LOVE RHYTHMS

CHAPTER 01: Just A Nobody

16th March, 2016         Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania

Jason stood at the entrance of the building that housed the GQ Records Studios, contemplating how he was going to face the most famous Music Producer in Tanzania, Draco in order to persuade the producer to sign him into his well known GQ Records Music label. At the time, Jason was just a broke teenager who was desperate to start a successful music career. At the age of 18, a lot of things had already gone wrong in Jason's life; first of all, he was a high school dropout. Add to the fact that he was still heart broken by his previous girlfriend who had left him for an older and richer guy.

Lucy was a beautiful girl, well sometimes she could also be either cute or hot depending on what designer clothes she had on at the time. She was his first love, his high school sweetheart to be exact. Lucy had broken up with Jason two months after Jason had decided to quit school. She had carried out her evil operation nicknamed "breaking Jason's fragile heart" at his birthday party in November, the previous year. It is safe to say that  Jason now hates his birthday. But that is a story for another time.

Anyway, it was currently 10:00 AM and the streets were already busy with people hustling. Jason's shirt was drenched with sweat, not because of the Dar-es-salaam heat... nope, he was sweating because he was nervous. The fact that flashbacks of how he was thrown out of Edgar's Studio were still fresh in his head, this was not helping his situation at all. Edgar had insulted him that he was the crappiest "wanna be" rapper he had ever seen,
"Wooah, wooah yo! Nigga, cut the shit that you are doing in my booth and get your ass out of my studio."
Jason had tried to persuade the producer to record with him one song but the producer was hell bent on kicking Jason out of his studio.

Jason's fear was due to Draco's legacy that had been widely spread in the local newspapers. Draco was known to be a man who smoked cannabis openly even though it was a banned drug in the country, he had a bad temper that had earned him several bruises on his face from the multiple fights that he had started in night clubs after he was utterly wasted and drunk. Some newspapers had even reported that he was prone to punch somebody even if he was sober provided that he was pissed off and close to the culprit. Jason knew that had to be very careful with the words that he spoke today or they were going to land him into some serious shit.

Jason entered the GQ Records studio's building and met Draco's secretary at the reception office;
"Hi, i'm Jason." He greeted the secretary while he was clearly still a nervous wreck.
"Okay, what can I help you with?" The secretary was showing that she was clearly bored while it was still early in the morning at her job.
"I aah...I...I have an appointment with Draco at ten-thirty today..." The secretary whose name tag on her shirt hinted her name to be "Jasmine", lazily went through the schedule to confirm Jason's appointment,
" Yeah, go ahead third floor, fifth door on your left, he'll be waiting for you." she answered him while she was struggling to find her phone that was ringing somewhere inside her huge purse.

Jason was now on the third floor, clearly panicking as he was walking mechanically towards the door that Jasmine had told him to head to.
He knocked once, twice but there was still no sign of the door being opened any time soon. He was sure that the producer hadn't heard him knocking as a heavy hip-hop beat was blasting unnecessarily loudly inside the room.

Jason grew impatient at the door and opened it, surprisingly finding it unlocked. He went in and found that the room was indeed the studio. It was dark in there as the room had no windows and the lights were switched off.
Jason was met with a strong smell of marijuana as his eyes met Draco's. He was a tall, African- Asian, heavily built guy who was light skinned with lots of tattoos. Draco's appearance only spelled danger. Yet the worst thing was that the producer seemed to have been pissed off already.