Chapter 303

Something's off, really off, Yi!

As Zhou Yi's agent, Qian Jiang immediately brought over Maria Carey's unexpected statement the moment Zhou Yi had just finished communicating with the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean.

He could tell with his ass that this woman said it on purpose.

Otherwise, why didn't you speak up earlier or later, but chose exactly this moment to step forward?

What else is this if not riding the trend?!

You're just crawling over now because our Yi just landed at number one on the B-list album chart, right?

Condemn! Condemn!

This shameless trend-riding behavior must be strongly condemned!

The righteous Qian Jiang completely forgot that when promoting Zhou Yi, he had directly used Maria Carey as a comparison.

"Isn't this great? It's giving me free hype."

Compared to Qian Jiang, Zhou Yi was clearly much more "laid-back."

What goes around comes around—he'd already anticipated this day when Warner used Maria Carey to promote him; he just hadn't expected Maria Carey to respond not with criticism or annoyance, but this way.

After this speech, anyone who didn't know might think Zhou Yi had slept with her last night and become her darling little treasure.

"You—huh? No, this is different—the actual person is stepping in now. Since Maria Carey has shown up, Eminem won't be able to sit still."

Qian Jiang, whose marketing mindset still hadn't escaped East Asian mental patterns, paused and emphasized this point.

He'd never let Zhou Yi personally say that line during his own promotion, precisely to keep a backup plan handy for shifting blame.

After all, Eminem's record is truly untouchable—if he fired back, they could always dump the blame on the temp workers.

"What's there to fear? He gets to trample others and do fake controversy marketing, but I can't trample him?"

Zhou Yi, utterly unafraid, rubbed his hands together, eager to jump in.

The album he put together wasn't afraid of anyone—given its current popularity, even if Rolling Stone hated him, they'd have to grit their teeth and rank The Attitude Show among the greatest albums of all time.

It's just a fight—who's afraid of whom?

"Besides, album piracy is spreading faster and faster—it's free promotion handed to us, so why not use it?"

Eminem's name is still hanging on the B-list—Cleanin' Out My Closet at #4, Without Me at #2.

Meanwhile, his highest-charting song, Yeah, hasn't even cracked the top twenty.

In fact, Maria Carey's unexpected remarks didn't just ignite a fire—they also gave a major boost to Zhou Yi's album sales and radio play:

Previously, during Warner's promotion, since the actual person hadn't stepped in, many of Maria Carey's fans merely verbally joined in condemning Eminem after hearing rumors.

But now, with the actual person personally voicing her stance, this massive fanbase became a real fighting force:

Especially on radio.

Not everyone buys albums, but radio data is skyrocketing by multiples!

This is a terrifying figure.

Because according to Warner's original estimate, after the initial surge, Zhou Yi's songs were supposed to slowly climb the charts to break into the top ten.

"Shit, when did this guy hook up with Maria?"

Eminem, utterly baffled that Maria Carey would personally support a foreigner, was both confused and angry.

Wasn't that remark clearly an insult to him?

As a singer, he'd naturally heard about Zhou Yi's achievements over the past week—Warner had practically sent people out with loudspeakers shouting it down every street.

"What's she thinking?"

"If she's upset, shouldn't she respond to me directly?"

Eminem, long accustomed to hype-building, frowned darkly.

He admitted that while writing songs to insult others stemmed from genuine annoyance, another reason was for hype and controversy.

The album that truly made him famous was extremely aggressive.

On that album, he didn't just target the then-popular American sweetheart Britney Spears—he also roasted his own mentor, Dr. Dre.

Having tasted the sweetness, he grew even more aggressive in his lyrics.

To some extent, this had become his last defining label.

Of course, this aggressive style had also earned him an extremely loyal fanbase.

To some extent, Zhou Yi's boastful (confident) persona followed the same marketing path as his—only Zhou Yi's words weren't as extreme.

"Regardless, the next few days won't be peaceful."

Even Dr. Dre, who discovered Eminem, wasn't afraid.

Insulting and verbal sparring is hip-hop's traditional art—who hasn't insulted a few people?

The only regret is that this wave has given Zhou Yi way too much hype—next B-list update, his song rankings will probably surge dramatically.

As it turned out, Dr. Dre's prediction was spot-on.

The next morning at nine, Eminem was cornered by reporters while attending an event—

"Eminem, what's your take on Maria Carey saying you're not as good as Spike?"

"Eminem, Maria Carey said if she were a few years younger, she'd pursue Spike in person—what's your reaction?"

"Eminem…"

The reporters' barrage made Eminem's already bad mood turn even darker.

Because of the album's success, everyone in the world knew he'd broken down because Maria Carey refused to admit they'd dated, hooked up, or slept together.

But now, the goddess he'd pursued but never won had taken a shine to this foreign Chinese kid—and even said she'd have pursued him if she were younger?

What would happen after they went on a date? You didn't need to think hard.

"I have no opinion. I don't even know Spike."

Eminem, face grim, snapped: "Before last year, I didn't even know Spike was a singer."

"As for the date? Come on, who doesn't know that's fake? Would Mariah Carey fall for a man eleven years her junior?

"Oh, sorry, perhaps I should call him a boy. A boy who hasn't even grown his whiskers yet. Does she have a pedophilia complex? Or does that Spike have a mommy complex, liking to be held in Mariah's arms at night and fed milk? Does he still need Mommy to put him to sleep? Feed him?"

Zhou Yi, who hadn't paid attention to Eminem's earlier attempts by Warner Marketing to drag him down, settled old and new grudges this time, even publishing a long article refuting the hot rumors on his personal blog.

The imminent battle between the Cow and the Bull officially began!

Just as people were waiting for Mariah Carey to respond, Zhou Yi launched a counterattack first—a very unexpected counterattack.

While others opened personal blogs merely to promote themselves, Zhou Yi's style stood out among the foreign stars—he opened a blog to insult people.

The opening line was "Motherfucker," expressing his feelings directly, causing the entire music scene to turn upside down!

Zhou Yi, hailed by American magazines as the representative of the new generation of pop and riding high, went head-to-head with Eminem, who had already become the Rap King.

After Zhou Yi immediately posted a second illustrated blog entry, Eminem himself completely lost his composure—

"Where is Tom? Tom is playing the clown."

This was a very strange title, but the richly illustrated content inside made all fans and onlookers exclaim that even insults could be so entertaining—

"If anyone still asks me who Tom is, my suggestion is for Eminem to change his name to Tom.

"Look at how Tom, unable to win the affection of the female cat, is even willing to sell his dignity just to get the female cat to turn back and smile. Doesn't that look familiar to you?

"Isn't this exactly the true portrayal of Eminem desperately begging Mariah Carey?

"To be fair, I think Eminem shouldn't have been born in St. Joseph, Missouri, USA. He should have been born in Gotham in DC Comics, perfectly suited to be Batman's nemesis, the Joker.

"Anyway, his family fits the Gotham standard package perfectly."

Time on the Yahoo website community seemed to freeze for a moment—

Then, traffic went completely crazy!

The underworld is perfectly complete, so to speak.

Ahem, half an hour late, no big deal.

(End of this chapter)