THE INDUSTRY 2

By the time I woke up, it was already 5pm, “Damn! Shina go don vex”. I picked up phone so I could call him only to realize I had missed over 30 calls! “I’m not owing anybody now”, I thought to myself. I opened my call log and surprisingly, this same strange number had called me more than 30 times, my heart was racing now. I dialed the number while I hoped I was the doing the right thing, it was the voice of a young lady I heard from the other side of the call.

Lady: Hello

Me: Hi, I’m sorry I missed your calls. You must have something of extreme importance to tell me I guess.

Lady: Oh, I didn't know it was up to that. I’m so sorry.

Me: Yeah, okay. Who are you please?

Lady: My name is Terri; I got your number from Shina.

Me: Oh, okay. How can I help you ma’am?

Terri: I was at the show the other day and your performance was lit so I decided to say hi to the guy that caught everybody’s eyes.

Me: Whoa (my head was about to burst then). Thanks.

Terri: I just wanted to know if you would have time to hangout, sometimes.

Me: Yeah, no problem but I have a session this evening and I don’t know when I’m going to be back.

Terri: Okay, no problem. How about tomorrow?

Me: Tomorrow then.

Terri: Deal?

Me: Yeah, deal!

On my way to Hysce’s studio, Terri popped into my head again, “Who’s this girl?” “What does she want?” those were the questions I asked myself, “Maybe she is just another fan”, I finally answered myself.

The city of Obalende was buzzing; I could sense the excitement in the face of the people walking on the streets. They loved this city, they cherished it. The streets were filled with lots of people, some were heading back from work, some were students who had just closed from school and were in a chatty mood as they gleefully headed home, some were young boys who had no homes and were only looking for the next available spaces for the night.

Hysce’s studio was just up the street, he had the best studio around so his studio was never vacant. His studio was always filled with artistes (dope and whack, young and old, male and female), he even had studio rats (talented dudes with no financial backings and would always run errands to have their songs recorded).

I was heading in when I saw Shina, he looked indifferent about seeing me which was abnormal, and I guess he was mad at me. “Breezy what’s good?” I playfully asked, “Oga dey your dey jare, since wey I don dey wait for you, na now you know say you go come abi? Me I don dey go sha o, maybe we fit record the song tomorrow sha cuz I don tire”. Yeah, he was really mad at me for coming late but was it my fault? I needed more rest that I eventually had, I could have gone on to sleep for most of the day if it hadn’t been for the song we wanted to record. “Dude, no vex. You suppose understand say I no fit do am intentionally. Ehn ehn, this chick Terri say na you give am my number, I no even sabi the girl seff”, at the mention of Terri’s name, dude was already smiling, he was obviously interested in talking about her but more interested in getting the track recorded. “We go reason am later, make we go meet Hysce”, he replied.

As we approached the studio, beat was blaring straight from the powerful amplifiers in the room, rap lines were blending in with the hardcore beat. I recognized the voice, I was familiar with it, Shina was surprised too, he almost immediately guessed who it was but he wanted to wait to confirm himself. Then it dawned on me, the setting was different, it was less crowded today. Those boys weren't around (or were probably chased out), more like Hysce had been prepping for an A-list and he eventually came by today. I was relishing my chances!

As we walked in, Hysce barely even saw us(not that we noticed too though), we had our eyes on the booth but the lights had been turned off, all we saw was a figure standing in there but the voice was getting clearer now. I surely knew who was in the booth! I could bet all my life’s earning…

TO BE CONTINUED