18. Ozyris Brentley
The following weekend…
Ihad the headphones tight over my ears, nodding with the beat, feeling it in my chest the way I used to feel it back when music really meant something to me.
“Again,” I said into the mic, and my engineer nodded and ran the track back.
I went in again.
That time was better. Tighter. More hunger in that bitch. More pain. More of everything I’d been carrying around for the last year and some change.
I wasn’t even thinking no more. I was just singing. Letting all that shit come out of somewhere deep in my chest that I ain’t even know was still there.
Man, a nigga felt good.
For the first time in a long time, I felt like myself again. Back in my element. Back where the fuck I belonged.
I pulled the headphones off, then stepped out of the booth while the engineer played it back. I walked over to the monitors and stood there listening.
That shit was hard.
“Ozy muthafuckin’ Love!” Derez stood up, clapping slow with a big-ass grin on his face. “Damn. It really sound like you back. This album about to go crazy.”
“It’s one song, D.” I chuckled.
“One song that’s about to change the whole trajectory of Ozy Love. That baby-making music cool and all, but this right here?” He pointed toward the speakers. “This sound like some grown-man shit.”
I looked back at the monitors nodding slowly.
There was a knock at the door.
Simone went to open it, and Noree was standing in the hallway with King holding her hand.
A smile hit my face before I could stop it.
“Yo, wassup, big dawg?”
I walked over and squatted down, and King came running straight into me.
“There go my boy.” I hugged him tight, then pulled back. “You finally get to see what Unc be doing when he at work.”
His whole face lit up.
“Do I get to sing on the microphone, Uncle Ozy?”
“Hell yeah.”
I stood up and looked over at Noree. “Appreciate you bringing him.”
“Of course.” She smiled a little. “He’s been excited about it all day.”
“Yeah?”
“Very.”
I nodded, and for a second, we just looked at each other. I cleared my throat and looked back at King.
“Come on, lil’ man.”
I scooped him up and carried him toward the booth.
Shayne got the track ready and King leaned up to the mic.
When I gave him the go he said, “My Uncle Ozy is the best singer alive. I really love him, and I’m so happy I’m his nephew. Everybody listen to his music, please. Buy all his albums and posters too. He has lots of merch for the ladies!”
I was cracking up the whole time. Couldn’t help it.
When he finished, I grabbed him and pulled him close. “Man, what you know about merch and the ladies?”
“I see you always wear clothes with your name on it,” he said, real serious, puffing his little chest out. “And I actually have a girlfriend, so I know a lot.”
“A girlfriend?” I looked at him crazy. “Man, you ain’t tell me you had a girlfriend.”
Noree knocked, then poked her head through the booth door.
“Do you mind if I run to the restroom for a second?”
“Yeah, you good.” I kept my eyes on King. “But you ain’t tell me King had a girlfriend?”
She laughed and stepped a little farther inside.
“Oh yeah. Her name is Abigail. She’s too cute. She always has these cute little ponytails and beads, and her mom dresses her so cute. I had King take her some cookies the other day. That’s actually how they sealed the deal.”
I put my hand on my chest dramatically.
“What? You told her before you told me, man?”
King shrugged and threw his hands up.
“Sorry, Uncle Ozy.”
Noree threw her hands up too, shrugging right along with him, then winked at King before heading toward the bathroom.
I laughed and shook my head as I helped him down off the stool.
“Aight, big dawg. Let me have Simone watch you for a minute, okay?”
“Okay!”
I walked him back out and told Simone to keep an eye on him for about five to ten minutes.
I stepped out of the room and went and stood right in front of the women’s bathroom, leaning against the wall, just waiting.
When Noree came out, she wasn’t looking and bumped straight into me.
She laughed and looked up. “Wow. This is déjà vu.”
“I know, right?”
“I didn’t expect to ever be back at this studio.” We stepped out into the hallway. “I see y’all made a few changes with the decor and everything. It looks good.”
“Yeah, I’m always switching shit up.”
“I can see that.”
We stood there for a second, and she blushed before looking away.
“This is crazy,” she said. “This is how we first met.”
“I know.” I looked her over again. “And by the way, you looking real good today. Yellow might be your color.”
She laughed and looked down at her outfit, then back up at me.
“Really? I feel like I look like a big ol’ sun.”
I laughed. “A curvy, thick-ass sun.”
She took her sunglasses off and looked at me before crossing her arms.
“Sir, are you flirting with me?”
I laughed for real. “I ain’t flirting with you. I’m just saying what I see. You look good.”
“Mmm-hmm.” She looked at me for a long second. “Well, excuse me. I have to get back to King.”
She went to walk past me, and I caught her hand. Not hard. Just enough to stop her.
I’d been wanting to put my hands on her since she came back around, so having her hand in mine, even for a second, had me holding on a little longer than I probably should’ve.
“I wanted to holla at you about something.”
“What’s up?”
“You still sing?”
She laughed like I’d asked her something crazy.
“Absolutely not. I was barely singing when I met you.”
“Well, Derez, my manager, wanted to talk to you. That was one of the main reasons I wanted you to come to the studio today.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, the big older guy? He started talking to me about something, but we got interrupted when he got a call and stepped out.”
“Yeah. He heard that old track we did and thinks it might be something there. Nothing official yet. We’d fuck around with it first, see how it sound, and if we decide to actually use it, Derez and the label handle all that contract shit.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“What? Of course I would love to finish the song. When are we finishing it?”
“Today, if you down. I can have my brother swing by and pick up King so he ain’t sitting around here bored.”
“Okay, that’s cool with me. But I’m a little hungry. Do you mind if I run to the vending machine real quick?”
“Nah, it’s cool. I’ll get you something to eat. You down for Chinese?”
“Hell yeah. Get me some crab rangoon too.”
We both busted out laughing and headed back inside the studio together.
I had Shayne pull up our song.
As soon as he hit play, our voices came through the speakers together. I watched Noree’s face while she listened.
She was smiling.
“I remember some of the lyrics,” she said.
“Hold on. Let me grab my book.”
I went over to the corner where I kept my notebook with all my lyrics, dates, notes, and random shit I’d scribbled down over the months. I flipped through it until I found the page, then held it out to her.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
I pulled out my phone and texted my brother real quick.
ME: yo you cool with coming to pick up King for a lil bit
His response came fast.
PB: Yeah, I got him. I can take Summer and King to the movies or something.
ME: bet good looking out bruh
I put my phone away and looked over at Noree. She was standing beside me, studying the lyrics with this little smile on her face.
And there went that shit in my chest again.
That pull.
Yeah.
This was about to get real complicated.