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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July 10, 1985 Chicago, Illinois
"Lyric, Lyric, Lyric!" The crowd chanted.
The wave was rocking and I was on cloud nine. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun? Double Platinum. Blow? Number one hit on Black radio and was soon to be scraping Gold. GoodnessGracious? That was number four on Billboard's Top 100. Baby, I was buzzing! There was nobody hotter than me. Warner Brothers released my album, MidnightCity, the week before and it was certified Gold as it bubbled under platinum. My mind's initial thoughts were fairly arrogant. Really, who can stop me right now?! Excuse my arrogance. I had to humble myself. Life was just all that at the moment.
The clock struck midnight when I'd stepped off the stage following an impromptu performance in a local nightclub a friend was performing in. I got in the car and tuned into my favorite station. "You're tuning into Power 92.3 FM, Chicago! We've got the brand new single by Prince & The Revolution! Here we are with Pop Life!" I twisted the knob to the highest volume setting as I drove back to my apartment. I remember traffic was crazy that night.
What's the matter with your life? Is economy bringing you down? Is the mailman jerking you 'round? Did he put your million dollar check in someone else's box?
Drumming on my steering wheel, I sang along the song in its entirety. When I made it home, I was dog tired. It took me an hour to get back to our pad that was only twenty minutes away. Traffic was backed up for miles because of my low scale show. I was in a club called Sticky Mickey's, a place owned by the man who supported me most prior to getting signed. Joey asked for the favor of a quick song and I proudly gave him five. It was a beautiful way to end that Wednesday night.
I sat down on my bed as I was stripping my clothes off by layers. I took my behind straight home. I needed some sleep if I was going to be leaving the next day.
Aaliyah walked in. "You packed, babe?" I hummed in reply as I laid in my bed. "Can't believe you're going to fucking France! Like, oh my God!"
"It's only for a little bit."
Story time.
I was touching major keystones overseas. My European demand was going through the roof and I had no idea. Uncle Dorian claimed it was all written in the plan. When the time felt appropriate, it was decided that Europe would finally be getting its own leg of my upcoming tour. I was flying over there to do press and build up the anticipation for the show. The first leg began in two weeks from then. I was taking a three-day moment of rest to complete a press run. I was going to also be touring until sometime nearing the middle of that September.
This was where things got a little sticky and had I been six years younger, my uncle would be facing major backlash about the rules of overworking a minor.
Two days before this, I was on the phone with Prince, like usual. It was a conversation that lasted almost two hours. I was working on my birthday so he made sure I made it to his birthday, one of the coolest costume parties I'd ever been to. That was the last time I saw him, hence why we had two hours worth of catching up to do.
