[US Entertainment] Crossover superstar

It took more than a week before Jeffrey stayed at home and carefully listened to all the demos that Ryan brought from Xiaojima Records, and then he selected all the songs, lyrics and tunes that he thought were relatively good. come out.

After Jeffrey screened out these demos, he and Ryan made a special trip to Island Records on the weekend. They were going to meet the music producer that Island Records invited for Jeffrey, Jeffrey Li is going to discuss with the music producer about the determination of the demo, arrangement, and lyrics.

In the beginning, after listening to Jeffrey's tapes sent by Ryan, the upper echelons of Isle Records were quite satisfied with Jeffrey's voice and singing skills.

Later, after they read the introduction of Jeffrey's profile and learned that Jeffrey was a Disney child star who had a big hit in the United States a few years ago, they had a great deal of affection for this handsome young man. interest.

Because they felt that as long as the company operated properly, the album produced by this young man with good acting skills, good voice, great singing skills, and extremely good looks would definitely be a hit!

So, after they signed Jeffrey's record contract and heard that Jeffrey was going to release an album, they immediately charged some demos for Jeffrey and specially invited a famous musician Producers asked him to help Jeffrey create his first solo album.

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On Saturday, October [-]th, as soon as Ryan and Jeffrey arrived at Island Records, they rushed towards the office of the general manager of the company.

After getting the permission of the company's general manager Martin Phillips, the two pushed the door and entered Martin's office.

As soon as he entered Martin's office, Jeffrey saw a black man sitting at Martin's desk talking and laughing with Martin.

"Jeffrey, Ryan, hurry up... hurry up... come here quickly..."

After Martin saw Jeffrey and Ryan push the door in, he immediately beckoned them to pass, and at the same time he stood up.

"Come, come... Let me introduce you! Jeffrey, Ryan, this one is the famous music producer, songwriter and rapper——sley, and he also has a stage name——Title Timbaland/timbaland. Jeffrey, Timbaland will be the producer of your first album, I hope you will have a pleasant cooperation!"

Martin introduced the black man sitting in front of his desk to Jeffrey and Ryan, and this black man was the music producer specially invited by Island Records for Jeffrey.

'timbaland...? 'Jeffrey repeated the name Martin had mentioned over and over in his mind.

Suddenly, Jeffrey seemed to think of something, he immediately turned his head and glanced at Ryan beside him, and sure enough, he saw Ryan also looking at him in surprise.The two looked at each other in shock, and at this time Jeffrey also confirmed the guess in his heart.

Jeffrey and Ryan never thought that Island Records would invite Timbaland, but after thinking that Timbaland is also a member of Universal Music Group, Jeffrey and Ryan felt relieved immediately.

sley, stage name: Timbaland/timbaland, he is an American gold-medal music producer and creator of popular best-selling singles. The artists who have worked with Timbaland are almost all big-name figures, some lesser-known singers or newcomers Also achieved a major breakthrough in his music career through his production.

The reason why Jeffrey knew Timbaland was because he liked the song "Apologize" sung by Timbaland very much in his previous life.

Moreover, in 2002, Timbaland collaborated with Justin Timberlake on his first solo album "justified" after Justin Timberlake's solo flight. The hit single "Ariver" in "Justified" is a collaboration song between Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.

In the past two years, the song "Ariver" has become very popular, and even Justin Bieber has covered this song.

Therefore, Jeffrey already had some understanding of Timbaland.

Although at this time, that is, in 2004, Timbaland was far from being as famous as he was later, but as a newcomer who is about to set foot in the music circle, he was able to cooperate with Timbaland, and Jeffrey was still very excited.

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Seeing that both Jeffrey and Ryan looked very surprised, Martin smiled with satisfaction, he paused, and then pointed to Jeffrey and Ryan to introduce Timbaland and said: "Timbaland , this one is the singer Jeffrey Craig who just signed a record contract with our company, and the one next to him is his manager Ryan Harrison."

After suppressing his inner excitement, Jeffrey smiled and extended his right hand to Timbaland.

"Hello, timbaland! I'm Jeffrey Craig, it's a real pleasure to work with you!"

Looking at the young, handsome and polite boy in front of him, Timbaland nodded with a smile, and then extended his hand to shake Jeffrey.

"hai, Jeffrey, I'm also very glad to meet you, I hope we have a happy cooperation this time!"

After Jeffrey greeted Timbaland, Ryan immediately stepped forward and shook hands with Timbaland.

"Okay, Jeffrey, in the next few months, Timbaland will provide detailed and professional guidance on the arrangement, recording, and post-production of the songs in your album! You also have to work hard, but you must Don't disappoint the company's painstaking efforts!"

Seeing Jeffrey, Ryan and Timbaland chatting slowly, Martin nodded secretly in his heart with satisfaction.This time, Kojima Records valued Jeffrey very much, and he also hoped that Jeffrey would cherish this opportunity to cooperate with Timbaland.

"Well! Martin, I will! Believe me!"

Jeffrey nodded to Martin and promised that he would not waste such a rare opportunity in vain.

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After Jeffrey and Timbaland met, during the two months from October to December, as long as Jeffrey's school had no classes or holidays, he would immediately make an appointment with Timbaland Go with the location to talk music.

In this way, in the past two months, Jeffrey and Timbaland arranged twelve songs together.The twelve songs include five songs written by Jeffrey himself, while the other seven songs were selected from the demos collected by Kojima Records.

On December [-]th, only five days before Christmas, Geoffrey took Justin to Usher's house again.

First, Jeffrey took Justin to Usher for the last music study of this year;

Secondly, Jeffrey wanted to bring a sample of the album he had recorded for Usher to listen to.

Instructing Mark to send himself and Justin to Usher's apartment building, Jeffrey got out of the car and took Justin skillfully to the top floor and rang the doorbell...

"Jeff, Justin, you two are here? Come in quickly! If you two don't come, I will leave Los Angeles in a few days..."

Since Jeffrey has studied music with Usher, Jeffrey will come to Usher's apartment every few days before Christmas.After a few years, Usher gradually got used to it, and he would choose to stay in his apartment in Los Angeles for a few days during this time of year.

"Well, I'm sending Justin over here, and by the way, I want Usher to help you listen to these songs in my album..."

While talking to Usher, Jeffrey took out the album sample on his body and handed it to him.

"Have all the songs been produced?" Usher did not expect the album to be produced so soon.

Jeffrey shook his head with a smile when he heard the words: "Not yet! How can it be so fast? This is just a rough sample album, and it's just a set of twelve songs in the album. However, I have to watch it later. Let's see what instrument is best for it... and the harmony problem has not been dealt with... Then I have to go to the recording studio..."

"Then let me listen to it for you later!"

This is not a difficult task, Usher immediately agreed.

"Yeah!" Jeffrey nodded happily.

Afterwards, Usher took Jeffrey and handed him the album sample, and took Jeffrey and Justin to the music room in his apartment.

After Usher taught Justin for a while, he let Justin practice by himself first. He retreated to the side of the music room, watched Justin practice, and put on headphones to listen to the songs in Jeffrey's sample album.

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"Justin, when you get to this point, you're going to open your mouth a little bit...yes right...just like you just did..."

"........."

"And here...well...yes..."

"........."

After Justin practiced by himself for a while, Usher came to him and pointed out some of his deficiencies, and asked him to correct them one by one.

Usher then spoke to Jeffrey about his thoughts on the songs on the demo album.

"Jeff, I think this song sounds best with the piano..."

"........."

"And this song...when it's sung here...yes...it would be better to use a clearer harmony here..."

"........."

Jeffrey listened carefully to what Usher said, and wrote down Usher's suggestions with a pen.

"Well, okay! Usher, thank you for your suggestion, I will discuss these issues with Timbaland..."

Usher glanced at Jeffrey with relief, he smiled and patted Jeffrey on the shoulder lightly.

In fact, rather than saying that Usher taught Jeffrey, it is better to say that Usher grew up with Jeffrey.

In 20, Usher had just entered the music scene and had no major achievements. At that time, he was just [-] years old and he accepted Jeffrey and decided to teach him music knowledge and singing skills.

Up to now, Usher's music has been greatly affirmed, and he has also won many music awards including the Grammy Award.

And now, the Jeffrey he taught is about to step into the music scene. At this time, Usher is more and more pleased to see Jeffrey, because he looks at Jeffrey as if he has seen his own growth.

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After more than two hours, Jeffrey said goodbye to Usher and planned to leave with Justin.

However, just as they opened the door to go out, Usher called out to both of them in time.

"Jeff, wait a minute... um... is it convenient for me to tell me... when will your album be released?" Usher wanted to confirm the release time of Jeffrey's album.

"Well... probably in the first half of next year... but... a few singles should be released first..."

Jeffrey thought about it in his heart, and he felt that according to the current production schedule, this album will be released in June 2005 at the latest.

"It will be after February, right?"

"Ok!"

"In that case, would you two accompany me to attend the Grammy Awards Ceremony this time...?"

Usher wants to make a public appearance with Jeffrey and Justin at the No.40 Seventh Grammy Awards Ceremony in February next year, and thoroughly disclose the fact that Jeffrey and Justin are his disciples.

In this way, it can also create momentum for Jeffrey to release a single and an album in advance.

"The Grammys...?"

After Jeffrey and Justin heard what Usher said, they were both surprised.

In fact, as early as December 40th, after No.[-]'s nomination list for the Seventh Grammy Awards was announced, Jeffrey and Justin made congratulatory calls to Usher one after another.

However, what Jeffrey and Justin didn't expect was that Usher would actually want to take them to the Grammy Awards Ceremony...

"Can we go too...?" Jeffrey wanted to confirm again.

"Of course! You are all my apprentices, of course you can accompany me to participate!"

Usher looked at Jeffrey and Justin with a smile on his face, and he was waiting for their answer.

"We do! We do!"

Jeffrey and Justin looked at each other and smiled, and they both said the answer in their hearts in unison.

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