Page 15 of Krist and Moanie
Then the beat started again and he was doing what he did best, even on one of the most arrogant, cocky songs.
“My crown heavy, but I wear it like it’s stitched into my dome
I’m undisputed in the booth, nah I’m no king
It’s just my throne
Every bar I deliver, the equivalent to a body
Type to leave your whole legacy gone.”
He whispered the last line into the mic creating a nice, raspy, guttural theme for the verse.
The entire time he dropped those lines, my eyes were attached to him. He was so creative, so prolific that I couldn’t help but look at him.
He was staring back at me, probably wondering why I was looking at him so intensely. I had been doing it all night, my entire being obsessed with his raw and unfiltered talent and how it oozed from him.
“That’s it, Krist. Unless you have something else you wanna record, I’ll hit you up with the final sounds for this in a few days.Now we just need that last song,” Saheed mused as I watched Krist hang up the headphones and exit the booth.
When he reentered the production room, his body was immediately against mine. His chest to my shoulder and arms around me.
“You hear me, Krist? One song, bro, and this mixtape will be a work of complete fucking art.”
Krist nodded. From what I observed being around him, he wasn’t the type to take compliments or praise well. It was because of how he grew up, festering a feeling of unworthiness. No, he wasn’t the type to hide his head or look down, because he was far from that. He just didn’t believe he had talent.
“You wanna hear what I have so far?” Saheed offered.
I looked to Krist who was skeptical at first but nodded a few seconds later.
Saheed moved a few things around and clicked a few buttons before Krist’s voice filled the speakers on playback. Though some work had to be done, I loved everything about it, from the natural rasp of his tone to the way, in most moments, he allowed the beat to overshadow him. When we finished listening to the playback, Krist said a few more words to his engineer before he and I left hand in hand, headed to his truck.
“You staying with me tonight?” he asked during the brief walk.
“Do you want me to?” I quizzed, knowing damn well I wanted to stay with him tonight. But I liked being stubborn and wanted to hear him ask me to stay. He opened my door and I got in, then he closed it and rounded the truck. My eyes were on him the whole time, wondering if I should stay with him or take my hot ass home.
“You must like fucking with me?” he asked as soon as he was inside.
“I do. Now, I’ll ask again…” I paused for dramatics, peering at him.
He didn’t look at me, but the knowing expression on his face while he pulled out of the studio lot and merged into traffic was sending me. The man was so cocky he didn’t respond, he knew I was coming home with him.
“Do you want me to?”
He grinned and nodded. “Yeah, Moanie, I want you to stay with me. Shit probably wasn’t implied when I asked your difficult ass, huh?”
I laughed. “Then I guess it’s settled. I’m staying with you.”
“Bet.” A comfortable silence filled the car. His hand rested on my thigh, every so often gripping it firmly before letting go. He was thinking, about what I wondered. I couldn’t be one of those “what are you thinking about” hoes, so I had to ask in a different way. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m wondering what this next song is gonna be. I feel like I gotta flow different.”
I nodded. “Understood. Let it come to you. I didn’t know you were working on a mixtape. That’s so dope.”
“It wasn’t my intention, but when the work started to come together after ‘1of 1’,I couldn’t let it pass me by. I feel like I’m supposed to be doing this, you know?”
“Because you are and I am so happy for you.” I smiled, genuinely excited about his journey.”
He nodded and grew quiet again, eyes focused on the road. “I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something. Like, I got plenty of tracks I could throw on it, but I need that one outlier. That one song.”
