Thong on Fire (23 page)

“C’mon, Free,” I begged. There was an award show in Atlanta I wanted to go to, and he was resisting that shit.

Free looked at me for a minute, then said, “I told you people be smoking cigarettes and trees and shit like that at them joints, Saucy. You don’t need to be around all that. Exposing my tyke to that kinda poison.”

“But they giving you an award, baby! You should be there to accept it. Plus, I’m tired of hanging around this damn apartment! I wanna go out, Free. I wanna dance! I danced my ass off with you up on that stage the night you met me, remember?”

He laughed, but not like it was funny. “Oh, I remember, baby. Believe that. I remember.”

I finally convinced him to let me go to Atlanta and the only reason he agreed was because Tai was going too.

“Watch her, Tai,” he told her when we got off the plane at Hartsfield International Airport. “I need to grow some eyes in the back of my head to keep up with this girl ’cause she likes to get around.”

I just looked at Free and rolled my eyes. Tai couldn’t keep up with me if she had a high-powered scooter and a motorized ten-speed. I had heard the show was gonna be hot as hell, and I planned on being there in all my shine and getting my party on like it was nobody’s business. Even Free’s.

O
H
! T
HE SHOW
was live!

It was at a huge posh hotel and Free had rented suites upstairs for his whole crew. I stepped up in that sucker in a baby-blue Dolce & Gabbana dress that made my titties look like they was bulging out and my ass look nice and fluffy. My stomach was barely sticking out at all, probably because I was doing mad sit-ups every morning so I wouldn’t get fat.

Tai looked kinda cute tonight too. She had on a white dress that made her look a little less blimpy, although them big-ass elephant feet was sticking outta her patent-leather shoes and her ankles looked fat and swollen.

The auditorium was packed but we had the best seats. Free was getting another damn award tonight and they’d reserved almost a whole row for him and his entourage. I went to the bathroom before the show started and ran into a chick named Nae-Nae I used to know when I was working at the G-Spot. G had fired her for bringing her little son up in his joint, and bitches was hot with him over that! Even though we didn’t hang together or nothing back then, I was happy to see her, especially when she whipped some trees out her purse and sparked one up.

“Who you here with?” I asked her.

“Oh. No fuckin’ body. Just this crazy nigga from the Lower East Side and his crew. He’s part of the show, but his ass is real light ’cause we sitting way the fuck in the back by the waiters and shit.”

“I’m rolling with Freedom Moore from Ruthless,” I said proudly. I looked in the mirror and admired the banging-ass jewelry Free had bought me and smiled. “He’s getting a top award tonight, so we chilling up front. How’s your baby doing?”

“He’s good. Getting big. My mother keeps him.”

I pulled a pen outta my bag and wrote my cell phone number on a paper towel. “Call me girl. I got something for your little man,” I said. I still had that baby bangle that I had snatched when I was on my way upstate to murk Sincere. “I meant to give it to you a long time ago,” I lied, “but when G tripped out you stopped coming around the Spot.”

I smoked two dutches with her and by the time I got back to my seat I was feeling nicer than I’d felt in months. I was ready to let my hair down. To relax and get my socialize on. The music was banging and all the artists were pretty hot, but Reem Raw really tore up the floor with his shit.

They all know who the top spot belong to!

They all know how my block rock, we on you!

They all know what these Glock shots’ll cause you,

That’s how my men play! We keeping it N.J.!

Ask bout me, the boy Reem raps outrageous!

It’s amazing the way I format my phrases!

Say what I feel, can’t draw back my statements

Yell at me,

You ain’t gotta contact no agent, nigga!

There was never fire, Raw spittin on a level higher,

Niggas this Jerz, them bird niggas is feather flyers!

Mash on the cash chase, cause we in the streets grinding like bad brakes

R double E M, shoulda never let em out,

Bring your records out,

I blast the whole session out!

I had only seen Reem spit live once before, but every damn thing people was saying about him was true. The boy knew how to work the stage. He had niggas in the crowd spittin’ his bars right back at him ’cause his flow was just that strong. The crowd was feeling both him and the beat, and I raised my arms over my head and clapped and bounced as he kept shit real.

This is trench life!

You get it in, then you get right!

Ship white, hit you with it for the bench price! N.J. add the letter after the R,

It ain’t another squad in the same bracket as ours,

It’s a mismatch!

That slick rap get ’em gift wrapped!

Strip cats, big stacks so the click strapped

Aiming for the bigger doe, all black triggas blow,

New Jerz South betta act like niggas know!

No slouch, roll out on the audible,

None of y’all niggas can’t take it where I brought it to!

My name ringing like bells on the boulevard,

Heaven or hell, ain’t a soul spittin illa bars!

The pushers gone keep pushin

The lookers gone keep looking,

Pop some nigga let the shotguns cook ’em! D.C. to Brooklyn, who got the game locked?

REEM!

They all know who the top spot belong to!

They all know how my block rock, we on you!

They all know what these Glock shots’ll cause you,

That’s how my men play!

We keeping it N.J.!

“That little nigga raw for real,” Free laughed. “He don’t sound like nobody else out there. I’ma try and get him on at Ruthless soon. His original flow can help boost my lineup.”

I nodded and agreed. Hell, Reem was getting it in, but I was just happy to see Free happy and enjoying himself for once, even though business was evidently still on his mind. I had danced all over my seat and I was still feeling the trees I’d hit in the bathroom when I got the shit shocked outta me. They introduced the next artist and my whole face fell.

“We got some fresh talent in the house!” the MC yelled. “Give it up for my son Quaison!”

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. Quai really had some shit with him. Ever since he found out I was putting it down with Freedom Moore, he started losing his focus and scheming on how he could sneak up on some of them Ruthless Boyz and snatch one of their contracts. I had a feeling he was using me to get closer to Free’s artists, but the way he was going about it was just crazy. First this fool had called asking me to come give him some head, and when I told him I was pregnant and wouldn’t take a cab to his crib, he threatened to send Free a copy of the sexy videotape we made!

“I know that’s your baby daddy, Saucy, and I don’t really wanna blow you up like that. It’s just that I’m feening for you, ma,” he told me. “Can’t nobody slurp dat brain like you do it, baby.”

“That’s just wrong, Quai,” I told him when I got down to his moms’s crib and was sliding his long fat dick into my mouth. “This was supposed to be about us hanging out having fun. Not about no blackmail. Me and you did that movie for kicks and it wasn’t even about Free.”

Yeah, I went ahead and did what Quai wanted that first time, but when I looked at the tape again I realized how good Mami was looking on that baby! The next time he called tryna bribe me for some top, I was ready for him.

“Go right ahead,” I told him, laughing into the phone. “Show it to anybody you wanna show it to. I look damn good! Niggas gone love seeing me performing at my best! As a matter of fact, I look so hot on that shit I might try to get me a table on 125th Street and move a few copies myself!”

That shut Quaison down real quick and he got mad as hell and cursed me out! He was all about putting that freaky CD out there when he thought it was gonna embarrass me. But once he realized I might make some money off the sight of him licking all inside my ass crack, that shit changed real quick. Quaison didn’t know he wasn’t slicker than me, but if I had known this motherfucker was gone be down here for the show tonight I might not have been in such a hurry to come.

He came out on stage with that bad-ass New York swagger, looking like a chocolate fuckin’ chip. I couldn’t remember what the hell I had seen in his young ass other than his pretty eyes and fine body and gorgeous dick. Other than that, he was just regular.

“What’s happenin’ Hotlanta!” His voice boomed into the mic and I coulda sworn that nigga looked dead at me. “Thanks for the southern love, y’all. Georgia got some of the finest women in the world with the biggest asses on the planet. Fuck Manhattan! I’m moving down south!”

He performed a half-ass track that didn’t even make me pat my foot. Tai clapped for him at the end, but I just sat there wondering how he could get up on stage and embarrass himself like that.

“Thank you, thank you!” he had the nerve to holla into the mic when he was done. “I wanna thank everybody who made tonight possible for a nigga like me. You know, there’s some old cats in this rap game who done took a serious loss.
Vets!
Old heads who done fell off and hit the floor with a bang! But I don’t feel no pity for them. I mean, a nigga gotta know how to keep his business tight in this industry. He gotta manage his contracts! He gotta pay his fuckin’artists! He gotta keep his bitches off they goddamn knees, braining the competition! ’Cause when he don’t, a hungry nigga like me might slide up and take everything he got.” He did look right at me this time, no doubt. “Nah’m saying?

“So I’ma close my shit out with this one last jawn. I ain’t even know I was gonna spit it until I hit the stage tonight. It’s gone be a freestyle joint so y’all be good to me. I’m dedicating it to my girl, Brainiac, ’cause she was worth every dollar I spent.”

She might be what the big boys desire,

But homey watch ya head cuz her thong’s on fire!

Type of body make a thug wanna wife her,

Just watch your head homey cuz her thong’s on fire!

No chick can match her

Saucy got the snapper!

Turn you into a stalker every minute wanna track her!

Ghetto princess, every nigga wanna snatch her

And if ya bank’s right Brainiac’ll get at’cha!

“Saucy?
Brainiac?
” Free said, sitting up straight. “Yo, Sauce, is that kid talking about
you
?”

I froze. I was gonna kill Quai! No this motherfucker
didn’t
blow my name up in his rap line! Niggas is really playing dirty now! Putting my shit on front street in public like that! Right in front of my man and all his homeys. Disrespecting me like I was swine for real. Oh, I’d been wrong. He wasn’t goin’ after none of Free’s boys. He was using me to go after
Free
!

All of Free’s sons was looking around like, what the fuck? I glanced at Free out the corner of my eye and I knew it was going down. He was ready to flip out. I could see it all over him. He was still smiling and playing shit off for the cameras, but I felt heat coming off of him. I slid down in my chair, knowing I was busted and shit was about to get popping.

Yeah! Gotta pay just to play

Gotta get to her,

Don’t make dollars then it don’t make sense to her!

She want the Prada and the bagettes, leave a nigga full of debts

She give less than a fuck about the honor and respect!

Cuz her thighs are thicker than grits, hips wide as ya whip

Face of an angel, every pimp try to convince

She slick wit’ her lips, for a hit you’ll get ya chain pawned,

One lick, I swear the bitch will have you “brain” washed!

Free spoke without looking at me, furious. “Oh, you must be a mouthpiece for real, huh? Niggas spittin’ ill bars with ya name in ’em. You do got a good head game, though. Sounds like a whole lotta fools been bobbling ya neck.”

You would ride for it, die for it, steal for it, lie for it,

Make a true gangsta cry and swallow his pride for it!

They all fell! Thought Saucy was a rider,

She just hot in her pants?

Nah! Her thong’s on fire!

My mind was trying to come up with something but my mouth couldn’t utter a word. The crowd was going bananas for Quaison’s rap this time, and Free finally turned in his seat and looked at me. Fuck the cameras, his smile was gone and his voice was colder than a freezer.

“Oh, I get it now. My duns duns musta been tryna spare my feelings or somethin’ ’cause ain’t nobody told me shit. I must be the only motherfucker in the world who been sleeping on your game.”

I clowned. “You believe that nigga? You gone listen to a few stupid bars and take them for truth?”

Free’s eyes said it all as the audience gave it up for Quai, who was using my reputation to close out his act.

She might be what the big boys desire,

But homey watch ya head cuz her thong’s on fire!

Type of body make a thug wanna wife her,

Just watch your head homey cuz her thong’s on fire!

She might be what the big boys desire,

But homey watch ya head cuz her thong’s on fire!

Type of body make a thug wanna wife her,

But it’s the thong baby, ya thong’s on fire!

Oh, my ass was in for it, for real. I sat there with my eyes front and center for the next couple of acts, then I snuck out of my seat the minute they called Free up on the stage to get his award. As the cameras followed him, I made my exit. I knew nosy motherfuckers were staring at me and talking shit about that rap, but I didn’t look left or right. I ran down the aisle and slipped out the doors. I couldn’t believe that fuckin’ Quaison had put me on blast like that! The look on Free’s face was like a whip cracking. That shit cut me all over my body, stinging me with the pain of his disgust.