Author Terrance Dean penned another hot and shocking novel "Mogul" which is still getting thumbs up by several critics, bloggers and fans, who are always anticipated by what the talented writer has up his sleeve and what he has to share.
"Mogul" has a great story and characters that readers will quickly become attached to as well as some who you may wanna fall in love and/or sleep with, and avoids sterotypes that many people have about gays.
The story focuses on Aaron "Big A.T." Tremble, son of a legendeary, talented, well respected and down to earth Jazz musician, who's unexpected death forces him to cling to music as a form of escapism from his father's death and his first love, a guy from his high school, who migrates to UCLA on a basketball scholarship. A.T. works hards on honing his production and musician skills with the goal to being successful as well as producing quality Hip-Hop music, and shortyly after he links up with Chris another musician and Hip-Hop who attended the high school, who joins him on the grind to get into the industry. Close but no cigar; many turned death ears to their quality-produced music, but as the saying goes, one man's loss is antoher man's gain. Well the man who has common sense to recurit them was Larry "Pops" Singleton, a legendary promoter and executive who helped and guided the careers of many legendary artists to global successs, including Clip-O-Matic, who was impressed with his skills as an musician and producer as well as knowing about his sexuality, knowing that he was family. In other words, he recruited by AT and Chris because they were gay men. "Don't act like you don't know there are gay brothers in the business" Pops titled his head and squinted his eyes and pointed his finger at me. Shit without us, half these ignorant motherfuckets wouldn't be where they are today. How do you think most of them got where they are? I don't think that it's really about talented alone." Pop later took A.T. into a room and gave him a welcoming gift; a blow job and a make out session, and while Pops enjoyed servicing him, A.T. was still battling his issues of his sexuality and he would constantly have a Nelly/Kelly Rowland moment of being a dilema of deciding who to be with sexually as well as having a Bunny DeBarge moment of having A Dream about being with his first male lover who he yearned to be with. He began to put his ex on the memory back-burner by working with K-Luv another member of the group, he saw that AT had potential to become a successful producer, and after rapper Shawty Mikes insists that he produces him, AT lands an label deal, and signs a Brooklyn born rapper named Tickman, who becomes his debut artists and (unexpectedly) his boyfriend, who turns out to be a talented, mature, sexy and understanding partner. Especially when AT becomes involved with Spellman College alumni Jasmine Bourdeaux, an middle-class born woman who despite her upbrining and background didn't like to associate with her own kind and yearned to live life on her own terms, which caused conflict with her mother and impressed AT during their first date.
"Oh really?" he asked. "You would marry a broke man and live in the projects with ten kids on welfare? Jasmine laughed. No. I'm just saying love isn't about money she replied her hand over my heart. It skipped a beat. Her hand was like an electrical surge as it rested on my chest." A.T. took her back to his condo where they made love to the sounds of Sade, and while Jasmine began to feel an emotional attachment, A.T. had to constantly remind himself that she was an media destraction, but when Jasmine begin to seduce him mentally and sexually, things get hot and when he tells Pops that he wants to come clean about his sexuality, he urges him not to, fearing about the drama it may cause. Things get complicated with him and Tickman, who clashes with Jasmine and has divo moments forcing him to move into his own crib in Harlem, and while things are hot and cold, Tickman is supportive and understanding when he informs him that Jasmine is pregant with their child, but like Pop, he has concerns about him wanting to tell Jasmine the truth about his sexuality. A.T. later signs a new rapper names Southern Gent, and quickly becomes impressed with his looks, talent, and drive, but becomes disappointed when the young kid offers him ass. Pissed, A.T. decides to tell him the truth about the industry and lets him know that he doesn't have to result in fucking to get a deal.
"I hated seeing young kats being taken advantage of. I think it's because of how I got in the game. I refuse to do it to someone else." While spending time nuturing his new artist, Jasmine is telling people about her pregancy and wondering why A.T. is being distant from her, leaving her to wonder if he's seeing another female. Another dramatic event in "Mogul" is A.T.'s beef with Odyssey an executive who's known for bribing and using scare tactics to get beats and steal artists from other labels and when Tickman informs him that Odyessey tried to steal him away from the label, A.T. becomes piss and gives him a piece of his mind and an two ass-whippings, with the second one being on the red-carpet at the MTV video awards, where the crowd cheers at Odyessey getting defeated live and in living color.
The story turns sad when Tickman is shot and killed after a concert, which causes the world and industry to fell sad, and forcing A.T. to become distant from Jasmine, who becomes frustrated. It also forces A.T. to warn his boys that they need to stop taking advantage of boys because one of them would get revenge. Sadly he's right and while he wasn't the one to sleep around, he gets hits the hardest when an blogger and photographer named Craig sends Jasmine photographs of A.T. and his boys getting it on at an all-male party in L.A. in an attempt to get revenge on his boys who used him for sex and not giving him the opportunity to pursue his dreams, and while he never had sex with A.T. and has no ill will with him, he choses to bring him down to his association with the clique. "It was nothing personal against A.T." Craig said. I knew once he was crippled and taken out of the gamee, the rest would be easy It only seemed right for what they did to me." When Jasmine receives the photos, she's pissed, hurt and devestated and she gets back atthe mogul by wanting half of his empire and using their daughter as a pawn. A.T. however has her arrested for extortion, and calls on his friends for support and his assistants Kenya and Tracey coordinates an press conference and interviews where A.T. speaks about his sexuality, which gets mixed reaction from fans and peers, who refuse to work with him as well as degrade him with homophobic slurs, while many commend him for having the courage for coming out as a way to help fans come to grips with their sexuality, and while on vacation, Southern Gent gives him some shocking information about Odyessey who posted Jasmine's bail and begins a relationship with her. The info promptes A.T. to take life more seriously, and when he tells Jasmine about Odyessey's secret, she's becomes enaged, but has second thoughts and starts to live her own life by agreeing to appear on a popular show.
Terrance Dean's latest novel is a hot and good read. It keep me flicking through the pages to see what was gonna happen next and it also made me go back to see if I missed anything. He was able to avoid using many sterotypes about gays, and he was able to show the rappers having swagger, love and intelligence, and I hope that a sequel is in the works, because it would be interesting to see updates of the characters as well as answer some questions that fans have.
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