Tae spent most of her morning in her office. She sat Indian Style surrounded by multiple samples of fabric along with color pencils, markers, and multiple sketches, her portfolio flipped open, using what she wrote down previously as reference.
Drake pushed the door of her office open. "So this is what you do in here all day?" He asked frowning at her.
Tae looked down at the mess that surrounded her then looked up at him. "I'm working." She said nonchalantly.
"It's a mess in here. He looked around at all the papers and fabric swatches.
She spread her arms out. "This! is CONTROLLED chaos! Thank you."
"Nah, this is just chaos." He said still looking at how she even managed to know what she was doing and looking at.
He walked closer making sure not to step on anything, he extended his hand in front of her, in a swift motion Tae was on her feet and standing in front of him.
"I thought this was a judge free compound." She said mocking his voice by making her's deeper and swirling her fingers in the air the same way he did a few nights ago.
Drake slightly cocked his head to the side, frowning a bit. "No, that only works for me. I can judge everybody, but no body can judge me."
"Of course it works that way." She said playful rolling her eyes and throwing her hands in the air, she walked around her desk and sat down.
Drake sat down in the chair on the other side of her desk he leaned all the way back and crossed his left leg over his right knee. "I want to take you somewhere." He said.
Tae smiled at him as she leaned forward crossing her arms over one another on the desk. "Ever been to Marvin's Room?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.
"The studio?" She asked with a frowned face unsure of what place he was speaking about.
Drake shook his head up and down. "Never been." She said softly.
Drake smiled and stood up, he leaned forward. "Then it's a date, I mean I won't be fucking you in the recording booth, but I mean I guess I can buy you dinner." His dry humor coming out as he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
"Awwww Aubrey, you're such a gentleman. Thank you." Drake smiled at Tae's sarcasm then kissed her forehead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Drake held the doors open for Tae, her eyes immediately widened at the artwork, portraits of Marvin Gaye lined the walls. She ran her fingers over the glass that inclosed oil paintings, drawings, photographs, and sketches of the late great singer. reading over who did the artwork, Drake watched her mouth every artist's name, making a mental note to herself so she could later look up their other artworks.
"So this is what gets you going, I finally found what gets you excited?" Drake smiled looking at her. "Art work." A look of accomplishment crossed his face.
Tae looked at him shyly, pulling her curly hair from one side of her head to the other. "Yea, I get alil nerdy about this shit, I guess."
She walked further down the hall, examining every portrait, then looking at the artist's name. "This is the guy that did your Nothing Was The Same album cover. She pointed to the name tag on the wall attached to the frame.
Drake looked at the name then at Tae. "Impressive. How'd you know that?" He asked.
"I'm a nerd." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.
She turned and continued walking down the long hall until she reached the first control room. Drake pushed the door open to the extremely large room. A large sound booth to the left of the room, a double-stacked soundboard with more knobs and buttons she had ever seen in her life, a long cream-colored leather couch lined the wall on the right side and a large island in the middle.
A wall-length painting of Michael Jackson, different portraits of him throughout different stages of his life and career, memorable costumes he wore in videos and on tour. Tae walked to the painting and examined every inch of it, she squatted down to look over the bottom half. She then stood up looking around the room.
She frowned as the room became very familiar to her, Drake smiled as he watched her eyes widened. "The third den... The one you guys play video games in with the projector." Tae's index finger went in the air. "This is the room it's designed after!" Excitement filled her voice. Drake nodded his head with a smile.
He sat down in one of the office chairs, he leaned back with his hands behind his head. "This is where you record!?" She asked in amazement while she slowly sat in the chair next to him, she leaned her arms on the edge of the soundboard.
"I recorded a good 75% of Take Care in here, and Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear album was the foundation to Nothing Was The Same." Tae listened to him but her head still turned looking at the Michael Jackson painting.
"How do you do it?" Tae asked shaking her head.
"40." Drake simply said.
Tae looked at Drake with confusion all over her face.
"We're a group. It's Me, 40, and life experiences, every beat, verse, lyric, goes through 40, I don't do anything musically without him." Tae smiled as she listened to Drake give 40 the majority of the credit to why his career has been so successful. "The way you hear things, is different from the way I hear things, and the way 40 hears things is the way I hear things. I trust his ears more than anything.... More than my own sometimes."
"He gets a lot of credit from you." Tae gave Drake a slight smirk.
Drake frowned at her as if 40 didn't get enough credit. "Of course he does! He's a genius. Never let him hear you call him a producer, he's more than that, he's a engineer." Drake leaned back in his chair. "Engineering requires actual technical know-how, humility and professionalism, and that's him in every sense. breaking sounds down and building them up, not just taking a pre-made beat and adding some keys and drum kicks here and there, he doesn't court the media, he'll probably do 3 interviews per year, and he keeps me on track."
Drake rocked back and forth in the chair, his hands back behind his head. "He has this process where no one is allowed in the studio for the last few hours of our session. No label people, friends, girlfriends, groupies. Nobody is allowed to hang around when are at work. He calls it the protecting Drake from his own niceness process."
Tae frowned at Drake and leaned back. "What!? What does that even mean!?" She asked amused by the sound of the process.
"It's a way of isolation, get me by myself with no outside influences. Just me, my thoughts and a beat on constant loop. My thoughts become lonely..... in a way, and that's when I start reminiscing, I start to hear what I want to say on a beat. If I want to be aggressive or apologetic." Tae smiled as more secrets to him spilled out.
Everything about him was so complex, he was like an onion or the rings inside of a tree, every layer was thicker, stronger, with more substance, more stories to tell, more lessons learned. Tae leaned forward and pecked his lips, Drake smiled as he felt her hand slide onto his cheek, he deepened the kiss sucking and biting on her plump bottom lip.
"How are you so amazing!?" She said smiling between kisses.
CZYTASZ
Company
Fanfiction"And Draya, Dollicia ... The rest of them?" Drake asked as his back was turned to her. Tae sat quiet again unsure of what he was really asking, what he really wanted to know that she hadn't already confessed about. "They were a 'at that moment' thin...
