“Silence Is For Suckers”
INT. DARK NITE RECORDS - DAY
It’s not much of a job. Basically, Matt’s getting coffee and fast food and drops off mail. Mostly he sits by the receptionist NIECY WILLIAMS and keeps would be MCs from bum’s rushing the offices. Gary Tee comes out and says Dark Nite label head DOUGIE BAILEY wants a cassette with a new track taken to the studio where CTC (aka COAST TO COAST), a promising young MC, is working on his first LP.
INT. RECORDING STUDIO, MANHATTAN - EVENING
When Big Matt arrives at the studio with the cassette. CTC sits with his engineer and some friends smoking trees. They offer Big Matt a hit. They listen to the beat on the cassette. Big Matt suggests CTC use a different sample than what Dark Nite suggested. CTC likes Big Matt’s idea. Instead of rhyming over the track Dougie sends over, CTC uses Big Matt’s idea. A couple of hours later an angry Gary calls the studio wondering where Big Matt is.
INT. DARK NITE RECORDS - NIGHT
Matt arrives back at Dark Nite’s offices. Niecy looks at him shaking her head.
Niecy: Dougie wants to see you.
Gary stops him on the way to the president’s office.
Gary: You just listen and maybe he’ll give you some cash before he fires you. Whatever you do leave my name out of it.
INT. DOUGIE’S OFFICE - NIGHT
Dougie, a bearded black man with a taste for cigars, sits behind his desk in a track suit.
Dougie: I understand that you suggested that CTC change the track I send over for him to record. A track that I approved.
Matt: I did. I was at Latin Quarters and saw how people reacted to that other beat. I don’t think anybody’s used it yet in a record.
Dougie: Normally I would fire you. I don’t like being contradicted. But I do like having my work improved upon. You know what A&R means?
Matt: No.
Dougie: It means it bring me hits.
INT. MATT’S OFFICE - DAY
Matt gets a little broom closet of an office and a stack of cassettes. He listens. Beat after beat after beat. It’s tedious. Finally, he finds a beat he likes and brings it to CTC, who already has confidence in his taste. With Big Matt’s input, CTC builds a rhyme around the track.
INT. DOUGIE’S OFFICE - DAY
At a staff meeting Big Matt plays the track he worked on with CTC.
Dougie: Okay. Put it out.
Gary: Thanks for making me look good.
As everyone else leaves the meeting Dougie calls Matt over.
Dougie: This is a good start. Now what did I first ask you?
Matt: What does A&R mean? And the answer was bring me hits.
Dougie: It is a multi-part answer situation. The other part is bring me artists. You heard about Deuce?
Matt: Yeah. I see him out. I like his voice. His rhymes are just ok.
Dougie smiles and lights a cigar.
Dougie: I’ve been hearing Deuce’s deal is up at Strictly Biz and he’s trying to get out of his option. He’d be a good fit at Dark Nite.
Matt waits for more, but Dougie just puffs and then walks away.
Matt: I hear you.
“Chinese Food Can Heal Old Wounds”
INT. MR CHOW’S - NIGHT
Matt and Deuce sit at Mr. Chow’s negotiating. Deuce, who’s been a big star at a small label, is reluctant to sign with Dark Nite, afraid of getting lost there. He’s heard you gotta give Gary Tee points on your releases to get a push there. This is news to Matt.
Matt: If I sign you, I protect you.
Things get more complex when TEENIE, one of the thugs Matt beat down at Latin Quarter, walks in Mr. Chow’s and over to their table. Deuce introduces him as his manager. There is a tense moment. Matt calls the Waiter over and orders the squab for Teenie with a bottle of Dom to wash it down. Teenie sits down.
Teenie: You know why I was beating that scum bag Gary Tee? I’d been supplying that nigga with product and he kept jerking me. He was owed a beating.
Aside from making a deal and making two new friends, Matt gets insight into his benefactor Gary Tee.
“Sometimes It Ain’t About Business”
INT. DOWNTOWN CLUB - NIGHT
A Dark Nite party for the release of Deuce’s first CD on the label. Rap moguls, major and mini, are all there. Matt sits with Dougie, Deuce and Teenie, together talking in a booth. An NBA player walks up with a woman named RUBY STAPLES, a stunner with style for days. The player stops to say what’s up to Dougie. The others in the booth all stare at Ruby, but she seems to have eyes for Big Matt. When they walk away Dougie gives the table the low down: Ruby is a stylist with high level clientele.
Dougie: She’s wanted by many and had by few.
Deuce heads to the stage where he’s gonna perform his new single. Matt, who seems to have an instinct for sensing trouble, notices THREE GUYS are the bar not looking at women. He points them out to Teenie.
Teenie: They down with Strictly Biz. Keep eyes on them my dude.”
When Deuce takes the stage the Three Guys begin throwing bottles at him. One pulls a razor blade from under his tongue and heads for the stage. Before the razor man can reach Deuce, Big Matt blocks his way and clocks him with a devastating right cross. The man hits the floor. Out cold.
When the police arrive Big Matt goes quietly. As they take him to the patrol car Ruby catches his eye. He can’t tell if she’s likes him or is just judging him. He smiles at her. She looks away.
EXT. POLICE PRECINCT - MORNING
The next morning Big Matt leaves jail with Dougie and a lawyer. He’s facing a civil lawsuit and possible criminal charges for assault. The brawl has made the cover of the Daily News and the Post. Dougie is overjoyed!
Dougie: You are a legend kid. Niggas really gonna wanna fuck with you.
“Success Is the Mother of Change”
Montage of success. Big Matt gets a bigger office. Lots of women on him. His assistant Niecy gets a promotion too. He buys a sexy condo in Tribeca. At a party he sees Ruby with another high profile man. They make eye contact but she walks away. She is a vision still a bit out of Matt’s reach. Trade articles about Dark Nite’s new golden age highlight Matt. Gary Tee reads that Big Matt is #2 in the Source magazine’s power list right behind Dougie. He seethes.
INT. DARK NITE OFFICES - DAY
Matt comes in late to Dark Nite’s office and is intercepted by Niecy who tells him Dougie and Gary went through his files and his office computer. Matt heads right into Dougie’s office where he and Gary sit talking. Gary accuses Matt of using cash from his A&R budgets to enhance his lifestyle. Matt comes back with similar accusations about Gary’s use of promotional budgets. Dougie laughs at them both.
Dougie: I know both you guys are shaving the budgets. That’s the game. Besides you are really stealing from our distributor, not me, so as long as it doesn’t get out of hand I’m cool. However, I’m gonna sell this label outright real soon, so you guys are gonna have to get it together.
He asks to speak to Big Matt alone. After Gary Tee exits Dougie holds up a magazine.
Dougie: Sometimes I read these articles and you act like Dark Nite didn’t exist before you walked through these doors.
Matt: I’ve always respected you.
Dougie: Just cause you can knock a nigga out don’t make you no hero to me. You work for me until I decide you don’t.
Matt: You can’t fire me Dougie.
Dougie: How’s that?
Matt: I’m already gone.”
Matt walks out of the office, tells Niecy to come with him and they exit Dark Nite’s offices.
Niecy: What took you so long?
“Survival Is 90% of Victory”
INT. POWERHOUSE OFFICES - AFTERNOON
Armed with his two-way pager and the support of Niecy, Big Matt opens a small Soho office. He calls his company POWERHOUSE Production & Management, then buys a gang of mix tapes in Harlem and sits in his office listening to beat after beat after beat. The music has changed since Matt first started at Dark Nite, but the way you find stars hasn’t. He gets obsessed with TRUTH, an MC from the Boogie Down.
In the Source magazine he sees a profile of Ruby. He calls up the writer to get her digits.
INT. RUBY’S APT HALLWAY - EVENING
Ruby comes home to find her hallway filled with a rainbow of balloons. There’s a card from Matt: “I find you colorful” with his number. She tears the card up. The next day her apartment hallway is again filled with balloons – this time all red. This card reads, “Roses are red and so are balloons” with his number. On the third day the balloons are all blue and the card reads “Why you wanna give me the blues?”
NEIGHBOR sticks her head out of her apartment and says, “Would you please go out with him?”
INT. NOBU - NIGHT
Big Matt and Ruby have a mellow dinner at Nobu, getting to know each other before heading to Moomba, an industry hang out, for drinks.
INT. MOOMBA - NIGHT
The two are getting cozy at table when ASIA, an up & coming singer, comes up with wearing some beautiful diamonds. Ruby had styled her last video. Matt thinks they are friends but then Ruby slaps the MC and rips a diamond ring out of her ear. Apparently, the singer kept the earrings from the shoot and Ruby had to repay the jeweler for their loss. Matt is impressed by Ruby’s swag. Kindred spirits.
At the end of the night Ruby tells Big Matt she likes him but she’s still seeing that NBA player.
Matt: We’ll see.
INT. POWERHOUSE OFFICES - NIGHT
CTC shows up at his office and tells Matt and Niecy that they have been black balled by Gary Tee. He wants no one at Dark Nite to help or deal with them. But CTC, though signed to Dark Nite, is loyal to Big Matt.
CTC: You are my new manager, so everyone at Dark Nite will have to deal with you.
Matt: You know this Truth kid from the Bronx?
CTC: Truth? Yeah, I know where he be at.
EXT. BRONX STREETCORNER - NIGHT
Matt and CTC roll out to the Bronx where Truth runs a small crew of clockers. Truth walks up to the car to sell some rocks but he recognizes CTC, who introduces him to Matt.
Matt: Get in. I wanna talk to you. You need to sign with my label.
Truth: That’s hot and shit, but I can’t leave my crew right about now.
Matt: It’s time to get off the corner and get some legal money.
As they talk a jeep rolls up and sprays the corner and Matt’s car. Truth is wounded in the drive by. Matt hustles the bleeding MC to the hospital.
INT. BRONX HOSPITAL - NIGHT
At the hospital Matt meets Truth’s mother and promises to pay all his hospital bills – even if he doesn’t sign with him. Truth’s crew roll up to the hospital, they are packing and ready for revenge.
Matt and CTC go and speak to Truth.
Matt: Let me tell you something. If you roll with your crew and do what you really feel like doing, you’ll never hear from me again. I’ll pay these bills for your mother but that’s it. We can never do business. Now if you come with me to the studio right now CTC and I will get you working with his producers. I can make you a legend. You wanna be a legend?
“Winning Is Good. Loving Is Better”
INT. JAMAICAN RESORT - DAY
CTC and the Truth collaborate on a hot track that puts Powerhouse Records on the map. The video is shot in Kingston, Jamaica and Ruby is the stylist. Matt is there and, after the shoot, the two head to a private resort where they reveal more of themselves, much more than at their Nobu dinner. They have a pointed conversation about the importance of family.
Ruby: You are already like a father/older brother to a lot of people.
Matt: But I need a son of my own to be a real father. I learned a lot from my father. A lot of shit really. But I wanna do a better job.
Ruby: So, having a boy is about your ego?
Matt: No. It’s about doing something good for someone I love.
Ruby: You are a busy man. I love that about you. But pay attention to me. Always keep me in your thoughts and I’ll always be there for you.
They make love. The next morning his cell rings. It’s Niecy.
Niecy: You ever hear of Napster? Turn on your computer and call me back.
Matt searches for Napster online and watches the site, seeing the downloads and the files shared. He sees the names of several of his artists and they are too popular on the site for his own good. He calls Niecy.
Matt: This is a problem.