The last thing was the cover.
June had both options up side by side. Two different directions, both strong. I'd been going back and forth for two weeks but when I walked in and looked at them together it was obvious.
"Second one," I said.
June looked at it. "Yeah."
"I want all my albums to look like that."
She made a note and closed the first option.
We went through the rest sequencing, clearances, the rollout. Sony had been working the backend for weeks. Everything was ready.
"June 3rd," the label rep said.
I looked at June. She nodded.
"June 3rd."
We posted it that afternoon. Cover, date, title. Everywhere at once. Within an hour the notifications had become noise. I put my phone down and left.
* * *
A few days later June called.
"Breakfast Club wants you."
"When?"
"Week before the drop."
"Maddy's coming."
She booked two tickets. I told Maddy that night. She said she wasn't answering any questions. I told her she might have to answer one or two. She said she'd answer them badly. I said that was fine. She smiled and said okay then.
We flew out the night before. She had never been to New York. She didn't say that but I knew from the way she looked out the window on the descent — the whole city spread out below us, every block lit. She kept her hand on mine on the armrest all the way down.
The hotel was good. She walked through the room, sat on the bed, bounced once.
"This is acceptable."
"High praise."
"Don't push it."
She showered, got into bed in one of my shirts, and was asleep before I was. I sat up going through what I wanted to say and what I didn't. Not nervous. Just prepared.
* * *
I woke up before the alarm.
I was staring at the ceiling, running things in my head, when Maddy moved next to me. She propped herself up on one elbow and looked at me for a second. Hair still messy, no expression yet, just awake.
Then she leaned over and kissed me. Slow
When she pulled back she looked at me.
"You're killing it today," she said.
"Yeah."
"I know you know that. I just wanted to say it."
She laid back down and pulled the blanket up and closed her eyes again.
I lay there for a minute.
Okay.
Then I got up and started getting ready.
* * *
The studio was smaller than it looked on camera. Three chairs across from the hosts, cameras on all angles. The room felt tight not small just sectioned off.
Maddy sat next to me. Bag on her lap, legs crossed, completely unbothered. She looked like she'd done this before.
Charlamagne, Envy, and Angela came in. Handshakes, settled, and it started.
They started with the music. Where I came from, the EP, the numbers, the Sony deal, what changed and what didn't. I talked through it straight.
Charlamagne asked about the album title.
"Till Death Do Us Part. Big title for a first album."
"It's about love in the hood," I said. "Not just romantic love. Love for your people, for where you came from. What you stay loyal to when everything is trying to take it from you. And what that ends up costing."
We talked about the EP, the trial, the album as what came after what I had to say once I'd had enough distance to actually understand what I'd been through.
Then Charlamagne leaned back.
"The trial. People are still talking. Were you in a gang?"
"No."
"But you were into things."
"I was seventeen working for a man who was running more than a shop. When I found out what it actually was I tried to get out. I got pulled into something before I could. I testified, jury came back not guilty, and I made an album. That's the whole story."
He looked at me for a second. "That's real."
"Yeah."
Then Angela turned to Maddy.
"What's it like dating an up and coming rapper?"
Maddy took a second. Like she was actually deciding how much to give.
"He's amazing," she said. "Like genuinely. We argue sometimes, we're both stubborn, but at the end of it I always know he actually cares about me. Not about what I look like on his arm or what I add to the image. He cares about me specifically. That's not as common as it should be."
Angela nodded. "And are you worried about groupies? Because the attention is only going to grow."
Maddy smiled. Not the warm kind. The unbothered kind.
"No."
Angela waited for more.
Maddy looked at her. "Thats it just no."
The room laughed. Angela laughed too. Charlamagne looked at me.
"She's confident."
"She should be," I said.
We moved on.
* * * Till death do us part
The party was the night of the drop.
June booked a private room downtown. Small, the right size. June and Savannah, Mom and Gia, Kat in something red, Valentina already loud the second she walked in.
Mom pulled me aside early.
"I'm proud of you."
"I know."
She fixed my collar and went back to the room.
Gia found me later with a drink in her hand I chose not to ask about.
"Track three," she said.
"I know."
"Goes crazy."
I laughed.
Maddy moved through the room easy talking to everyone, laughing at something Kat said, checking on Valentina. She caught me watching her at some point and raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're doing the thing."
"What thing."
"Beig weird just staring."
She came over and stood next to me and looked at the room.
"You did it," she said.
"Yeah."
She picked up my drink and took a sip and handed it back. "Come be a person."
I went.
I heard someone walking sayig "i was born in 01 but im like 97 hov" i laughed