The First Time I Met Music

[Rhoda]

The executive eyed the document in front of him, bound together by a hastily punctured staple. Opposite him, a young and talented hip-hop musician and producer sat in anticipation. They could barely see each other through cigar smoke, but the executive could smell the sweat trickling down his cheeks.

 

"So, you want my help?"

"I don't want your money," the young star said a little too quickly, "I want your experience".

The executive seemed interested enough to at least take a slow draw on his cigar before gesturing him to continue.

"Well sir, I hear you have quite the library of beats and hooks."

"The best," he interrupted, "that's why I'm the executive here. I have run every hip-hop release since 1989. KMD have me to thank."

"I'm sure. Name your price."

 

The executive thought for a moment, and then stood up with such force that the desk lurched forward as if avoiding him. He paced the room in such a way that it looked like he was measuring for a carpet and had forgotten his tape measure. He took another, shorter draw on his cigar and seemed to enjoy the taste before turning to face the young artist once more. A toothy grin flashed from the executive's face as the words fell out.

 

"Your soul, naturally, my boy."

"I didn't think you took souls anymore? Not since Kanye West worked with Gil Scott Heron and caused that filing loophole."

"It doesn't matter. I have Heron now, and West only has a few more years before he joins his mother with me."

The young star seemed lost in thought.

"May I see them, my Lord?"

 

The executive reveled in the title, barely able to keep his horns contained.

"Ahhh, I've not heard that since Wu-Tang days. Of course. You've made an old man happy."

With that, he disappeared in a puff of black smoke that seemed to dissolve into ever splitting cockroaches. In seconds, he was back, clutching a battered box that wouldn't look out of place in a student's bedroom, adorned with cannabis leaves and crude scrawlings.

 

"Go ahead," he said, gesturing to the lid with his cigar, "open it."

Tenatively, the producer nodded and let his two hands slide the top off. Before he could even get halfway, swirls of spirits thundered through the opening, wailing with a beat. The executive looked on in horror as spiritual incantations of Ol' Dirty Bastard and Notorious B.I.G spiraled through the open room, occasional rasps of dry snares and 808 kicks drowning the silence. As the young artist dropped to the floor and took refuge under the desk, the executive could contain the ruse no longer, his sharp suit falling away to reveal a tail, horns and cloven hooves. With a single swipe, he took a stray pitchfork and seemed to entangle the loose spirits like wayward spaghetti. As quickly as they had escaped, Satan had thrust them back from whence they came.

 

"Don't do that again, please, be careful."

Even Satan seemed out of breath. Truly these were powerful beats and hooks, but worth trading the essence of a young soul for."

"Do we still have a deal?" he continued.

The young artist took a few seconds to peek from behind the desk. Half of him was thankful the onslaught was over, but then the other half seemed to realise that he would have to release them once more if he were to work with them. As more and more hip-hop artists met death, more and more spirits and talent would be added to the box. He shuddered to think of the power of a decent beat. It would be the beat that mades white middle-class stoners nod their head in appreciation and the beat that would be shunned but respected by the streets of Los Angeles. The young artist let the image fill his head again. The spirit had the physical embodiment of something as terrifing as Dumile's metal face, with fingers containing dexterity of J Dilla and the sharp editing skills of Disco D. It would be the most powerful 70 minutes to be contained on a compact disc, not including bonus tracks but most definitely featuring a parental advisory sticker. The young man rose to his feet and place a lone palm on the lid of the box, still thumping with energy and rebellion against corruption and authority.

 

"We do," he finally replied, voice shaken but with an effort to keep it steady.

[Typhus]

Hmm, you know, I like this. I really like this. And let me tell you why, you see, whilst your interpretation of the Devil is cliched, what with the pitchfork and horns, I feel he was written very well. His lines had the right ammount of gravitas and manic gleee that one would expect from a traditional view of Satan. But mostly, I really like this story because of the underlying concept. You've taken the Faustian bargain concept and applied it to the Hip-Hop scene and it works beautifully. Think about it, rap is cool, rap is in, what dim-witted kid wouldn't want to cash in on this gold mine when fame and fortune are just waiting to be picked up?

The refrences to the dead rappers were especially amusing, perticularly the snipe at Kanye West, I got a good chuckle out of that.

Simply put, this is a fun and simple story, the kind I'd read again. It's the kind of story I wanted to write this month, but I couldn't find a way to make it original. My only real criticism, apart from a few minor gramatical errors here and there, is that it's not long enough. You write the Devil very well, I would have loved to see more banter between the two of them.

Still, that's more a compliment to your writing skills than any real criticism. You've done very well this month and you should be proud!

[Tyler]

Clichéd or not I really enjoyed this, Craig. I've just started getting into hip-hop through a much different artist than the ones named, but nonetheless this felt extremely relevant in so many ways. It's satisfying, really. Thanks for the read, it was worth the time for sure.

[Chunk]

I absolutely love this, mate. I was gonna do something like this, but base it on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnso...n)#Devil_legend

 

But enough about me. Great work here Craig.

[KilnerLUFC]

Don't think it really matters about the clichéd Satan, since the piece of writing itself is original, and well written at that. Don't usually stray here, but the title grabbed my attention, and it's the first piece on here that made me want to read it all. Had it been longer, then yeah, some work on an original Satan may have been needed, but I think that due to it been a short piece, it suited keeping the reader focused on the story itself.

 

Good work, Craig.