer, the promotional purpose had been achieved.
Leon coughed twice quickly, signaling Jorge to drag his arm into the commercial van.
Under the pursuit of reporters' long guns and short cannons, they drove away, heading straight to O'Hare International Airport.
"You did a good job." On the plane, Leon asked the stewardess for a few glasses of champagne and handed one to Von. "Taking advantage of this wave of heat, you will soar next month, ngga."
Beef is the primary productive force in the rap circle. The heat caused by a random scolding war between two rappers is equivalent to millions of dollars in promotional fees.
It is a basic operation to heat up the beef first and then release new works.
Regardless of whether this group of GD gang members has anything to do with JAY-Z, he has decided to burn the fire on the other party.
Before getting on the plane, he asked Bonnie to send a tweet, covering firepower indiscriminately, tagging JAY-Z, Lil Wayne, Will Smith, and everyone who had a grudge against him.
The content of the tweet was only a short sentence: "I'm coming for you..."
Without a single dirty word, it was full of threatening meaning, triggering a large number of retweets and interpretations on social networks.
After the plane landed at JFK International Airport, Leon went straight to Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
According to the deadline given verbally by Leon, the renovation of the Apocalypse Music office building has been completed. Last night, the designer even took the initiative to call and invite him to inspect and accept on site.
Compared with more than a month ago, after a large amount of construction waste was cleared, this place was obviously refreshed.
Every office has large floor-to-ceiling windows to ensure transparency, allowing a glance at the cityscape of Brooklyn Commercial Street downstairs.
The decoration of the three conference rooms is ingenious, some themed on classic vinyl records, some adopting design elements of sound waves and musical notes.
In the center of the largest conference room is an eight-meter-long oval conference table. Hanging high on the wall is the new logo of Apocalypse Music—a golden lion head wearing a crown with a cross as the background.
"This place is simply wonderful~" Elsa lay on the leather sofa in the finance office, dense tattoos carved on the deep trench on her chest dazzling the eyes. "I want to take a photo and send it to my mom; she will definitely think I work in a Wall Street investment bank."
"Look at your desk, Elsa. At least two men can be hidden underneath." Phil couldn't hold back and started dirty talk. "Don't bring those weird Mexican men here; your beautiful office is not a place for orgies."
Elsa rolled her eyes, too lazy to pay attention to this shameless person who stared at the bottom of her skirt all day.
Under the guidance of the designer, Leon came to his office. The three letters "CEO" were engraved in gold on the doorplate.
This is the best lighting position in the entire building, with two transparent floor-to-ceiling windows forming an angle.
The entire office is over 2,000 square feet. Even raising a jaguar like JAY-Z would be no problem.
On the background wall hanging the golden lion logo, the designer thoughtfully left a small door.
Inside there is not only a big bed, but the bathroom is even equipped with a large triangular bathtub.
The designer said proudly: "We have considered everything for you. This lounge is very hidden, equipped with a combination lock. No one can enter there except you..."
"You are indeed very thoughtful."
Leon revealed a meaningful smile, a series of beautiful pictures popping up in his mind.
Walking into the lounge on an afternoon after a meeting, under the hot sun of Brooklyn, soaking in the bathtub with Taylor or Ariana in his arms.
Tasting red wine while peeking at the traffic downstairs.
Withdrawing from the fantasy, Leon came to the recording studio area, which is the real core of a record company.
Each recording studio is about 1,000 square feet. Because equipment has not been purchased yet, the room looks slightly empty.
According to his requirements, the decoration company did top-level soundproofing during decoration, using cotton-sandwiched soundproof walls and floating floors to ensure internal and external noise isolation.
"Columbia Records' recording studios are just so-so." Phil stroked the wall as if stroking a lover. "Top recording studios need top equipment. I think you stingy guy won't save money in this regard."
The three recording studios are all built according to the highest standards, using Avid digital mixing consoles. The cost of a fully digital solution is more than $200,000.
Matching high-end audio interfaces and AD/DA converters are also expensive.
Microphones, monitoring systems, external effect processors, auxiliary accessories, and system integration...
Calculated down, the equipment cost of each recording studio is at least more than $500,000.
"A great recording studio must have its own name to make a name in the industry. What name do you plan to give these recording studios?"
"Haven't thought about it yet; talk about it later." Leon shook his head.
Recording studios with top recording conditions and a long history are also one of the gimmicks of first-class record companies.
Abbey Road Studios in London is famous for recording numerous albums of The Beatles from 1962 to 1970, the most famous of which is the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Since the 1940s, Capitol Studios in Hollywood has been a recording sanctuary for many contemporary outstanding artists, gathering music giants such as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Nat King Cole.
A&M Studios is forever recorded in music history for participating in the recording of the world-shaking song We Are The World led by MJ in 1985, gathering 45 top singers together.
America has its own unique American superstition; naming things has to be cautious.
In the next three days, the equipment and office supplies ordered by Leon arrived one after another. Apocalypse Music completely completed the task of relocating from the original address to Fulton Street.
In the afternoon, Leon sat on the swivel chair in the new office, sunlight sprinkling on the golden lion head behind him through the floor-to-ceiling window, drinking coffee leisurely.
Bonnie and Elsa stood in front of the desk holding a stack of documents each. Four black-stockinged legs were transparent and oily under the sunlight.
Elsa first reported the financial situation of the last month.
We Don't Talk Anymore sold 500,000 physical copies in the first three weeks of release, including 30,000 vinyl records, and more than 1 million streaming copies.
According to the 35% record sales share and 10% lyric and composition copyright share signed by Leon and Sony Columbia, the total income exceeded $1.3 million.
Since Leon took on the recording and MV of this single in advance, he also owns 50% of the master rights, so he also obtained a part of the streaming licensing fees and free channel income.
Total income exceeded $1.5 million.
Although the records of the other three singers of Apocalypse Music had long passed the golden sales cycle, they still brought more than $3 million in revenue to Apocalypse Music last month.
Among them, the streaming revenue of Faded still dominates. Since entering the Billboard chart in November, this song has been on the chart for more than 300 consecutive days.
Based on the principle that eggs cannot be put in the same basket, there is a certain amount of funds in the accounts of Apocalypse Music, Leezy clothing, and Lion's Den Media. The $50 million buyout licensing fee of The Rap of America was directly transferred to the account of Lion's Den Media.
Last month, he just spent $14 million to buy a mansion in Beverly Hills from Vin Diesel. Apocalypse Music decoration plus equipment cost more than $5 million in total.
Integrating all expenditures and income, the funds on the books of the three companies plus Leon's personal account reached $120 million.
"iHeartMedia seems to be wavering about our acquisition of Z100 radio station. Bob's latest asking price is $90 million," Bonnie said.
"Still too expensive." Leon shook his head. The other party's greed exceeded his imagination.
When Bob bought this radio station in 2008, he only spent $50 million. Now facing the impact of streaming media, it is already difficult for traditional radio business to maintain value.
"Why not look to the West Coast? Those music radio stations in Los Angeles are scrambling to seek buyers. The user volume of many radio stations is not much worse than Z100." Bonnie pulled out a chair and sat down, crossing her beautiful legs in black stockings.
Leon took a sip of coffee, shook his head, and said in a deep voice: "The meaning is completely different. My goal is the integration of the entire East Coast radio business."
Brooklyn is his "Land of Rising Dragons." Currently, Lion's Den Media has a strong impact on the New York radio industry. As long as he takes down Z100 radio station with the largest user volume, he can occupy half of the East Coast radio business.
By then, which singer the entire East Coast radio promotes will be entirely up to Leon. As long as he is willing, he can make the Roc Nation lose all radio exposure.
JAY-Z, the East Coast Emperor, will become a figurehead to a certain extent, reduced to the famous "King John Lackland" in British history.
"JAY-Z seems to have thought of this too." Bonnie sighed. "Roc Nation offered $60 million for Z100 radio station, $10 million higher than our offer. I'm worried..."
"I know what you are worried about."
In the past, JAY-Z's energy has been focused on diversified investments, especially the brewing industry which made him earn until his hands were soft.
His D'USSÉ brand is flirting with Bacardi, the world's largest spirits manufacturer. The other party is very interested in acquiring this brand with a huge sum of money.
It wasn't until he turned his eyes back to the music industry that he realized the urgency of the problem. Even if Roc Nation cannot acquire Z100, it must not fall into Leon's hands.
Comparing financial strength, even Leon, who is already a billionaire, still has a considerable gap in front of JAY-Z.
"This matter is not that simple, even if iHeartMedia agrees to lower the asking price." The wretched figure of Bob appeared in Leon's mind.
This bald, short white man worked as a newsboy on the street, screwed screws on Ford's assembly line, and dug the first bucket of gold by lending money in hotels in Atlantic City in the 80s.
It was also during engaging in gray industries in Atlantic City that he contacted big shots in the recording industry, Sir Lucian Grainge, President of Universal Music, relying on his nimble tongue, and switched to the music industry.
The dirty and tortuous rise experience destined his extremely greedy character.
Even if iHeartMedia is already heavily in debt, he will never sell the golden signboard of Z100 radio station before squeezing out the maximum benefit.
Leon played with the ring and said with a smile: "Let Bob and JAY-Z perform for a while first. Guys who want to earn the last coin before leaving the market usually don't end well."
When saying these words, his aura was amazing, like an old fox floating in the Wall Street financial market for many years.
The sudden change made Bonnie and Elsa gasp, casting admiring glances.
After the two girls left, Leon immediately broke his composure, lit a cigarette, and couldn't help cursing: "Fck these greedy bastards."
If asked what other troubles a billionaire can have, it can only be that money is not enough.
If not constrained by tight funds, he wouldn't temporarily withdraw from this competition. If JAY-Z really found a loophole, the plan to unify the East Coast radio business would completely fail.
James Wan sent a message yesterday. Tomorrow he will bring Benioff and a group of script team members to New York to modify the final script details with Leon as the producer.
Accompanying him is young musical actor Tom Holland, who got the male lead role through the Los Angeles audition event.
Green, introverted, average-looking...
Completely fits the profile of the male protagonist Wade in the original novel Ready Player One.
The key point is that Holland is also a boy from the UK, similar in age to Anya. The tacit understanding of acting together should not be a problem.
Once the final version of the script is established, it means that all the preparatory work for the entire movie has been completed.
Apocalypse Pictures will provide a preliminary budget list to Warner Bros., and then it will be throwing money in large handfuls...
The difference between CGI movies and traditional movie shooting lies in that money burning never stops from the moment the movie starts shooting.
Actors put on motion capture equipment, input modeling information into computers, and the huge special effects team starts working non-stop.
Every frame of the picture is a pile of money.
Even if the budget is split into two parts, the first phase of capital injection will not be less than $50 million.
Considering the shooting cycle of this movie is at least one year, Leon does not have the confidence to smash all the remaining chips on a music radio station.
Just as Leon stared at the ceiling contemplating life, the phone rang.
After connecting, Ariana's sweet voice came from the phone. "Heard we moved to a new company?"
"That's right, you should find time to come and have a look; everything here is wonderful."
"I can't wait to see what the new recording studio looks like!" Ariana said, "Can I go over with my mom tomorrow? She has never seen me recording."
"Of course no problem; this is your home." Leon's mind was full of pictures of "consecrating" the new recording studio with Ariana.
The premise is how to avoid her mom, that mean and strong Italian woman.