' 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡 ' › D. SWING

32.

She rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up as a gesture of surrender, shaking her head and mumbling something to Timbaland.

I smirked, sitting up in my seat to get a better look at everyone, "So I'm assumin' everybody feels the same way?" Nobody spoke up but the looks on their face said it all. I nodded my head, slowly rising up from my seat and shoving my hands into the front pockets of my jeans, "Look, I don't expect y'all to understand me or know what I got planned for each of you. I really don't. And honestly, if I was in your situation, I would feel a bit skeptical about a lot of shit too but what I won't do is lose respect for somebody who has taught me everything I know. Y'all ain't ever been so creative in ya' whole damn life. I took y'all in when nobody was fuckin' checkin' for y'all. You know why? Because I saw how talented you are. Yet here you are, talkin' shit about me when I'm not around as if you don't know what happened to me."

"Nobody's talkin' about you, g", Tornado said defensively.

I scrunched my face up slightly while shooting him a glare from the corner of my eye, "Shut up, Tsunami." I could hear Static snort and snicker before being nudged by Smoke, quickly becoming quiet but his smile was still evident. "I get it. Y'all upset because you feel like I neglected you but ain't nobody reach out to me since the incident. Ain't nobody check up on me or nothin'. If anything, I'm upset wit' y'all. I thought we was like family...", I started to say, and some of them lowered their heads in shame. "All y'all wanna' point out is things I've done wrong but at least I can own up to it. Can you?" I sighed a bit, not really sure what I could say to smooth things over with them. Really, there wasn't anything to say. Especially if they were planning to leave. But I gave it a shot anyway. "I'm here and I'm ready to work. If that don't mean shit anymore then cool. I can't be mad about that but like I said, I got things planned out for every single one of you that could have you set for the rest of your career. Shit, really with all that I've given you so far, you're already set but I can offer you so much more", I said, shrugging nonchalantly before looking over at Tweet. "You wanna' know why I won't let you work with other producers?"

She nodded.

"Because we've established this sound together and these mothafuckas will take your shit and claim it as their own and 'bout time you get your music out there, it looks like you bit off of them. But hey, if you don't trust me then, do what you gotta' do, T. I won't stop you", I replied. "Just don't use the sound we created in Da Bassment. If you leave, you can't take this shit with you. Period. Start from scratch because if you don't, you gon' fuck it up for every person in here. Is that what you want?"

She shook her head 'no'.

Missy released a dry laugh and it made me want to curse her out but I remained calm, looking over at her with a grin, "What's funny?"

"You", was all she said as she pointed toward me.

I kept my composure, nodding my head, "Yeah, okay. What about me?"

"You come in here talkin' about all this sad shit but you ain't the only one with problems. Tornado got a damn kid he left behind to be here. And for what? You got about forty and probably don't even care to see them but he does, D. He had a life before this and took a chance comin' out here to work with you only to be singin' on demos that are never released. Singin' on your album only to have JoJo lip sync them in the video. That's bullshit. And you know it", she spat, her voice laced with anger and frustration. Clearly she had been wanting to say this for a while so I let her continue. "You got us workin' all these hours without pay. This ain't no fuckin' sweatshop! I got things I need to buy. I'm a woman. Tornado got a child to feed and you act like you can't cut us a check? You lost your damn mind."