Blowing Up

Dante and Imani paused for a minute once they broke away. The pit feelings they felt in their stomachs pulsed and stuck to them like lightning. Their hearts fluttered and beat like crazy, almost feeling every litter of blood pulse through their bodies. Dante’s face was red hot with emotion, as he experienced not his first kiss, but a first kiss that made him feel like a mess, but a mess he wanted to live in. The range of emotions was like a title wave. The fear and anxiety, the hopefulness and need for more. He felt them all at once. After a few minutes of blankly staring at each other, Imani spoke up first. “I s-should…”

Dante snapped out of his trance and nodded. “Y-yeah.” Before he got up, he had to ask. “Did you like it?”

Imani chuckled lowly and stared at her shoes, searching for the answer. “Yeah. If I didn’t, I’d smack you.”

He laughed, relieved at the answer. “Good. I liked it too…”

“I’m glad we did, then.”

After that pleasant exchange, the pair got on the bus together, this time Dante got off first since he wanted to see what Yungblood was doing at JJs. “Well…” Dante said after standing, seeing the bus making its stop. “Text me when you’re free,”

Imani smirked and agreed. “Of course.”

Dante shuffled his feet. The need to have a romantic goodbye pierced his mind. “So uh…”

“Yeah?”

“C-Can I… Kiss you?”

Imani blushed slightly, looking at him with a smile. “Y-yeah.”

The two awkwardly moved closer for a quick peck on the lips. It looked as romantic as a car crash, but we all have to start somewhere.

Dante stepped off the bus and hustled over to JJs where they’d plan on chatting some more. He texted the group chat, to see if they arrived at the spot, and of course, they have already. Dante stepped in to see a booth occupied by his buddies with their styrofoam boxes full of chicken wings (with extra lemon pepper seasoning) and crispy fries.

Kingston waved him over first. “Wassup. How was your date?”

Dante sat next to Brian and began grabbing a few pieces for himself, placing the money he owed on the table. It was a reflex that that point. “Dope. She seems more comfortable on the mic.”

Victor hummed as he chowed down on his wings. “Ya know she should sing with us sometime! We need some more feminine touches on our songs.”

“Eh,” Dante shrugged. “As long as she wants to. And if y’all are ok with it.”

Brian made a face of neutrality. “I don’t mind. You good with it, Hindrixx?”

“Whatever’s cool with y’all.”

Yungblood chatted and joked, eating and enjoying the food they usually ate if they ever had the money. It was a luxury they could get from working part-time or asking their parents every blue moon, but it was something they could enjoy as a team.

Victor started scrolling his phone, leaning back as he was so full from destroying his wings. He scrolled through Twitter, seeing his posts tailored for Hip-Hop heads and fight videos. He saw something that made him jump in his chair. “Holy shit!”

The rest of Yungblood turned to face him. Kingston leaned to look at what he saw. “Holy shit.”

Brian and Dante got up and looked over to see his phone. Their eyes widened at the same time. “Holy shit…”

It was their freestyle from a few days ago, but a famous internet artist named PNK (pronounced ‘Punk’) known for his crazy samples and remixes decided to remix their freestyle.

The video had a guitar remix to the Go Stupid beat, with him mixing their vocals to meet those beat drops perfectly.

Dante saw Yung Miro nod feverishly to the beat, hearing his voice ride the sick beat as the song pumps through Victor’s phone.

Yung Miro a hitta
Yung Miro a killla
Yung Miro gon pop out and get ya.
Yo body is cold we forget ya…

“Bro,” Dante said. “They gotta know it’s us!”

Victor, with sweaty palms, went over to comment that they were the original rappers and tagged Miro and the Yungblood account. “Bro, this could be it! The orignal video got 350K views!”

The crew jumped happily, eventually seeing the small traction they got from the viral video.

“What’s the plan now?” Brian asked.

Dante tapped his chin. “We wait, I guess? What else can we do except wait and see what’s good? Maybe PNK can tag us or something.”

Kingston pulled out his phone. “How about we record another freestyle? To just show how good we are?”

“Good idea!” Victor exclaimed. “Money, you up for it?”

Dante smiled. “Of course.”

Kingston pulled his phone out, and Miro nodded his head to a beat that didn’t exist.

Aye,

I keep that bean on my hip,
It’s rotten to the core
I'm feeling like I’m 2-4
It’s too easy to score.

Yungblood shooting all headshots,
There’s no need for vests
We got you feeling out of breath
Like you running the pacer test.

I know it, I know it.
I bet you feeling all bloated,
This ain’t wrestling, boy
You ain’t fully loaded.

K…

The crew laughed and hugged Dante as he finished the freestyle. Handshakes and happy chanting as usual. “We gon post that on the Yungblood account…” Kingston said as he started to make slight edits to the video. “They’ll know that we the real deal.”

Dante dapped up Kingston. “Fo sho. This could be our chance, bro. In the meantime, is there any more open mics this month?”

Brian checked the email for the group. “Oh? We got this today. They saw our performance at MKE Mic Night. They want us in this underground group showcase show, oh wow.”

Yungblood tapped the table with excitement. Victor spoke first. “Bro! That’s so fire man. When is it?”

“Next week.”

“Well,” Dante said, looking around. “I’m free.”

“Trust me,” Brian said with a smile. “We’ll be there.”

“We’ll, that’s a date. Yungblood gon be on top guys, I swear.”