Page 26 of Beautiful Harmonies

“I’m sure, and I am nervous. I’m nervous about the media attention. I’m not nervous about letting the world know that you’re the man I chose.”

“That’s good to know, baby. Well, I have to go inside for this interview. I’ll text you when I come out.”

“Okay. I’m about to go to practice. I’ll call you later.”

“A’ight, beautiful.”

“Bye, handsome.”

I ended the call and made my way inside with my escort. I had a feeling there would be a crowd outside once I was done. The receptionist smiled and led me to what I knew was Rod’s studio. When she opened the door, he smiled as he went to commercial. Standing from his seat, he slapped my hand. “Deontray! It’s great to have you in the studio again.”

“Thanks for having me, Rod.”

“No thanks needed. The music speaks. We have to have you on when you drop fire like this. Is this just an EP, or will there be a full album?”

“It’s gonna be a full album. I have one more song to wrap up for it.”

“Hell yeah. Have a seat, man. I got directives from your manager about what subjects couldn’t be discussed. I totally get that. When I found out arrests were made, I knew this wasn’t just a fun time being had. I wouldn’t disrespect her in that manner, but Idowanna talk about some shit I saw today!”

I chuckled as he smiled at me. “I figured you would.”

“So we good on that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Okay. When this commercial is done, we gon’ be live.”

I nodded. I played with my phone, wishing I could be with Kamari. Mi’Junae was right in a sense. I was possessive, but toadd to that, I could be clingy. I wanted Kamari with me all the time. This being apart for weeks at a time was hard as fuck. I was singing that Troop song religiously, sounding like a weak ass nigga.

The killing part about it was that Mi’Junae wasn’t even tripping on me. It seemed as if she was just as connected to Kamari as I was. This shit was crazy. I had never felt like this for a woman, and the craziest part was that I hadn’t even had sex with her yet. That was how I knew this had to be real. Sex wasn’t clouding my judgment or making my emotions go haywire.

Cutting my thoughts short, Rod said, “Welcome to the Rod show where I interview a local artist, giving them exposure. Today is different. Today, if anything, this young man is giving us exposure. Let’s welcome Detroit’s own, Deontray!”

I chuckled as he smiled at me. This man had always been down for me, even when I was trying to be somebody. I sat closer to the mic and said, “What’s up, everybody?”

“What’s up, indeed. You’ve been doing a lot. First of all, congratulations on winning an American Music Award! That’s pretty big!”

“Yes, sir! Thank you so much.”

“So what has been your driving force? Before you reached stardom, you told me that your mother believed in you even more than you believed in yourself. I know that she’s passed away since then. So has your inspiration changed, or do you still look to her for that extra push?”

I nodded. “I choose to honor her memory by doing my very best. I constantly try to outdo myself, and you’ll see that when this new album drops. She is still my driving force. When I sing something and use foul language, I can still hear her saying,Now, Deon. You can leave some of that stuff to the imagination. You ain’t gotta be so damn vulgar.”

I chuckled, and Rod did as well. “But still… it’s her pushing me to enter talent shows, telling me I’m just as good, if not better, than everyone else competing. It’s those words of encouragement that help me keep my focus.”

He nodded with a tight-lipped smile. “Well, I, for one, can’t wait to see what her inspiration has helped you create this time. The single, ‘No Bounds,’ is getting plenty of traction and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. We aren’t going to let it, either. We’ll be back after this.”

He stopped recording and played my single. Once the mics were off, he smiled. “We’ll go to the trending topic when we come back.”

I nodded. “So you still interviewing a lot of artists out this way?”

He slowly shook his head. “Not really. Young people don’t listen to the radio much anymore. That’s why I’m grateful for you coming and showing us love. With all the streaming platforms out there, we are barely hanging on, man.”

“I could never turn my back on y’all. You helped get my name out to the masses. Hey, I have an idea. How about we do a concert here in Detroit? You and I can partner and get local acts to perform, and I can perform and possibly get some bigger names here as well.”

His eyebrows lifted. “You would do that for us?”

“Absolutely.”

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