The Sapphire Village

Isaiah opened his eyes as he got stuck on a line that he tried to figure out where he was going with his gospel. “are you gonna stand out or stand up?” he tapped his pen on the seat in front of him as he contemplated his options…

Standing out was what many of his class mates strived for, to be seen or noticed so usually they acted out. Cat calls to females, bustin’ out people so that everyone notice, or rockin’ the flyest chain. He also realized that popular culture hated that about black people. White people would make comments about how the athletes these days need to shut up and play ball, and stop being flashy. Isaiah always fought against supporting stereotypes against black people. It was hard enough to make it in the world as a black man, so he didn’t want to give white people any more ammo to snicker or fuel their fires with. He took his writing seriously and often spent way too much time dissecting the meanings of his rhymes.

It wasn’t like white people were listening to his stuff, but when he got his big break and had to crack open the rhyme book he didn’t want any regrets. Today he was heading to meet Chino, who was going to get him into the studio to drop his first LP. He looked at his watch and it was close to 7:00pm. The sun wasn’t due to drop below the horizon for another few hours, and by time he got out of the studio it would definitely be dark. He didn’t like being out when it was dark because of the whole Raiders incident, so he usually stayed at the crib playing video games, chess with his sister or writing rhymes.

Isaiah noticed that his stop was coming up and he pulled the yellow cable above the old man’s head to signal to the bus driver that he wanted to get off the bus at the next stop. The bus slowed down and pulled over to the curb and the French doors in the back swung open. Isaiah gathered his stuff and stepped off the bus, only to notice that the white guy was getting off at the same stop. He turned and walked down the street. Across the street Chino noticed Isaiah and whistled for him to come over. Isaiah looked both ways to avoid traffic and jogged across. Chino smiled a warm smile and proceeded to give him a hug before they walked into the studio.

Chino was a friend of Isaiah’s sister Avalon. Chino and Avalon had met through a mutual friend when Isaiah was in elementary school. He was a large half black half Mexican cat with tattoos that littered his body. He had always been a fan of Isaiah’s freestyles and written rhymes that a few months ago he had promised that he would try to get him studio time with Ryan Hastings a.k.a Big Spliff, Detroit’s dopest upcoming producer. Isaiah was grateful although he never really trusted Chino after he caught him stealing money from his sister about a year ago. He had approached him on it and Chino said that he was going to get her a surprise and then slipped out of the house. From that moment on Isaiah felt as though he was a closet fiend although he didn’t show any other signs of drug abuse. Anyways, this was a great opportunity to kick it for a top flight producer so Isaiah was geeked at the chance. Out of curiosity he looked back to see where that white guy was headed but couldn’t see where him anymore. He turned his attention back to the task at hand and walked into the studio.