IT WAS ALL A DREAM (1) (17 page)

Liza stayed at K’s apartment every day since the first night that she was there. Over the following week and a half Liza had slowly but surely proceeded to move her belongings into his condo. After getting to know each other intimately that first night, they were both sprung. Sitting next to her now at the side of the judges table after the first talent show, he realized it was time for a change. They had some shit that he thought might develop into a long term relationship, and he realized they were well on their way. All of the events were successes and things were looking good. K moved Dark into his down low spot and Dante
moved in a sistah he had taken a liking to named Charmaine. K and Charmaine instantly became like brother and sister due to the fact that they both had a crazy sense of humor.

Liza presented Dwayne Garret the winner of the first talent show and announced that he would be the first artist on the new indie label Big $taxxx records. K figured they had a real good shot with Dwayne as their first artist and decided to slow up on his illegal operations. He had a hefty stash and the Feds had come through cracking heads, which also influenced his decision. Plus, his right hand man Darkside was out of commission for a while, and he really didn’t trust nobody like he trusted Dark.

The second and third talent show went over well and they added to their roster a hip – hop artist named
G’d
-up and a female singing group that called themselves Triple
Extasy
. 
G’d
- up
was
actually one of K’s best weight customers, and K had no idea his skills were on a recognizable level. Triple
Extasy
turned out to be three strippers, one black, one white, one Puerto Rican, all So Seductive. So they had the first three acts for their label, all hot and extremely talented. They found a tight studio out in Philly and booked it solid for two months. K had no idea putting together such a project could be so hectic and time consuming. Allentown was about 45 minutes from Philadelphia and they would
leave town in the two
Suburban
s
K had brought and totally covered with Big $taxxx Records logo’s and decals as promotional vehicles and head
ed
out back to back pushing 90 mph, immediately after evening rush hour traffic.

Liza drove one and K drove the other. On the way to the studio their artists would be song writing, rehearsing lyrics and harmonizing. They also noticed how Dwayne and Triple
Extasy
sounded hot when they collaborated. And when G added his witty lyrics for the masses is was official.

Perfexion Studios was a first time experience for all the artists. None of them had actually been in a professional recording studio, let alone
record in one. The spot was run by a cat named LP, who K had heard a lot of good things about, and his chick Jessica. She was a real head turner too. As they walked into one of the recording
rooms Dwayne
looked around in amazement.

“This is it! I finally made it to the big leagues,” he said with enthusiastic excitement,
then
he went into one of the soundproof booth bowed his head and said a prayer:

“Heavenly father, I want to thank you this day for your many blessings. As you know father, I have prayed to you on numerous occasion for the chance to just be heard, Heavenly father. You have continuously answered prayers and I know this is just another of your blessings, which you give abundantly. I ask you at this time to bless our creative efforts and bless these wonderful people and our record label as a whole. All of this I ask in your precious son Jesus’s name. Amen.”

K gave him a hug showing love when he came out and they got prepared to put in the hard work they knew it was gonna take to make this a successful venture. They all sat in on track selection sessions and the first group to select tracks for their project was Triple
Extasy
. K had contacted a lot of hot producers from around the country and listened to them all unbiased, but by far the hottest tracks came from K’s people and his industry ace S.I.D. To hear Triple
Extasy
harmonize
and rift over his tracks with head nodding baselines and horns was musical poetry.

By the end of the two months in the studio, they had three potentially platinum albums, mixed down, Mastered and ready for sales or a major distribution deal.
G’d
-up had a crazy street buzz from mix tape appearances coast to coast. Dwayne and Triple
Extasy’s
upcoming releases were so hyped up through radio and street team mark
et
ing and promotion, that they did pretty good their first time out. Dwayne moved 22,000 units with his debut and self-titled album, Triple
Extasy
moved 26,000 units and
G’d
-up came out strong moving 37,000 units out of the stores and online all in the first month.

This also gave K the opportunity to take some other money to the Laundry mat. And even though it wasn’t gold or platinum success it got them recognized by the majors and they kept every dollar. K eventually employed persons to oversee daily operations and told Liza that he had a surprise that he had been planning for a while. He told her it was something that was going to make her very, very happy.

“I have you and my health and we’re building a new youth center on top of our success with the record label. What more could you possibly do to make me happy?” she asked seriously.

“It’s time for you to meet my best friend in the world for real. We are going to New York for New Years and stay at my pops crib for a couple days,” he said.

“You’re taking me to meet your father?” she asked eyes wide with surprise.

“Yep, and my mom’s will be visiting from Marietta Georgia too.”

“You mean I get to meet both of your parents?” she asked.

“Yes love, and they are gonna love you too pieces!”

                                            Chapter 18

They hit interstate 78 East, off of South 4th street leading out of Allentown, with two suitcases ready for a New York New Years. They
entered NY
by
way
of the George Washington Bridge bypassing the Bronx. Taking in all the gritty NYC winter beauty, they crossed the Throgs Neck Bridge leading onto Cross Island Parkway; Playing
The
Notorious
Big’s
IT WAS ALL A
DREAM
. They exited the Cross Island onto the LIE and down the home stretch to Exit 50, Wyandanch.

As they entered the town they rode up the hustling strip that K had spent so many days and nights on, slinging rocks like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble did for their boss Mr. Slate. They say the game never changes only the players. As the
y cruised through in his newly a
cquired Infinity QX56 headed to the crib, evidence of that fact was all too clear. All the young up and comers were beating the block in their Timberlands and True Religions, or
Gortex
and Snorkels getting their grind on as he had done many, many a day.

When K pulled up to the crib, he could see his moms had already made it in town by the sight of her Crispy clean Cream Chrysler 300M posted up in the driveway behind his baby sisters dark green Camry. His pops Sporty red Mitsubishi 3000 with armor all tires shining was parked out front. K and Liza had barely made it out of the truck before his nephew Marcus came out of the front door yelling, “Uncle, Uncle! Grandma, grandpa uncle is here.”

“Boy! Get back in here with no coat on before you get sick!” His sister
Tamisha
yelled out the front door at her son.

K s
natched him up
,
gave him a big hug and carried him in the house. His
moms was
in the master bedroom recuperating from her journey from Georgia, so he just gave her a peck on the cheek and let her sleep. His pops was in the basement with his crew; four miniature Dobermans that went nuts if you came with 10 feet of him. He was watching   his 60 inc
h plasma screen with the Super Surround Sound S
ystem, kick
ed back relaxing sipping his vodka and o
range juice.

“Hey, what a nice surprise,’ he said noticing us as they entered the basement door.

His dogs went nuts. Liza grabbed K’s arms scared to death.

Raising his voice over the high pitched barking dogs he asked
, ”
And who is this beautiful young lady?”

He turned to the dogs, “shut up
goddamit
!”

They calmed down a little; not much but enough for K to
say
,“
Dad
this is the love of my life , Liza. Liza this is my poppa.”

“Mr. Johnson I am so happy to finally meet you.”

“Please call me Joe, that Mr. Johnson stuff makes me
feel
old.”

“Ok Joe, nice to meet you. You have a beautiful home,” said Liza.

“Thank you. And my home is your home. Dam
n
, my son you sure can pick em,” said K’s pops.

His sister came out of her room next to the basement, gave him a hug and he made introductions while his pops made drinks. Pops had already been cooking the food for the New Year’s celebration and the aromas floating through the house had caught Liza’s attention.

“Somebody is
hookin
it up, that food smells delicious,” said Liza.

“Baby you have no idea. If you think that chicken parmesan was good, you just wait
til
my pops cooking hits those taste buds,” K said.

She gave him a mean but playful look that broke into a shameful smile at
their own
personal little joke. She still denied the way she massacred that chicken parmesan that first night, but from being with her over the past couple of months, he’d found out that her appetite increased a little when alcohol was involved. But he still use
d
to tell her
“ You
smashed that chicken ma – ma!”

“I got ham, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, cornbread, sweet potato pies, fried fish, lasagna, black eye peas, and yams,” Said K’s pop’s.

K looked at Liza and the drink in her hand that she was sipping on and smiled at her. From out of nowhere K’s nephew appeared with the notoriously embarrassing old family photo album. Before K could grab it from him Liza had it and was flipping through the pages. He already knew what was coming and there was no way Kevin could stop it. She got to the picture of his first birthday party, where he made it to the cake, before the cake made it to the oven and K was sitting on the table with his big afro and a bowl of cake mix between his legs. His mother caught the moment as he was smiling ear to ear, cake mix all over his nose, mouth, and hands.