fangs / matt champion

part nine

The guys had finally gotten situated at their house in South Central. Seeing Ian again was a literal show, the two of us screaming like little kids. I had really missed everyone. Ian introduced me to everyone I hadn't already met, like Romil, HK, and Dom. There were so many of them now and I was really happy to see how cool they all were and how excited they were to be working together. Being in the house and feeling all of the energy was honestly the best from a creativity standpoint. They had been recording songs like crazy and having a great time while doing so. Ian wanted to release three albums in one year, make the impossible possible. They would all be good and they would put them on the map. He'd also worked out a deal to do a show about the band and following him on his tour on Viceland. Ian was honestly on another level. He was always working hard to be the artist he wanted to be.

Matt had kept his dog walking gig in LA for side money. We went over to the neighborhood he walked the dogs in all the time, not much business in South Central, and went out to walk the dogs together. It was a good way to spend time together when I wasn't busy with school. Things were going really well for me. One of my songs, Baby Blue, had gotten recognized by a ton of people on Twitter and my numbers were growing. I was in the process of working on an album and organizing everything together. That song, like many others, was written while I was missing Matt. But now he was here, right in LA where we were both destined to thrive. I know the Hollywood dream is so cliche, but when you want to launch a music career it's so much easier to do so in a city full of such creative people. Brockhampton's mixtape had been received relatively well. I was really proud of them for what they put out. It was honestly really well done. Joba in particular had really outdone himself.

Ameer, Matt, and Joba, and a few others had to stay behind while Ian left on tour. He was working on so many projects, music wise and filming wise. He was just such a creative person. The selfish part of me liked that Matt was staying here. I knew they would take off soon and I wanted to be together as much as we could. I wasn't really one to believe in soulmates, but Matt was the person I easily saw myself spending the rest of my life with. He was so patient and understanding, so loving and so passionate. Everything about him was perfect. We sat on one of the couches at the house, listening to a few rough demos Joba and Jabari asked us to look at. Rob was sitting at the kitchen, eating a sandwich and typing up something on his laptop. "Cat, I heard you're hispanic." said Rob from the kitchen. "Yeah! My mom is Colombian and my dad was from Cuba." I smiled widely. "No shit, que interesante. Finalmente llegó alguien que me entiende cuando hablo español. (Finally, someone who can understand Spanish)" he laughed.

"Coño, que chevere. Hace años que tengo amigo latino. (Dude, how cool. It's been years since I've had a latino friend.)" I said, giggling as I saw Matt's confused face. "I need to work on my spanish. Y'all could be talking shit about me to my face and I wouldn't even know." he joked, making us laugh. "I would never." I winked, laying my head on his shoulder and resting my legs across his lap. I nodded my head as I listened to the song. smiling as Matt's verse started. "Lowkey you're a heartthrob?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's a good fucking lyric." he smirked, looking down at me. I smiled up at him and pressed a soft kiss to his neck. "As long as the new things you're talking about are me, I don't care." I joked, making him smile. We listened through the rest of the tracks that were on the way to being finalized and they were all really good. Once the tracks were through, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. Ian had hooked me up with one of Jon's friends, Ana, who was now managing me. I answered her call quickly. "Hey Ana, what's up?" I asked, putting the call on speaker.

"I just got a call from Banks' manager. They want you to open for her on tour. It would start at the beginning of June and end mid-August so you won't miss school. You'll be in NYC in June so I'd probably be able to score you a late night performance." she explained. "Are you serious?" I asked excitedly. "There's just one thing. You need to sign onto a label owned by Universal." said Ana cautiously. "Are they even offering me a record deal?" I sighed, standing from the couch. "I got your stuff over to my friends at Capitol Records and Republic Records and both bit. It's up to you now." she admitted. "Can I think about it?" I wondered, biting my lip nervously. "Yeah, I need an answer by tonight." she agreed. We said our goodbyes before I crashed back down onto the couch with a huff. "What are you gonna do?" asked Matt. I shrugged, putting my head in my hands. "This is a lot to take in." I mumbled, crawling into his lap. "I'm here." he sighed, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my forehead.

"I should call Ian and get his opinion." I realized, scrolling to his contact and Facetiming him. Matt and I greeted him once he answered and filled him in on the situation. "You know how I feel about labels, Cat." he sighed, shaking his head. "I know, but you have other people to carry Brockhampton forwards. I'm just one person." I reasoned. "Let me get Jon, hold on." he groaned, walking to the side of the stage where he'd be playing tonight. Jon and HK were talking about something when Ian found them. "Jon, Cat needs your advice on something." said Ian, handing him the phone. I updated him on what was going on, and he took a minute to think about it. "I trust Ana, if it's between those two labels, I would sign with Capitol. They work with a lot less mainstream acts than Republic does and they won't skimp you out to pay for the big names." he advised. I thanked him a million times before ending the call. "So?" asked Matt, urging me to share my thoughts. "I'm signing onto a label." I whispered, eyes wide.