America's Top Player

Chapter 149: Taking down Adi, Kanye is completely confused

The chorus of "Old Town Road" is catchy and has a unique country Trap style.

This is the first time in several months that a male solo track has been released.

Although it is not the rock music that Li Ang is best at, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Rock music is generally regarded as having a certain ceiling in today's music market.

With the success of "Senorita", Li Ang has proved to the market that he is capable of mastering other musical styles.

What's more, rock music and country music have certain similarities.

The immortal Beatles and Eagles, whose works blurred the boundaries between rock and country.

Three days later, accompanied by Phil, Leon flew to Portland, the North American headquarters of Adidas.

On the same day, the "bang bang" album was released and available on streaming platforms.

Sales data has not yet been released, but the popularity on the Internet has reached a dominant level.

The combination of award-winning Beyoncé and sales queen Taylor Swift achieved the desired effect.

Especially after the microphone-grabbing incident, no one would have thought that the two Divas at the center of the topic could still work together.

With the recently popular "Street Coconut Crisp" as the producer, this work has already won in terms of topicality regardless of its quality.

"What a bunch of idiots." Phil fiddled with his phone on the plane. "Leon, look at this!"

As Cardi B's agent, the popularity of "bang bang" has brought him real benefits.

Cardi's status has been raised with this collaboration, and her value has skyrocketed.

Phil almost dreamed back to his heyday at the beginning of the millennium.

Li Ang stared at the other person's phone, and the page was stuck on a piece of news that had just happened.

A shooting occurred in front of a video store in Los Angeles.

The suspect is a white teenager, or perhaps it should be called a girl.

Because he is an awakened person.

His reason for committing the crime was very strange. After queuing for two hours, he still failed to buy the vinyl record of "Bang Bang".

As a die-hard fan of Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Leon, this fan was devastated.

He shot and wounded a man in the street and snatched his vinyl record.
Just for a record.

Li Ang's first reaction to this was: the thought processes of awakened people may be even more bizarre than those of Xiao Hei.

The news made the TV news, adding fuel to the sales of "Bang Bang".

Even those who don't care about music are curious about what kind of magical record this is.

"Very good." Li Ang suddenly thought of something and asked, "Don't you know a group of professional water army?"

"You mean Terrence?" Phil scratched his head.

Terrence is a famous water army leader in Brooklyn and a master-level figure in this industry.

He is a parasite that depends on the entertainment industry for survival, specializing in the business of water armies and concert ticket scalpers.

When Leon's first album "Take Me to Church" held a signing event in Brownsville, the water army invited by T-ray was Terrence's people.

"I don't quite remember his name. Give him a call."

"Why?" Phil was even more confused. "Our records are in short supply, and we still need to hire pirates?"

"Of course." Li Ang gave a mysterious smile. "I'm not asking this group of people to line up to build momentum. I'm asking them to create more physical conflicts over the rush to buy records. This will be very beneficial for online attention."

“Your ideas are always unexpected.”

After 2010, the landscape of the music industry has undergone fundamental changes.

In the past, the public measured the popularity of a singer based on radio request data and actual record sales.

Just look at whose works are played more frequently in barber shops, nightclubs, and fast food restaurants, and you will see who is more popular.

Now is the age of the Internet, and smartphones allow people to surf the Internet anytime and anywhere.

The search index and playback index on the Internet are the standards for measuring a singer's popularity.

Although there is no consensus in the industry on this point of view, Li Ang believes so.

Due to the extremely fast speed of information transmission on the Internet, authenticity is difficult to guarantee.

In this case, hype must be pervasive and use every possible means.

If there is no conflict, create conflict; if there is no hot spot, create a hot spot!
In the conference room of the Adidas headquarters building, Kanye and his agent had already arrived.

Kan Ye changed his previous confused expression and looked calm and confident.

He is far less experienced than Li Ang in street life, but he is very confident when it comes to design.

Even more confident than in music.

Whether it is sports brands such as Adidas and Nike, or luxury brands such as LV and Chanel.

Their time-tested designs were criticized by Kanye on social media.

He sincerely believed that he was a talented designer and that any product he launched would be a hit.

Even in the Fiji Cup, we are still far ahead of those professional manufacturers.

"Kan Ye~"

Kan Ye was staring at the screen of his mobile phone with great interest and didn't notice Li Ang and his group at all.

He didn't react until his name was called.

He immediately stood up and greeted him enthusiastically, "Brother Leon! How have you been lately?"

"As you can see, I'm still alive." Leon joked.

Kanye held his stomach and laughed, and it took him more than ten seconds to recover. "I told Didi that it couldn't have been you. You've always been misunderstood."

"Bro, what else can I say?" Li Ang patted Kanye's shoulder. "As long as you understand."

"Those ShxtO-block bastards will pay for their actions. Didi will never let them off."

Even Adi Vice President Torben, who was presiding over the meeting, couldn't understand the mutual admiration between the two.

Are these two really here to compete for an endorsement contract?

Their discussion did not stop until Li Ang and Kan Ye both sat down.

Only then did Li Ang notice that the other person's phone was playing T-ray's podcast "Rap on the Ground".

During the show, T-ray was bragging about the song "bang bang".

"Beyoncé, Taylor, Cardi B, Ro, as long as you are a normal American male youth, there is definitely one of them that you like."

"You must have done something to their posters or music videos before."

"And now you can have all three of them for the price of one record! Just imagine how cool that will be!"

"Don't hesitate. If you don't want to queue up at the video store, you can stream it now. Your fans have already jumped on it. What are you still hesitating about?"

T-ray’s eloquence remains as strong as ever, and even his commercials can accurately tap into the audience’s psychology.

"Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to visit adidas. It's a real honor for us," Torben said, quickly getting the conversation back on track. "You're both incredibly talented musicians, which made the decision difficult for us."

"So, as we said two months ago, the final design will be based on yours."

Li Ang and Kan Ye's laughter stopped abruptly.

The atmosphere became a little serious.

However, Kanye still looked relaxed. He did not think that Li Ang could come up with any decent sneaker design.

He even felt a little guilty towards Li Ang and whispered in his ear: "Sorry, Bro."

He firmly believed that he would win.

"It's okay. I'm happy for you," Leon said. "In fact, I'm here to congratulate you today."

Kanye's eyes lit up at the heartfelt speech.

He nodded to Li Ang and used his phone to signal his agent to hand over a white shoe box.

The box is engraved with the "Yeezy" trademark.

Li Ang couldn't help but lean over with his neck tilted. He was also very curious about what kind of work the other person would produce after he had stolen his thoughts.
Torben opened the shoe box and found a pair of pure white sneakers inside.

After being stunned for two seconds, his face suddenly darkened. "Mr. West, the design of your shoes is very good. They do look very street-style. But..." "These shoes look a little familiar."

Li Ang breathed a sigh of relief, unable to hide the smile on his face.

This chunky pair of sneakers is identical to the Air Yeezys that Kanye designed for Nike.

Doesn’t this look familiar?
Facing the doubts, Kanye remained calm and said, "Take another look. If you're not an idiot, you should be able to see the difference."

Upon hearing this, Torben and a group of executives gathered around the shoes to study them.

They soon noticed the difference.

Compared to Air Yeezy, this pair of shoes uses Adidas' unique Boots sole technology, which makes it look less bulky.

The sticky tape has been completely removed and becomes entirely shoelaces.

"This is a brilliant use of Boots technology."

"Avant-garde style"

“It’s indeed a big breakthrough compared to Air Yeezy.”

Seeing the Adidas executives praising him repeatedly, Li Ang almost couldn't hold back.

Is changing shoelaces from sticky tape a major breakthrough?
Kanye also spread his hands to Li Ang with an innocent look on his face.

That expression seemed to say: Bro, there’s nothing I can do, I’m just that good.

"We are very satisfied with Mr. West's design," Torben said, putting the shoebox aside. "It also makes us look forward to what Mr. Li Ang will come up with."

As soon as he finished speaking, Leon gestured for Phil to bring over a cardboard box.

There were no markings on the pure white shoe box.

Even so, Kanye was still shocked. There seemed to be something wrong with the script.

Someone who is ready to give up still takes the time and effort to prepare a pair of samples?
This sample shoe is beautifully shaped and intricately crafted.

What made Kanye even more confused was that it looked familiar.

With the patent for the design, Li Ang contacted a shoe factory in Dongda through the Evil Angel OEM manufacturer.

In a magical city called Putian, a pair of shoes can be perfectly restored with just a picture.

Looking at the crudely made pure white shoe box, Torben looked a little disdainful at first.

But the moment the evil was revealed he was completely speechless.

The design of this shoe is highly recognizable.

The shoe body adopts unique weaving technology to present a unique texture, making the whole shoe look both fashionable and technological.

This is a design that has never appeared on the market and can be distinguished from Nike's AJ series products at a glance.

The key point is that the Boots sole technology, which Adidas values most, is fully integrated with the design of the entire shoe.

Competitor Kan Ye was stunned.

He was extremely conceited about his talent for design.

In his eyes, the works of famous designers are all garbage, and he only recognizes his own designs.

The samples that Li Ang brought out were completely flawless.

Kanye even felt that if he were the representative of the brand, he would give the endorsement contract to Li Ang without hesitation.

"The woven upper is a bold design," exclaimed marketing director Thomas. "Few people have thought of applying it to a pair of sneakers."

After a series of exclamations, Torben was the first to come to his senses. "Isn't this a bit too bold?"

Nike has defined the standard for a perfect pair of sneakers with its AJ series.

From then on, no matter what kind of competing products other brands launched, they were all under the shadow of the AJ series.

Their products are just poor imitations of the AJ series.

The only reason for doing this is that only by imitating Nike can they barely survive.

The sneakers designed by Li Ang have nothing to do with the AJ series, and are even different from any similar products on the market.

This is a very bold move.

"Bold?" Li Ang said, "Are you willing to follow Nike and be a copycat? Don't be silly, man. For Generation Z, personality is more important than practicality."

“Personality is the first requirement.”

Adidas executives nodded repeatedly.

Even if Li Ang didn't respond, the answer was obvious.

Kanye's design is just an upgraded version of Air Yeezy 1.

And that shoe had already failed once.

Li Ang's core fan base consists of young people with a rebellious spirit.

They hate all traditions.

Wearing revealing clothing on the street, shaking her ass and giving the middle finger to rural rednecks.

I wish I could destroy all the old things.

Even if only this fan base is willing to pay for this pair of sneakers, this endorsement contract will definitely be worth it.

Five minutes later, Adidas management made the final decision.

Torben stood up and shook hands with the loser Kanye first.

Then he said to Li Ang: "Congratulations, Mr. Li Ang. This is the beginning of our great cooperation."

"What?" Li Ang scratched his head pretentiously and glanced at Kan Ye.

"Bro, you deserve this." Kanye said sincerely, "You are the first designer who can impress me. It seems that I still have a lot to learn."

This is what he said from the bottom of his heart.

When he saw the one by Li Ang, his mind was filled with only one thought - I am jealous of him, why didn't I design this pair of sneakers?
"It's my honor, Mr. Torben." Leon shook the other party's hand, and then shook hands with a group of executives in turn.

Torben's assistant took out the contract that had been prepared long ago.

The content of the contract is the same as previously agreed, Adidas will pay Li Ang an endorsement fee of US$3 million a year.

The term is three years.

The endorsement fee is paid in one lump sum, and the terms stipulate a series of breach of contract behaviors.

The most important clause is that during the contract period, Li Ang is not allowed to endorse any clothing or footwear products of other sports brands.

Otherwise, it will be regarded as a breach of contract and double compensation for the endorsement fee will be paid.

In addition, he will also receive a 10% share of the sales profits of this series of sneakers.

"If you have no objection to the contents of the contract, we will officially sign the contract in three days," Torben said.

"I have no objection."

“It’s a great start.”

"Pleasant to work with."

The two parties reached a cooperation agreement in front of Kan Ye, and his face instantly became extremely ugly.

"By the way, Mr. Leon, do you have any ideas for the name of this new series of sneakers?" Torben said, "If we don't have a name yet, our marketing department can help."

"Of course." Li Ang had already thought of the name of this new series of sneakers, "Leezy."

"Leezy?"

"Yes, Leezy (chestnut shoes)," Li Ang said. "You can immediately hear my personal label."

Adidas executives initially thought the name "Good" was too close to Yeezy.

But after thinking about it carefully, I think it is very suitable.

Only Kanye had his head full of bold question marks after hearing the name "Leezy".

"WTF" He stared at Li Ang in endless confusion.

His eyes were blurred at this moment.

It was even more confusing than when he ran into Kardashian performing magic for Leon at a crazy party.

(End of this chapter)