Taylor was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say. After a few seconds, she mumbled: "Is having children a successful life? Children are just a byproduct of love..."
"Are you trying to say that parents are true love, and children are just accidents?"
"Exactly!"
Leon had long expected Taylor to say this.
The currently popular diva had stated multiple times in front of the media that she would not bear children for any man.
Like many leftist cognitions: childbirth is a shackle for patriarchal society to control women.
Leon did not respond directly but talked about the history of Hollywood. "It seems that beautiful actresses like you are not interested in children. Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, silent film queen Greta Garbo... they all thought so."
Hearing this, Taylor immediately showed a happy expression.
The glittering names mentioned above are all marks of a Hollywood era.
Doesn't this just illustrate a problem from the side: Excellent women do not need to rely on leaving offspring to prove the trace of their existence; history will remember her.
But before she could be happy for a few seconds, Leon immediately poured cold water on her. "But the end of these women was not very good... You know Monroe's end. When Vivien Leigh suffered from lung cancer, there was not a relative around... Garbo retired from the entertainment industry at the age of 36, lived alone in a New York apartment for 50 years. People who have seen her described her as dry as a corpse that hasn't seen sunlight all year round..."
Taylor suddenly felt a chill when she heard these stories.
Leon paused for two seconds, curved the corners of his mouth into a smirk, and continued: "No matter how obedient a cat is, it can't sing hymns for its owner at the funeral. In fact, they might pounce on the corpse, as excited as discovering a big box of canned meat..."
"Leon!" Taylor shouted coquettishly. Leon spread his hands and stopped quickly.
The atmosphere suddenly became a bit awkward, and the movie was coming to an end.
Taylor tried to find another topic. "I heard you are preparing a hip-hop reality show?"
"How did you know?"
Leon was surprised by this. The contract for this show had not been formally signed, and promotional activities had not been carried out.
"Braun told me. It seems that he knows whatever happens in the circle."
Leon had an inexplicable aversion to Braun's name.
An ambitious man's aversion to another ambitious man is instinctive.
Not to mention the other party was Jewish.
Whether it is Hollywood or the music industry, there are various small circles divided by nationality and skin color.
The British gang, the French gang, the Canadian gang, etc...
But the most influential one is undoubtedly the Jews.
They take the upper route, standing at the top of the media and entertainment industry.
David Geffen, Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, Spielberg...
These famous big figures are all Jewish and closely related to each other.
Braun was able to achieve great success in the agent industry before he was thirty years old, which was inseparable from the help of the Jewish gang behind him.
As early as high school, he came into contact with Spielberg. He shot a 10-minute video titled "The Hungarian Conflict."
Recounting the situation of Jews before, during, and after the Holocaust.
A member of the Braun family sent this film to Spielberg's office, who in turn submitted Braun's video to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Since then, his life has started a cheat mode.
At the age of 19, he served as the executive director of marketing for So So Def.
In his sophomore year of college, he undertook large-scale entertainment events, including the 2003 NBA All-Star Game party and Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel Tour after-party.
Thinking of the close relationship between Braun and Big Machine Records boss Scott, Leon was really afraid that one day Taylor would be sold by their joint efforts.
He reminded: "Stay away from that guy."
"I don't like Braun; he is an extremely arrogant guy." Taylor seemed to think of something suddenly. "By the way, he has been asking about your company recently."
"My company?" Leon quickly sat up straight. "Tell me in detail."
"Warner Music Vice President Leonard has a very good relationship with Braun. They have often talked about Apocalypse Music recently..." Taylor said. "They talked about Robbie, Ariana... but I don't know exactly what they said~ You know, I always keep a distance from these people."
Leon understood that Leonard had always had ideas about him and was even more interested in Apocalypse Music.
In order to make Apocalypse Music a sub-brand of Warner Records, he made many small moves behind the scenes and even came up with a method of uniting with Roc Nation.
However, these plans came to an end with Diddy's arrest.
Now that he is mixing with Braun from SB Projects, Leon can almost be sure what idea these two are playing.
"Cunning Jews..." Leon lowered his head to reveal a gloomy smile and led Taylor out of the cinema.
Early the next morning, Taylor took a flight to New Jersey. In the next week, she had four concerts in Newark.
Inside the headquarters building of Lion's Den Media, Leon was sitting in Sean's swivel chair.
He had just had a phone call with Scooter, and the two talked for a full hour.
The two sides established all the details of the contract for The Rap of America on the phone.
"Netflix is very satisfied with the lineup of mentors~" Leon threw the phone on the desk. "Tomorrow you represent the company to go to Netflix headquarters and sign the contract."
"Me?" Sean pointed to his nose, looking surprised.
He couldn't believe the boss entrusted such an important matter to him.
"Don't be surprised. You understand reality shows better than I do. Your performance plays a decisive factor in what effect this show will eventually present..." Leon said.
Every entrepreneur has different insights on how a company achieves success.
But the reasons for failure are generally convergent.
Managers extending their jurisdiction, insisting on touching areas they don't understand.
Leave professional matters to professional people. Historically, managers who like to micromanage usually don't end well.
"I understand!" Sean puffed out his chest, with light in his eyes. "This show will definitely be the most successful talent show this year!"
Seeing the other party full of confidence, Leon changed the subject and began to warn him. "If this show succeeds, your name will be engraved in the Hall of Fame of reality show history... You will stand on the Emmy Award stage."
"But if you screw it up, you know..."
Although Leon's tone was flat when he said it, Sean got goosebumps listening to it.
He knew very well the nature of his boss: cold, selfish, profit-seeking...
A typical utilitarian.
Apocalypse Music does not raise idlers, and Leon never shows mercy when laying off people.
If it weren't for the fact that he often revealed contempt for Jews in his words, Sean would have almost thought his boss was Jewish.
No, he is more Jewish than Jews!
"What plans do you have for the audition activities?" Leon knocked on the table to bring Sean's thoughts back. "The success of the audition directly affects the quality of the pilot episode, which is crucial for us."
In the verbal agreement with Scooter, the two sides still adopted a VAM (Valuation Adjustment Mechanism) model.
If the average views of the two pilot episodes reach 6 million, Clause B of the contract will be activated.
Netflix will pay $50 million at once to buy its exclusive broadcasting rights and renew the show for the second and third seasons.
If the target views are not reached, Clause A of the contract will be executed normally.
Netflix pays the production company Lion's Den Media $30 million.
6 million views doesn't look like a particularly exaggerated number, but Netflix currently has only 21 million users in the streaming sector.
The audience for hip-hop music is inherently limited, and it is not easy to achieve this goal.
Originally, Scooter wanted to increase the stakes again, adding a buyout clause in the Clause B option.
That is, after the views meet the standard, a one-time payment of $70 million to the production company, buying the copyright of this show together.
In Leon's view, this is a trick like an elementary school student.
If this show succeeds, then the copyright cannot be measured by a mere 20 million dollars.
Of course, if it fails, it definitely won't be worth that much money, or even worthless.
"I thought of some special ideas..." Sean was prepared, taking out his phone and shaking it. "In addition to traditional registration channels, we opened online registration channels~"
"Online channels?"
"That's right~ Any ordinary person who wants to participate only needs to pick up their phone to shoot a video and send it to the company email, and they have the opportunity to participate in the show~ This can not only save a lot of costs but also maximize our ability to discover potential contestants." Speaking of this, the expression on Sean's face was extremely proud.
Leon appreciated this audition strategy very much.
This means that the program team does not need to go to big cities in every state to set up audition registration points.
Just set up registration points in places with strong rap culture like Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc.
Even so, to save costs to the greatest extent, offline auditions should also adopt a model of gradually opening in major cities.
And online auditions are synchronized nationwide, with almost no cost.
Leon made a request: "Contestants don't necessarily have to sing well, but they must have stunts..."
"Stunts?" The clever Sean understood the boss's meaning without spending much time.
The routine of relying on singing skills and selling misery to gain favor in traditional talent shows obviously won't work in this show.
As long as there is show effect, the program team will allow any behavior of the contestants.
Whether it is insulting the mentors, real-life PK, or stripping on the spot...
Even setting fire to the studio is fine.
Two days later, the audition announcement for The Rap of America swept across the United States.
The program team shouted the slogan "Looking for the next rap superstar," igniting the enthusiasm of young people across America.
The company email received nearly 10,000 registration emails within a day.
"What is this fool doing?" An employee responsible for auditions stared at the computer screen.
In the picture, a black girl was engaging in vigorous exercise with her boyfriend while picking up her phone to take a selfie and record a freestyle.
"I like this! This girl passed!" Sean suddenly appeared behind the employee, excitedly slapping the table.
In the beginning, most of the videos received by the program team were normal.
The contestants faced the camera, singing their proudest works with full emotion.
But as more and more people communicated in online communities, the contestants gradually discovered that the program team seemed to have some quirks.
The more carefully performed works had a lower probability of passing, while the pass rate of stunt videos was surprisingly high.
At first, even Netflix questioned whether such audition rules were reasonable.
Leon explained to Scooter: "In a music talent show, except for a small group of very talented contestants, the rest are just leftovers to fill the program time... American Idol has been broadcast for so many years, and only one Kelly Clarkson has come out."
"In this case, it is better to replace those leftover contestants with some contestants who don't understand rap very well but have more show effect, letting them transform into fuel for playback rates..."
Under such a strategy, those young people with rap dreams began to perform stunts crazily.
Some moved the recording background to the police station;
Some recorded at funeral scenes, breakdancing at the solemn and sorrowful funeral scene;
Some tearfully freestyled their feelings for their grandfather in front of the hospital bed, with the changing lines of the electrocardiogram as the rhythm;
More and more videos flowed into the internet, and the discussion of this show remained high before it even started broadcasting.
At this time, Leon, the initiator of this hip-hop craze, was on a plane to Montana.
David Guetta completed the final version of the backing track for Old Town Road a few days ago.
Leon finished the recording work in just one day.
The purpose of this trip was to shoot the MV.
There was still more than a month before his contract with Roc Nation expired, and he would become a free agent.
Columbia Records Chairman Stringer's requirement for him was to release an album with at least ten songs within a year.
Even Leon, who had a cheat, felt a lot of pressure.
There were still many works in his music library that could be used; just the inspiration exploited from Dan Reynolds alone had dozens of songs.
But most of the premium ones were used by him in the first album.
After another careful selection, he only picked out Natural.
This is not because the quality of other works is not high; throwing out Dan's inspiration treasure casually is enough to feed two or three bands.
Leon has high expectations for the second album.
The debut album Demons is undoubtedly a successful album, allowing him to taste the Grammy Award as he wished.
Sales of physical records across the United States exceeded 1.8 million copies, establishing Leon's status as a first-line singer.
But this is just an excellent album, not a great album.
Both music critics and Leon himself think so.
How can an album be worthy of the name "great"?
Not to mention reaching the level of Michael Jackson's Thriller, at least it should be on the same level as Beyoncé's I Am Sasha Fierce and Adele's 21.
Making that year's Grammy a one-man show.
Leon's current fame is far from his achievements in music, and he can't even put together enough works to support a concert.
Therefore, he urgently needs an album to establish his historical status.
Counting Heathens refreshed by inspiration this month, he currently has four songs in his hand that meet the quality for the second album.
On the plane, Phil was on the phone with Cardi B, stretching his neck and speaking very excitedly. "You are just recording a reality show; no one told you to play for real!"
On the other end of the phone, Cardi B also strained her throat to fight back.
The volume was so loud that even Leon sitting in front of Phil could hear it clearly: "You are not my dad! I don't need you to manage my affairs! I have always been like this, sleeping with whoever I want~"
"Btch!" Phil gritted his back teeth in anger. "Look at your good idea... the people participating in this show are either fools or lunatics!"
At the audition site of The Rap of America in Atlanta, Cardi B let a rapper with a stutter pass the audition, stunning everyone present.
That night, she took the singer back to the hotel where she stayed.
Leon shook his head helplessly. Judging from the current situation, the "female judge taking maternity leave" scenario might happen faster than imagined.
"Bonnie, help me send a tweet."
"Okay." Bonnie opened the laptop she carried with her and skillfully logged into Leon's Twitter account.
"Today is the day the New York audition officially opens... I suddenly thought of a very good slogan."
Bonnie sent out the tweet according to Leon's request: "Do you want to be the next P. Diddy?"
The tweet was accompanied by a picture of the luxurious scene of Diddy's party.
Diddy would never have thought that even in prison, he could not escape the fate of being consumed by Leon.