* * *
That night they had a long hard session in the studio. The rap they were recording was called ‘War Cry’. They had adopted a style whereby they would take it in turns to rap verses, and when the main person was rapping his verse the others would join in on single words to give emphasis. They had three verses each and they did the choruses together, but it wasn’t easy. After all the practising they had done they believed that they could get it done in one or two takes, but Marga Man pushed them hard. There were several times when Ray was convinced that they had got it right, but when he looked through the soundproof glass into the control room he would see Marga Man nodding his head, switching on the talkback system and saying, ‘It good, but you can do better than that. One more time.’
About two hours into the session they did a take that Marga Man seemed happy with. He called them into the control room to listen to it. Bunny pumped up the volume and they listened to the track. They all loved it.
‘It nice,’ said Marga Man. ‘But it’s not angry enough. Let’s do it one more time.’
‘What?’ Ray huffed in disbelief. ‘What you mean, it’s not angry enough? The joint’s OK guy, what do you reckon?’ he said, looking at Tyrone and Prem, who were quick to agree with him.
‘I like it,’ said Tyrone.
‘Yeah, it’s OK,’ Prem added.
‘Ssh,’ Marga Man said, putting his finger in front of his lips. ‘Let me tell yu something.’
The boys leaned forward on their seats. Marga Man leaned forward on his seat to meet them and he spoke to them very quietly as if he were passing on some top-secret information. Bunny began dusting off equipment in order to look as if he wasn’t listening.
‘Of course you like it. I like it too and of course it’s OK, but there are plenty tunes out there dat are OK. I’m not working wid yu to do just another OK tune. I’m here to do something extraordinary, you know what I’m saying, extra ordinary, I want to produce something dat is super sonic. Now I’m de producer and I’m telling yu dat yu have some great lyrics over a great beat, but right now yu not doing de lyrics justice if you don’t put more emotion into de performance. If you are happy wid what yu have dat’s OK, dat’s cool, you’ve done your thing, I can go home to my wife and you have your track. But don’t put my name on it. I don’t do OK. If yu want to do something extra ordinary, super sonic, get back in there and put some aggression into de tape.’ He looked at Prem. Prem looked away. He looked at Tyrone. Tyrone looked away. He looked at Ray. Ray looked straight back at him.
‘Let’s go,’ said Ray to Marga Man, keeping his eyes on him even as they left the room.
This time it was different. The group were fired up. This take was the one. Ray clenched his fist as the words shot from his mouth. The others, fed on the intensity of Ray’s performance, began to perform in a way they had never done before.
Marga Man called them back into the control room and this time he was all smiles.
‘Yeah, man. Dat is super, super sonic. You feel it?’ he asked, holding his right fist up.
‘I feel it,’ Ray replied, touching his right fist with Marga Man’s.
This time when they listened to the track they were all in agreement. It was a great recording.
They got home at eleven o’clock that night. The next day was spent in classrooms, but the day after that they were back in the recording studio doing the final mix. This would determine the heaviness of the bass, the amount of special effects that were to be used, the prominence of the vocals, and the overall sound of the track. Marga Man directed Bunny as he turned the knobs and pressed the buttons. The boys threw in comments and said their piece, but Marga Man had a fixed idea of what he wanted. When he was done everyone was happy.
Bunny cut a copy for each of the boys on to CD, but Marga Man warned them not to make too much noise about the recording. They should play it, study it, but they should not play it to everyone that they knew. Marga Man had plans, but to execute his plans it was important that the boys kept up their work. He wanted to make sure that every track that the boys recorded was as good as the first one.
Over the next couple of weeks the boys attended every class as required and they spent as much time in the studio as they could. Most of the time they concentrated on learning recording techniques and understanding how all the equipment worked. From time to time Marga Man would make appearances at the studio to see how they were progressing and, although the boys’ parents had concerns about the late nights, the amount of time they were spending in the studio, and their lack of interest in anything else, there were no complaints. For the first time they could see that their sons were waking up in the mornings feeling like they had purpose, and returning home at nights feeling like they had accomplished things. Ray’s father still only spoke to him when he had to, but there were no big arguments, and he was never at home long enough to bother his sister.
One afternoon as the boys were being given lessons on how to sample sounds by Bunny, the phone rang. Bunny asked Ray to answer it. It was Marga Man.
‘What’s up?’ asked Marga Man. He sounded very serious.
‘Nothing,’ Ray replied, ‘everything’s cool.’
‘When are you leaving de studio?’
‘Soon,’ said Ray. ‘Then we were going to go back to the centre to talk to Sam about how things were going.’
‘Don’t move until I get there,’ Marga Man said, worrying Ray with the low tone of his voice.
Tyrone and Prem could see that something was on Ray’s mind. ‘What’s the matter?’ asked Prem when Ray had hung up.
‘I don’t know,’ said Ray. ‘Marga Man was on the phone and he sounded real serious. He said we gotta stay here until he comes.’
Twenty minutes later, Marga Man walked in and the boys sat around him to hear what he had to say. Bunny went to leave the room so that they could talk alone, but Marga Man stopped him.
‘Bunny. You too, sit down man. I want you to hear dis, dis involves you.’
Bunny sat down like a naughty schoolboy.
‘I’m gonna get straight to de point,’ Marga Man said, panning around the room looking at all four of them. ‘I have good news and bad news. What do you want first?’
There was no reply, only a puzzled look on all their faces.
‘What do you want first?’ he said again, raising his voice and sounding a little like a schoolteacher demanding an answer.
‘OK,’ Bunny said, ‘stay calm brother. Hey, let’s get the bad news out of the way first.’
‘All right,’ said Marga Man. ‘Today I have not made a single penny because my shop was closed. Yeah, I had to spend the whole day in a meeting talking to a well-educated hippy boy and a man in a suit. Meanwhile my shop was closed and my customers went elsewhere.’
The boys looked at each other, even more puzzled, not understanding what this had to do with them. Bunny was just as confused, but felt that he should try and move the conversation on.
‘Sorry to hear that, Marga Man, but don’t worry, things will pick up. Flip Discs is number one, we know that, they know that. Don’t worry brother, the customers will come back. How about the good news?’
Marga Man panned around the room again, looking at all of them so seriously that they all felt the proverbial shiver run down their spines. ‘De good news?’ he said.
The silence was loud. Bunny nodded his head encouragingly. Marga Man stood up and produced the biggest smile they had ever seen him accomplish.
‘We have a record deal.’ He raised both fists and shook them. ‘Yeah man, we got a record deal. I played “War Cry” to some guys at Deaf Defying Records and they loved it. They can put it out more or less straightaway, but den they want a full album from us, with first option on another CD within two years.’
The boys were stunned by what they were hearing. It took them a few seconds to take everything in, but they could see that Marga Man was not joking.
‘What, they want a whole CD?’ asked Tyrone.
‘Listen man,’ said Marga Man, ‘they want it as soon as we can get it done, so let me tell yu how it’s going to work.’
Marga Man went on to tell them how they were going to work together and what would be the chain of command.
‘I am de manager and producer. I oversee de recording and I negotiate wid de record company and de other suits. Bunny is de engineer. He will make sure de place is ready for yu to record in and he will do his best to make sure dat yu have all de equipment yu need. You are who you are,’ he said looking at the boys. ‘Yu write de raps, yu rap the raps and your faces go on de CD cover.’
He took a large book out of a bag that he had with him and handed it to Ray. It was heavy and bigger than any book that Ray had ever read. Ray looked at the front of the book. It was called Music Business Arrangements.
‘Read it,’ Marga Man said, smiling. ‘You’re de spokesman for de band so yu have to know about de business, and when yu have all read it I want yu to tell me what kind of arrangement we should have between us. It’s up to you.’ Marga Man stood up and began to leave the room. ‘Now I’m going,’ he said. ‘You guys start working. Your public awaits you.’
Chapter 8
The Business Trip
The boys were becoming obsessive. Every chance they had, they were in the studio, and they continued helping Bunny out when he was working with other bands. When that wasn’t happening they would go into one of the spare rooms to write lyrics.
Ray carried Music Business Arrangements with him everywhere he went, and he would read it whenever he could. He read it before he went to sleep at night and as soon as he woke up in the morning. Their teachers also used it as a tool for their English and maths lessons, and the band would discuss issues raised in the book with each other. Their general knowledge of the music industry was increasing greatly and they were recording beats at a rapid pace.
When the band felt confident that they understood the major points from the book that would affect them, they went to the music shop to see Marga Man. It was after a period of intense work and they hadn’t seen him for a few days, but as always Marga Man was pleased to see them and he expressed how much he had missed them in his own way.
‘So what do yu want? Whatever it is, take it and go, I want pretty people in my shop,’ he said, waving them back into the street.
‘That’s why we’re here,’ said Ray. ‘We come to add beauty to your life.’ He put the book down on the counter and Marga Man knew exactly why they were there.
‘OK,’ Marga Man said, turning the music off. ‘Dis is a business trip.’
‘Yes, we come to buy you out,’ said Prem.
Marga Man took a set of keys from his pockets. ‘Take it, take everything lock, stock, and two thousand CDs. It won’t cost yu a ting, all yu have to do is give me a job, one wid guaranteed wages. Dat way I may earn more dan I’m earning now.’
Ray rested his hand on the book as if it were a book of sacred holy scriptures. ‘We read the book. Then we talked amongst ourselves, and we talked with our parents, and we’ve decided we wanna run this thing as a collective, an equal split for all members of the band. We see you as a member, it’s as simple as that. Bunny said he can’t fully commit himself to the band because of other stuff, but he’s happy to get a bit of work from us when we need him. So that’s it, a four-way split.’
Marga Man got serious again. ‘Are yu sure ’bout dis? Dat’s not necessary yu know. Are yu sure you’ve read de relevant sections in de book?’
‘Yeah, we know,’ said Tyrone. ‘We took the music agreements book to the centre and studied it hard, and then we took it home and done some homework. We know what we’re saying.’
Ray kept his hand on the book and spoke with genuine sincerity. ‘We know that managers normally get a percentage and producers work on a points system, and we know that those are two separate jobs. But we also know that you’re more than a producer and manager to us, you’ve always been there for us, so we want to do this in a cooperative style.’
‘Yeah guy,’ Prem added. ‘We all got our jobs, we all got our responsibilities, but we’re all equal. That’s the way we want to run it.’
‘Well, you guys sound like you know what you’re ’bout,’ said Marga Man. ‘I got a meeting with Deaf Defying Records next week and I want yu to come. But first if we’re gonna do dis ting properly I want to draw up a contract for ourselves saying dat we want to work on a cooperative basis, and I want dat contract signed before we sign wid de record company. Yes we are friends, but if we want a sound business relationship wid dem we must have a sound business relationship wid each other. So paperwork must be done.’
After spending so much time studying the book the band knew exactly what he meant.
* * *
The next week Sam from Positivity gave the band a day off so that they could go to the record company with Marga Man. To the band’s amusement the company office was above ‘Lickit’, an adult shop in the heart of Soho. One could never have guessed that the building housed a record company. The name on the silver intercom box on the door simply said DDR.
‘What kind of a record company is this?’ Ray said as Marga Man announced his arrival to the receptionist via the intercom.
‘It’s an independent one,’ Marga Man replied.
Inside was another world. The brightly painted walls were covered with silver, gold and platinum discs, and with giant posters, the type normally seen on billboards. The receptionist led them into a side office. A man moved quickly towards Marga Man as they entered the room.
‘Hey, Marga me mate, how you doing? How’s the wife?’ he said, shaking Marga Man’s hand vigorously. Marga Man had the kind of look on his face that said, I know you, but not that well.
‘Meet de boys,’ Marga Man said, disconnecting his hand. ‘Pro Justice, Prem de la Prem and X-Ray-X.’
The man shook their hands vigorously. ‘Great to see you, how ya going, glad you could make it. I’m Wayne, but they call me Skelly. I’m the A and R man, which usually means spending a lot of time in damp clubs drinking cheap beer and listening to naff bands, but as you see this is a small company so I do a bit of everything – contracts, promotions, making coffee, washing-up, that sort of thing.’
Skelly was short and loud, mixed race with short dreadlocks. He dressed like a children’s entertainer. His red tracksuit bottoms and multi-coloured shirt dazzled their eyes and as he strutted around the office Ray couldn’t help thinking that he was saying, I may look like I’m an idiot, but I’m important, I’ve got my own office.
‘Please be seated, lads,’ he said, pointing to the four seats that had been pre-prepared. ‘It really is great to see you here; as soon as I heard the tape I thought that this was for us. We know that hip-hop is about to go big in Britain and we want to be at the forefront of this. Positive Negatives is the best I’ve heard yet and we want to back you all the way. Your sound is refreshing, it’s musically inventive, it has attitude, and it’s as good as anything coming from the States.’
‘And we want to keep it that way,’ said Ray.
‘Hey, we’ve only got the money, you’ve got the talent,’ Skelly said, smiling insincerely.
‘Yeah,’ said Ray, very sincerely. ‘But we don’t want you coming to tell us that we gotta water down our sound to get radio airplay our anything like that. We know what we want to do and if you want to give us money to help us that’s cool, but your money can’t buy our soul.’ Ray sat back, feeling pleased with himself. He felt in control, he knew that he represented the talent, he felt a confidence that he had not felt before, he felt right, he felt powerful.
Skelly was trying hard to sound as friendly as he could. ‘No way mate, that’s not what we’re about. You do what you do, it’s your thing, you have complete artist control. There is no debate about that. All we do is give you the money and you make the recording. Once we have the product all we have to do is let the public know how great it is. You concentrate on the art.’
‘For r
eal,’ said Ray.
Skelly went on, ‘And I think we’ll have no problem promoting you. There’s a big gap in the market and there’s not much competition right now. I would like to be able to get to work on the single straightaway, and I already have some ideas. The really good news is that the powers that be have given me a substantial budget to work with.’
Marga Man folded his arms and rested back on his seat. ‘Can we have simultaneous releases in other territories? We tink dat we should hit de States at de same time, and even Canada. Dis is not just a British ting yu know, Positive Negatives have a universal message for people all over.’
‘No problem, my man,’ Skelly answered eagerly. ‘Both “War Cry” and the album will be licensed for release in the States, Canada, Australia and France, and if all goes well we have other European territories in sight. And more good news: all those territories will have separate promotional budgets.’
‘And what about tour support?’ asked Marga Man.
‘Of course,’ replied Skelly. ‘We are keen to support any touring the band wants to undertake, we think touring would be a great idea. And by the way guys, you got a great name, kids are going to love it,’ he said, doing a double thumbs-up.
‘This is not just a kids thing,’ Ray said.
‘Yeah, no gimmick thing,’ Prem added, with Tyrone nodding in agreement.
‘No way,’ said Skelly quickly. ‘Of course not, this is for everyone. Hey, before you go, let me introduce you to someone. We don’t see him that often, so let’s catch him while he’s here.’ Skelly led them out of his office into another room where a man in his late thirties was sitting behind a large oak desk. ‘This is Duncan,’ he said. ‘The powers that be, the boss.’
‘I’m not the boss,’ said Duncan, ‘I just own the company. Pleased to meet you.’ He stood up and reached over his desk to shake everyone’s hands. He looked surprisingly timid, with thinning black hair and stubble on his face. His sharp black suit would have looked fine in one of the major companies, but made him look slightly out of place in an independent record company’s office.
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