Music Heals All Wounds

Chapter 20

Essence

That next morning I was up by 8am eager to get the last song of my EP completed. This project was incredibly important to me, so I had to make sure everything was perfect.

I may or may not have found the missing piece I needed to finish it off, but I wasn't too sure. When it came down to the feature, I was being extremely particular. I didn't want just anybody hopping on the song, it had to be the right person and our voices had to mesh well together.

Naomi Kidd was an artist that I've been following for a while now, she's been in the industry for about two years and just recently won a "Best New R&B Artist" award at the Soul Train Music Awards. I had a lot of respect for her because she was really out here on the grind. We followed each other on social media, just commenting on each other's posts until I felt bold enough to slide in her DMs about collaborating.

Naomi seemed like a reserved type of person who probably got anxiety from too much social interaction, so imagine how surprised I was when she said she would be down to work together.

"That's a hit right there." Naomi said as we listened to the finalized version of the song and after playing it back I was now confident that I made the right decision choosing her as the feature.

The way both our voices sounded together was crazy, it should be a crime to sound this good. I think Naomi being on the song actually made me sound better - she pushed me vocally, like an iron sharpens iron kind of thing. "Damn, I'm ready for you to release this today."

"Now that the song is finished, my EP is officially complete. So it's only a matter of time before I release the whole thing. Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule just to do this favor for me. Girl you don't even know the struggle I went through trying to find the perfect person for this."

"Aww, I'm the perfect person?" She asked as a goofy grin came across her face. "For real though, I feel honored to be a part of your first official project, I know how much this means to you. I was in your shoes before, not too long ago really and I know how hard it is to connect with genuine people in this industry. So it was my pleasure, honestly."

"I've heard so many complaints about the industry this or the industry that. Do I need to change my profession? Let me know now." I laughed a bit, but it was really the truth. Everybody and their mama had been saying the same thing and everybody can't be lying, so at this point I was just gonna proceed with caution.

"Oh most definitely. Get out now, while you still can and don't look back." She joked before getting serious. "All jokes aside, you have to be a mentally strong person in this business. Between the trolls on the internet, the shady blogs, the cutthroat executives, and the fake ass artists that want you to fail cause' they only see you as competition - I don't know who is worse. I have so many horror stories I could tell you just from my personal experience."

"We got time." I told her, intrigued to hear what she had to say. I could only imagine the things she's witnessed and experienced. I knew I was probably crazy for voluntarily signing myself up for this, but it was no turning back now - my EP was dropping soon.

Naomi and I talked for a while, just getting to know each other beyond social media. I could tell she was very guarded and selective of the people who she allowed to have access to her. She was introverted, but extremely sweet.

Once our studio session was over, I tried to call Drew to tell her the good news about the EP being completed, but my call kept going to voicemail. After the third try, I just gave up and called Maya instead.