CHAPTER ELEVEN
gram's a problem
Hakeem
Hakeem was focused on his phone, making sure that crazy fan didn't say anything else about Jamal. They didn't. There'd been nothing but silence ever since they sent that picture of them stalking Jamal. The silence made Hakeem feel uneasy because he didn't know what they were planning. They could be watching right now for all he know.
"Yo, Hakeem!" Jamal ran up. "I gotta talk to you!"
Hakeem huffed. "I already told you I'm scrapping the lyrics, Jamal."
"It's not about our song. Dad just signed a new artist."
Hakeem kept focusing on his phone. "What's her name?"
"It's a guy. He's a rapper."
His ears perked up now. "A rapper? What's his name?"
"Gram."
"Short for what? Instagram?" Hakeem dissed.
Jamal laughed. "Probably."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know. He was following behind Tiana."
"Tiana?!" Oh hell na. Hakeem was getting ready to find Tiana, but Jamal grabbed him. "Hakeem, chill out. Don't start fighting."
Hakeem fought him off. "Get off me, Jamal! He's after my girl!"
Jamal reassured him. "Trust me, you have nothing to worry about. He's a lame."
"Damn. I just got here and y'all are already pressed?" a random guy said. He was light skin with cornrows.
Hakeem examined him. "You Gram?"
"And you're Hakeem Lyon, everyone's favorite Empire rapper. I don't see you keeping that title for very long."
"Who's gonna take it from me?"
"Me," Gram declared. "And you know, it's kinda funny how y'all are cool now when he had a bounty on your head, Jamal. Do you have amnesia?"
Jamal spoke angrily. "What goes on between Hakeem and I is none of your business."
"It kinda is my business when Hakeem went on Instagram talking shit."
"Why you on my page for?" Hakeem spat.
Gram snorted. "Don't get ahead of yourself, homie. I was never on your page. I don't even follow you. I follow Tiana though."
Hakeem felt his skin getting hot. "She don't follow you."
"Not yet, but once I get a little closer to her, I bet I'll get a follow back."
Hakeem got in his face. "You better stay your ass off my girl's page."
"Aw, are you feeling threatened, like how you were with Blake?"
Hakeem and Jamal exchanged a look because how the fuck did he know about what had went down between him and Blake?
Gram continued. "Yeah, I know about that. You see, Blake and I go way back. We ain't cool no more, but we were. He told me all about your hating ass."
The fuck?
"That diss record y'all made? I know about that too. Does Lucious?" Gram smirked.
Jamal was confused. "Diss record? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Blake and Hakeem recorded a diss record behind Lucious' back when they had beef. Hakeem got absolutely bodied."
That was a lie. "Really? Even Blake agreed that I won."
"Let's see if the world agrees."
"What are you talking about?"
Gram just smirked. "You'll find out real soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I have actual good music to make."
He walked off smugly and Hakeem tried to attack him, but Jamal stopped him. "No! Don't stress over him. He's a clown."
Yeah, Gram was a whole ass clown. He better take his ass back to the circus before it got ugly in that bitch.
Tiana
Tiana was in the studio listening to her finished song Do Something With It. It came out great. She only wondered when Lucious would make her perform it. Definitely not this weekend because she hadn't rehearsed anything.
She heard knocking on the door. The guy said, "Oh, my bad. I ain't know this one was occupied."
Tiana had never seen that guy before. He was light skin with cornrows. "Um. Who are you?"
"I'm Gram. Lucious just signed me."
"Oh shit. For real?"
Gram smiled. "Yup. He fired one of his artists, so he needed someone new."
"He sure did fire someone..." She shivered at the thought of Blake. Crazy ass motherfucker.
She stopped shivering and walked up to Gram to shake his hand. "Well, I'm Tiana."
"You don't gotta introduce yourself. Everyone knows who you are."
She chuckled. "Oh, okay. I'm guessing you rap."
"That obvious, huh?"
Yeah it was. "Based on your style, you don't look like a singing type of dude." What she meant was that he was wearing a bandana, and his pants were sagging. He was definitely a thuggish type of dude.
Gram showed off his outfit. "You like what you see?" He started showing off his grills and shit.
She just laughed at his antics. "You look nice."
"Oh word?" Hakeem said angrily from the doorway.
Tiana and Gram snapped their heads onto the door. She swallowed hard because Hakeem looked pissed. "H-Hakeem. Hey."
Hakeem focused on Gram. "I thought I told you to stay away from my girl?"
Gram said, "You know what? I am gonna go because Tiana and I are already acquainted. See you later, gorgeous."
"No you ain't!" Hakeem yelled as Gram left.
Tiana held him. "Hey! Calm down!"
"Don't tell me to calm down! Why are you letting him compliment you like that?"
"What am I supposed to do? Curse him out?"
"You're not supposed to be talking to him, period!"
"Don't tell me you and Gram already have beef. He just got here," Tiana said.
"Yeah, I got beef with him. He's arrogant as fuck, and he's trying to make a move on you," Hakeem answered.
Tiana was already over this. "Lord, this is like Blake all over again."
Hakeem shook his head. "It's different this time. Blake knew when to stand down. Gram doesn't. And speaking of Blake, he and Gram know each other."
"What?"
"Yeah, they used to be friends. That proves Gram ain't a good guy."
Tiana disagreed. "Not really. We used to be friends with Blake too."
That made Hakeem angry. "You're defending Gram now?"
"No, but that was hypocritical." Hakeem stared at her angrily and she sighed. "Look, if you don't want me around Gram, then I'll stay away from him. It's not a big deal."
"Good. Don't follow him on Instagram either."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because he follows you."
"Wait, really?" She quickly pulled out her phone to check Instagram.
"Yo, you dead ass?!" Hakeem raged.
"I just want to see if it's true!" But she had so many followers, it was going to be hard to find Gram's account. Luckily, she didn't need to search for long because Gram had liked one of her pictures, which was weird. He hopped on her page that quick?
She went to his account and wow. Gram's page was popping. He had hella fans. "Wow," she said out loud.
"What?"
She showed Hakeem Gram's page. "Look how many followers he has!"
"More than me..." Hakeem grumbled.
"Way more than you!"
"Well, it ain't gonna stay that way. Once Jamal and I release our song, I bet my followers will go up. Gram's tryna take my crown, and I ain't letting it happen," Hakeem promised.
He better not let it happen because everyone knew Tiana was Empire's top female artist, and she didn't want Gram on the top with her.