"Oh, no, please don't disturb. Please, no, don't disturb, no"
April 1995
Static Major
"Trust me, my sister can sing, dance and can write her ass off man. I think she would be perfect for Swing Mob." I said.
"Can I see her work on some tracks and maybe hear her sing first? Then maybe.. Listen I said MAYBE see what I can do." Devante said. Despite his 'Maybe' it still put a smile on my face.
"Aye thanks De." I smile.
"No problem man."
"Serenity, come here for a second." I called out her name.
"Yes big bro? Hey how you doing?" Serenity smiled at me and waved at Devante when she noticed him.
"I'm doing good. Let me see what you are working with. Sorry if we bugged you but I got some time right now. You don't got to sing just yet, I want you to show me some songs you wrote." Devante said.
"Oh sure." Serenity said immediately grabbing her notebook and handing it over to Devante. We stood here in silence while he was reading some of her lyrics. Both of us looked at each other when he started bopping his head. It was like he can hear the beat in his head.
"So what do you think?" Serenity asked him after a while of silence. He looked away from her notebook and he smiled at her.
"Do Not Disturb is a really dope song.. really dope girl. I think I got someone who can sing the second and third verse." Devante smirked putting his thumb and pointer finger around his chin.
"Oh my god! So does that mean...." Serenity was freaking out but was carful not to ask her full question in hopes he would answer it for her.
"Yes, welcome to Swing Mob." Devante smiled wider grabbing some papers out his open briefcase. "You can read over that. If you have any questions just let me know, alright." Devante added as he slid the papers over to her.
I took them from her and skimmed through the papers first before I handed them to her not seeing any true red flags that stood out. She looked at me skeptical until I gave her a nod of approval to sign the papers. Once she signed them I was excited because my little sister was finally on the team.
"Thank you so much for this.... for actually believing in me. And this really means a lot for you to sign me Devante." Serenity said to me as she gave me a hug and then Devante a side hug.
"Shit this wasn't no problem, little sis." I kissed her cheek rubbing her back gently.
"Aye let me show you around so you can meet everyone." Devante said to her making us break our sibling moment.
"Well I guess that means I'll see you later sis. And aye Devante look out for my sister you hear?" I told them.
"I got ya." Devante said as they both walked the door.
Serenity
Devante was looking so good on the ride to the building and I was really trying to relax. He was just so fine. I felt so nervous especially with my brother not around to ease the conversations.
Once we arrived and made our way into the building Devante let me meet everyone as we went around the building and of course i still was lowkey freaking out. To even be in the same room as most of the people I met was insane. I mean if you were in my shoes you would freak out to right? After meeting a few more people Devante showed me around one of the studios we would be working in.
"So I'm going to produce your album. And believe me its going to be hot. But first I want to start off with Do Not Disturb. I'm going to play around with it, and we will go from there. Cool?" Devante said.
"Okay cool." I said. "Oh and Static made some beats for a few songs I had written, I will have to get it from him if your willing to listen to them." I also let him know.
"That's wassup. We'll see though." Devante said. He had his shades on but I knew he was looking at my body, I could feel him just scanning my body and realizing that made my cheeks get red.
Someone knocked on the door making me jump and it seemed not to phase Devante.
"Come in." Devante said without looking up from what he was doing. I really found it sexy how focused he was.
"Tim said you would be in here, and who is this?" Ginuwine asked him as he walked in the studio with us.
"This is Static's little sister, Serenity." Devante said. "And shit I was about to get in touch with you anyways. I think you would be the perfect match to be on Serenity's track called Do Not Disturb."
"Well shit, first of all my bad beautiful, it's nice to meet you Serenity." Ginuwine grabbed my hand and kissed it making me blush .
"Same here." I said softly looking down at the floor. Devante handed Ginuwine my notebook for him to read it over.
"Damn this is dope." Ginuwine said.
"Thanks." I smiled happy yet another person thought my song I wrote was good.
"We already got a nice beat for it. Now Serenity now I'm gonna have you sing. Don't get nervous now, its just me and Ginuwine in here. Just be yourself and sing your heart out." Devante said.
"Okay, I will keep that in mind." I immediately got up and walked into the booth. I stood behind the mic and put on the earphones. I was nervous, but I always tried to never show it on my face. I try to keep calm for the most part.
"Whenever you are ready Serenity." Devante said into the mic on his end. He then took off his shades making me now get a chance to look into his hazel eyes. I began smiling to myself and nodded my head.
"I'm ready, start the beat." As soon as I said that the beat filled the earphones I had on and I began to sing. "-So I got this feeling. You and I need a moment. I want you to love me, babe." I pulled the headphones off my head after singing a few more lines of my verse and I sighed in relief when both Devante and Ginuwine started clapping.
"Damn, that was hot." Ginuwine said.
"Thanks." I walked out the booth.
"Yeah, that was amazing. Your voice is different and I love that." Devante said licking his lips. "Aye G, you think you can get in the booth and sing them two parts?"
"Yeah, sure thang." Ginuwine said as he headed into the booth. Devante played back the hook and Ginuwine started to sing. While he was singing Devante was just staring right at me and my heart was racing trying not to look back. I looked straight ahead at Ginuwine noticing he was also staring at me as he was singing.
"Damn, that was dope. Come out so you guys can hear it." Devante said once he cut the music off.
We walked out of the booth and stood behind Devante. Just as he was getting the playback ready the door opened and I noticed my big brother walking through the door.
"Hey big bro." I smiled giving him a hug.
"Wassup lil sis, you good in here? I had to come and check up you've been here a while." Static asked me.
"Yeah, I know but we are just about to listen to the song." I said with a big smile.
"Okay, that's wassup. Hey De and Ginuwine." Static said before Devante turned on the song for us all to hear.
"Wow sis, you did that. And putting Ginuwine on the track made it better. De this beat is dope." Static said.
"Thanks man." Devante said.
After hearing the full playback we had to clean up the song, put some background vocals on it and add a few extra lyrics. After all that was done we started collecting our belongings but of course we were still joking around and talking making more minutes pass by.
"I gotta head out for real now and get some shut eye. I have a photoshoot in the morning. Ill see you guys later." Ginuwine said.
"Okay, drive safe and thanks again for hopping on the track." I told him.
"No problem, cute thang." Ginuwine said as he gave me a hug.
"Okay boss, I'll see you man." Ginuwine gave Devante a cute handshake.
"Alright, see you G." Devante said before lighting his blunt. My brother left a little bit before Ginuwine did so now it was me and Devante. It was 2:30 a.m. when I checked the clock on the wall. I didn't know it was that late.
"You want to work on another song?" Devante asked me.
"Yeah, that's fine. I mean I know you are a busy man so if you have the time sure." I told him as he leaned back in his chair and laughed.
"You right." He licked his lips staring at me briefly blowing out smoke.
"Alright then. Let me look in my notebook for another song I want to do." I told him.
"Alright shawty. You trying to hit?" Devante asked me.
"Nah, I'm good. But thank you." I told him.
I felt Devante staring at me again and I looked up this time and blushed. I then broke eye contact to find the official song I really wanted to record next.
"So did you find one?" He asked me and I nodded handing him my notebook which was turned to the page of a song that I wrote when I was in my last relationship that cut me deep. I cleared my throat looking down as he was reading it.
"The song is called Sorry." I told him.
"Sorry huh?' Devante asked me.
"Yeah, but with this particular song.. I need you to play the piano." I told him.