An overly-eager artist being welcomed into the industry is taken on a bumpy ride as she learns life does not have as many sunny days as she thought. Within the process, she comes to learn that her tour guide is a lot more important to her than she e...
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March 30th, 1985 New York, New York
Nothing changed. Months had passed and nothing changed. Aaliyah and I still were swapping back and forth between each other as we took care of Eddie. I still hadn't talked to my mother and, at this point in time, I didn't care. When I'm worried about her I asked Aaliyah to call. I hadn't talked to my father much. If I worried about him, Uncle Dorian called. I can admit that my life became a tad bit less chaotic, which meant I had time to truly talk to my Uncle Dorian. I made him aware of everything that happened with my parents and he couldn't believe it. In fact, he initially refused to believe it. It took me letting him hear a conversation between Eddie and I for him to realize I was not bringing any dramatics into a typical disagreement.
The biggest thing annoying me wasn't my parents. The biggest thing annoying me by then was Prince. After the blow up, I saw him a couple times. Each time I saw him, no words were exchanged. We hadn't spoken. Frankly, I didn't 'give a shit if we did' as that was what I kept telling myself. I was still angry with him. I was coaching myself into believe I never wanted to see him again. Every time I got deep down the hole of my hateful mantra, I had to stop myself as I thought about the truth. Yes I do, why am I lying? Damn did he have such a way of making me feel like a speckle of dust. His words still stung as they lingered throughout my thoughts.
He was always on television though. He was getting bigger and bigger every single day. I even watched him win an Oscar! I was ashamed by how much I did miss him. I would've loved to congratulate him. My life worked in my favor as it gave me uniquely crafted excuses. I was genuinely was too busy to pick up the phone. After all, I was on Broadway.
My reasoning for going to Broadway wasn't exposed to me for many moon cycles. Uncle Dorian hid it from me well but Atlantic was prepping to drop me. The main executives who fought for me left the label and as a Black woman signed to a label focused on White Rock and Pop acts, I'd been left for dead. Uncle Dorian decided sending me to Broadway was our best next move as he figured things out. Broadway kept my name circulating, made me some good money, and I gained a new experience to add under my belt.
I'd just woke up in the hotel room I'd been staying in for the past few months. My beautiful Uncle Dorian extended my deal from a weekend of Broadway to two weeks. He had no idea what he was doing. Uncle Dorian was doing his best as he winged my every career move. He was working on a whim. I was not necessarily upset at that but I'd much rather work on the music. I'd been in New York for about a month and a half by then. I felt like it was a stretch for me to only go to three week's worth of rehearsals to prepare for a show that took probably six months to prepare. Somehow I was able to pull it off... Although, some of the public disagreed.
I sat in bed one fine early morning watching the television. "I just do not think Lyric can do it. Someone of her kind does not exactly qualify for the role. Maybe if–"
Click.
"Lyric is doing a great job, but isn't the musical about a woman from Thailand? I think—"
