' 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡 ' › D. SWING

19.

"My life had began to change. And not in a good way."—

DeVante.

Somehow I founded myself in a room clouded with smoke from blunts that had been lit, surrounded by strangers who latched onto us, claimin' to be our friends. It was all so sudden. We went from church boys to bad boys, though we didn't like when people called us that. JoJo and K-Ci had picked up a habit of drinkin', even though they were too young. I had picked up a habit of smokin' weed while Dalvin smoked occasionally. He seemed to be the only one who had his head on straight. He wasn't gettin' sucked into the music industry like we were. The fast life just wasn't his style. I mean, don't get me wrong, he loved a party but he wasn't much into the favors.

I had been sittin' at the soundboard, makin' adjustments to the beat I had made which was more on the smoother side, noddin' my head to it's rhythm as I allowed the high I was on to consume me. Kim. We were months into our relationship and I have to admit, I had developed deeper feelings for her than I had intended. I knew she was bad for me emotionally but when it came to her beauty and the sex we had, I couldn't leave. I wouldn't, even though I knew I would regret it in the end. It was like she was my fix. Like I was some type of junkie when it came to her. If I had to choose between the high I felt when it came to weed and the high I felt when it came to reachin' my climax with Kim, I would pick her. I didn't care about the cars and money when we were became one with one another. She had something on me that I couldn't quite understand.

I began to write in my notepad as the words came to me so effortlessly. Within five minutes, I was done. In the booth with a blunt in my hand, my eyes hooded as I stood in front of the mic and finally spoke.

"Hit me", I said, then beat dropped and I took a quick pull from my blunt. "All the chronic in the world couldn't even mess with you." I blew out the rest of the smoke from my lungs that hadn't already escaped as I was talkin'. "You're the ultimate high", I continued while looking through the glass at Kim who was sitting on the couch next to a random groupie. "Hear what I'm sayin', baby? .... Now, check this out." She smirked as she watched me, running her fingers through her thick curly hair that I loved to pull on so much. She knew I was hooked. And she loved it.

Once I had recorded the intro, K-Ci entered the booth after me to lay down the first verse.

"Take my money, my house, and my cars. For one hit of you, you can have it all, baby babe. 'Cause makin' love every time we do, girl it's worse than drugs, 'cause I'm an addict over you. And you know that I", he sang.

I can't leave you alone. You got me feenin'.

Within two hours, we had the track done and now I was layin' down background vocals with the synthesizer to add to the sound of it. I hadn't even noticed that Kim had disappeared because I was so focused on makin' sure everything was perfect. Perfect enough to be a single.

The record label wasn't really behind us on this new sound we were goin' for but I didn't care, I loved it. Regardless of if the label liked it or not, this time we were doin' our own style. Enough  of the whole soundin' like Guy and Jeff Redd bullshit. New Jack Swing was dyin' out and there was no way in hell I was gonna' let Jodeci get caught up because of Uptown.

We were almost done with the album but they were bitchin' at us about a single to keep the fans occupied and askin' us to do somethin' for the soundtrack of some movie Cheryl from Salt n' Pepa was supposed to star in. I think it was called Who's the Man? or somethin'. It ain't supposed to even released until April of next year but for whatever reason, we were bein' rushed to meet some stupid deadline. With the pressure of the album on my shoulders as well some singles I had to have done in the next week along with the soundtrack, it was all too much for me to deal with. Things were always easier to get done when Rhonda was around, but with the way I treated her, I knew she wasn't gonna' come back and help.