U AND I.
( CHAPTER EIGHT ! )
START TO HISTORY.
' 𝐓𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟏𝟎, 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟐. '
shrine auditorium ━━━ los angeles, california !
IT WAS ANOTHER BIG DAY set for Milani, it was the 1992 Soul Train Awards and not only was Milani nominated for Best R&B/Soul Single by a female award, competing against Natalie Cole, Lisa Fischer, Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston. But she was also asked to preform, and she decided to sing Crazy In Love since it was becoming such a anthem for her at the moment.
She was also in support for her label-mates, Jodeci for their four Soul Train nominations, being Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist, Best R&B/Soul Album - Group, Band or Duo with Guy also in the same category, Best R&B/Soul Single - Group, Band or Duo. And she also came to support Heavy D & The Boyz for their nomination for Best Rap Album and Rayne for Best R&B/Soul Album nomination.
Milani was beyond shocked to be nominated against such talented artists amongst those women, and she was highly on edge of her even winning the category.
Her stardom was getting bigger and bigger by the day, or even by the event whenever Milani appeared. The opportunities for her were coming left and right and she was never the one to back down, which made her so known already.
It'd be nearly marked a month since her album debuted within the next four days and it was already doing the greatest amount of success. The album was debuted at number four at the moment on the R&B/Soul Album Chart, and number twelve on the BillBoard 200. Half her songs on her album were within the top twenty range on the BillBoard Hot 100, Crazy In Love and Vanishing were top three, CIL was number three while Vanishing was number one.
Soon enough, the money would start really flowing in and she'd be able to purchase her own home, as well as her parents and older sister — which she intended on making sure to do.
"Are you happy that you're nominated? Against Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston? Girl, what a night it's going to be." Milani slightly shook her body at the thought of it. Her pride and confidence was telling her she wasn't due to win, but her mindset and gut was telling her body otherwise. She felt she had it in the bag, but with Whitney Houston and Patti LaBelle being in the same category she was, was entirely nerve wracking for her.
"Don't even get her started, she's been stressing and talking about it all day. She won't give it a rest. M doesn't even have faith in her winning." Chantel told Rayne, watching as the two got dressed. Chantel wasn't attending the award show, due to the fact that she wasn't a singer nor did she want to go since she had to take care of her year old daughter, Neveah which was a story to share another day.
"I do have faith in myself, deep down though. Even if I win or not, those other women I'm competing against deserve it just as much as I probably do." She corrected as she smoothed out her dress. She wore a tight royal blue mermaid sequined dress that pooled to her feet, her right leg was exposed as normal, slight v-neck that showed off her cleavage, and a pair of royal blue thick heels to match with it.
Calista painted her canvas off with a smokey shimmery look to pop off the multiple colors of nudes and the golden and black eye shadow that helped show off her warm brown colored eyes. Her champagne blonde colored hair were heavily curled down to her back and pulled behind her ears for a full exposure to her neatly baked face.
"Probably? M, you do deserve it. You're barely nineteen, and you're already being nominated against the Whitney Houston and your album is on the verge of being number one within the next two days — that's not even a month since it's release, not even I accomplished that so soon. I don't know what much of accomplishment that could be." Rayne shrugged, running her hands through her own bone straight jet-black hair.
"Now come on, we have to take pictures on the carpet before the show starts." She ordered, and with that the two girls were on their way to the Shrine Auditorium that was almost forty minutes away from Milani's hotel room.
After a couple interviews and plenty of poses and photographs being taken on the red carpet. It was the middle of the show, Milani and everybody at Uptown had their own section in the audience. She was seated next to Mary on one end and K-Ci on the other who was talking her ear off.
Patti LaBelle was currently preforming her song, Somebody Loves You Baby ( You Know Who It Is ). Milani and Mary couldn't help but sing along to the song, slightly pouring their own vocals which made the others around them laugh and admire the pair, some looked slightly annoyed but they didn't care. Patti looked over at the two girls, slightly laughing before sending a wave along with a kiss to them, making the pair slightly freak out at the unexpected gesture.
"Oh my god, ya'll just seen that? Patti just blew me a kiss, Patti just blew me a kiss!" K-Ci gushed, everyone around him looked at him in confusion knowing it wasn't designated towards him. Milani laughed before her set was over, Mary and her immediately sat back down.
Luther Vandross and Vanessa Williams, who were two of the four that were hosting the award show made their way over to the middle of the stage. "Now this male group is tearing up the charts with their latest debut, Motownphilly . . . here to preform, give it up for Boyz II Men!" Luther announced before the crowd cheered.
Milani looked at the group in awe, especially after she noticed her cousin on stage. She hadn't seen him in a little over two years, and being in the same building as him after the success that they've both accomplished and dreamed about, made her slightly emotional. She noticed there were five members up on the stage which made her furrow her eyebrows, it wasn't until she saw Michael Bivins alongside them.
Jodeci had already left from their seats, as it was almost their turn to preform immediately after Boyz II Men was over with theirs. This only made Milani realize that she was on the verge of preforming, which was towards the end after Color Me Badd preform their song, I Wanna Sex You Up.
The boys began to walk off the stage, the barricades that were behind them lifted up as the Jodeci logo was shown on the large screens. They made their way onto the stage, behind K-Ci who was already harmonizing his part, while the crowd went wild for them. They were all matching in red coats, and all black attire — at least that's what Milani thought, with combat boots and their signature black tinted sunglasses.
Milani watched as JoJo took over the entire show with his powerful vocals. Milani could tell you that JoJo's singing was her favorite, he was underrated entirely while K-Ci was the main voice that everyone loved. "My lady, we'll never fall apart, no, no. I said we made it, and I said we made it from the start — we fell so far in love, now our baby is born, so healthy and strong, now our dreams of reality." He sung, before they joined in with their final chorus.
The crowd went wild as K-Ci ran down the isle, lifted his black shirt off revealing his stomach before he ran back up to joined the rest of the boys. They ended their song off with a twist, adding their own ballad which they were known for doing, and did it gracefully.
As they walked down off the stage, DeVanté had fully taken off his red coat from his body, revealing his skinny figure with all the tattoos placed on his body. Milani couldn't take her eyes off his beauty on stage, almost like every other girl who was in the audience or watching at home.
He made eye contact with Milani from her section, seeing as she hitched a breath, and being the ladies man he was, he winked before the lights went dim. She shook her head, and that made her look away finally, Mary caught onto it and nudged her shoulder.
"You and DeVanté? I seen that, girl." Mary chuckled, raising her eyebrows rapidly. "Oh no, god no. We're just friends, plus I wasn't even staring at him." She lied, Mary squinted her eyes before looking away, believing her even though she was thinking otherwise.
Milani shook her leg rapidly as the category she was nominated in was soon to be announced. "And the nominees for Best R&B/Soul Single Female are . . ." Tony Terry spoke into the microphone before the screen began to play snippets of the music that was being nominated.
"Unforgettable . . . Natalie Cole, How Can I Ease The Pain, Lisa Fischer, All The Man I Need . . . Whitney Houston, Feels Like Another One . . . Patti LaBelle, and Vanishing . . . Milani Haynes." Marsha Warfield ran though, each and every song was given the same amount of applauses and cheers.
"And the winner is . . . Vanishing, by Milani Haynes!" Big Daddy Kane smoothly announced, Milani's eyes grew wide as she heard her name being announced throughout the arena, as everyone cheered and clapped for her.
She slowly rose up as the spotlight hit her body, the sequins in her dress shined beautifully off her skin. She hugged Mary, Dalvin, K-Ci, JoJo, DeVanté and Puffy before walking up the stairs with Puffy beside her.
She waved at the audience, blowing kisses to each section before making it to the podium. She hugged Big Daddy Kane before making it over to Tony Terry, and lastly Marsha Warfield who hugged for a minute, congratulating and complimented her before she let go.
"Wow . . . I don't even know where to start." Milani slightly laughed, her Texan accent filling the entire auditorium. "To even be nominated in a category with such amazing and talented women is truly an honor. First and foremost, I'd like to thank my parents for believing in me and gifted me with such talent. I'd like to thank Andre Harrell and Puffy for taking me under their wing and allowing me to pursue in my dream. I'd like to give a special special thanks to DeVanté who helped me produced this record along with him and Teddy who produced my entire album. And I'd like to thank the fans, because without you, this wouldn't have been even possible. Thank you!" She vented, raising the award in the air, smiling brightly showing off her pearly whites before they walked over to the exit of the stage.
Puffy guided her to her dressing room where she began to get ready for her first ever award show performance as her mother congratulated her and helped her get ready.
"Make sweet lovin' all night long, feels so right it can't go wrong, don't be shy, hang with me! I wanna sex you up!" They finished off, the lights went dim before loud horns and drums played afterwards.
The crowd screamed and cheered as Tupac's voice ran through the entire arena. Big letters of Milani's name was lit up, showing five boxes that were placed on top of it. The girls were all striking in their own poses in their boxes, only their shadows could be seen.
"You ready? Soul Train Awards, let's go!" The light got brighter as she did her dance that everybody seems to have loved considering they were growing wild. "Let's go . . one, two, three, four!"
"I look and stare so deeply in your eyes, I touch on your more and more every time. When you leave I'm begging you not to go. Call your name two three times in a row, such a funny thing for me to try and explain. How I'm feeling, and my pride is the one to blame. And I know I don't understand, how your love can do what no else can."
She and a single male dancers on the top of her name letters, finishing off their choreography together before she was escalated down one of her letters.
The whole thing was nothing but Puffy's idea. He wanted her to have a big name for herself after tonight, and he felt the performance she was going to give, it was to do just that.
She topped off her second verse and chorus before seeing as just about everybody in the room were singing along with her. Mary was the one who stood out the most, who was basically pouring her heart out to Milani in the audience making her smile even brighter. She was happy to say that Mary was her biggest fan at the moment. "Everybody, give it up for Tupac!"
"Could it be my destiny to be lonely? And checkin' all these crazy girls that be on me 'cause they phony, but you was different. I got no need to be suspicious. 'Cause I can tell — my life with you, could be delicious. The way you lick your lips and shake your hips got me addicted.
I'm sitting here, hoping we can find some way to kick it, even though, I got your digits gotta struggle to resist it."
The crowd was even louder than before as Tupac made his presence known on stage. Even though it was a last minute thing for him to be there, Milani was happy that he could make it for her.
He finished writing his verse in the studio the night they recorded, within twenty minutes after hearing the remainder of the song. The song held powerful meaning, and the audience didn't even know half of it.
"Depend on me, when you have needs or trouble. I wanna give you happiness and maybe even more, I told you before, your love's got me addicted, so crazy in love."
Milani finished off her set, placing her all into the choreography and the words she was singing as she ran back and forth on the stage, taking the audience into her own world.
"Looking so crazy in love, your loves got me looking . . ." She harmonized, her back turned besides her face that was facing the audience. The beat was hit one last time before she turned to the other, keeping a serious face.
"Thank you!" She called out, the audience clapped, whistled and cheered before they continued on with the rest of the show.
That night, Milani was now going to become the superstar she was destined to become. She took pictures with Jodeci, Mary, and Al B. Sure! who came through to support his label-mates.
Nobody knew it, not even Milani did, but she was now soon going to become history in the making. And she had to buckle up tightly, because it was going to be a wild ride that she was not prepared for.