Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Having escaped from the blunt Christine, Link drove back to the beach villa.

While it was still light out, he booted up his computer and discussed the upcoming work schedule with Ivanka, Ms. Mandy, and Graham.

By the fifth week of "Keep On Movin'" release, the media and the internet suddenly burst out with numerous negative stories about Link.

The source of this negative press was related to a recent interview show.

On Wednesday, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and T.I. attended a night-time talk show on CBS.

During the show, the host brought up Jay-Z's chart competition with Link and asked for their thoughts.

Lil Wayne declared that Jay-Z had won the battle.

When they competed with Link for the charts, it was only for the Billboard Rap Chart's first place, not for the album chart.

After "The Blueprint 3" was released, all tracks from the album entered the rap chart's hot 40, while none of Link's rap songs did.

Without a doubt, Jay-Z was the winner.

T.I. also said publicly that he wanted to share a joke, and his joke was, "Link says he can rap."

The host and audience didn't understand what was funny about that statement.

But after T.I. said it, rappers like 50 Cent burst into laughter.

T.I. then explained that Link is a pop singer who doesn't rap at all, that in "I'm The One," Link only took care of the singing part, and strictly speaking, Link is not a rap artist.

His sudden release of a rap song in May and claim to compete with rappers for the charts was just a promotional tactic to increase exposure for his second album.

50 Cent also shared an experience with a fan of his who, after hearing "I'm The One," really liked it and thought Link's second album would be a rap album.

But when he bought the album, he discovered not a single rap song on it. His fan was so angry that he immediately burned the disk and called Link a fraud.

50 Cent jokingly said that Link's actions were misleading to consumers.

Lil Wayne also mentioned in the interview that Link had participated in amateur boxing matches.

Claiming that Link is a master of hype, in the semifinals of the Golden Gloves amateur tournament, he promoted himself by disparaging boxing stars like Chris Byrd, Bernard Hopkins, and Giant Valuev, earning himself the nickname 'Mouth Cannon' from netizens.

After entering the music industry, he continued to use his 'mouth cannon' skills, promoting himself through attacking top stars like Kanye, his tryst with Amber, sporting events, competing for the rap charts, and so on.

In less than six months, he had gained extremely high popularity in the music industry.

Lil Wayne and his peers expressed admiration for Link's promotional tactics, saying he was more suited to be a media journalist than a singer.

Being a singer requires talent and good music; artists who rely solely on hype to become famous are not good singers.

Lil Wayne claimed that Link's fame far exceeded his abilities and, with the tone of an elder, advised him to calm down and focus on his music creation, not always thinking about becoming an overnight sensation. Fame from hype is just a bubble and useless.

This show caused quite a controversy in the music industry after it aired on CBS.

First of all, the rumor of Link's bad blood with East Coast rappers had previously only been media and fan speculation, never confirmed publicly by any involved parties.

Yet, on this show, Lil Wayne and others openly admitted to competing with Link for the Rap Chart number one.

Lil Wayne and his peers publicly mocked Link, attacking him with unflattering terms like 'Mouth Cannon,' turning business competition into verbal attacks, and making the conflict public.

This behavior went against the industry's competition rules.

Secondly, Lil Wayne and others accused Link of loving hype, stating that from his boxing career onwards, he rose to fame through various means, labeling him as someone who would stop at nothing for fame.

These seemingly nonsensical attacks could still mislead the public and fans, inflicting considerable damage on Link's reputation.

Online, many people debated whether he was a star who became famous through hype alone.

On Yahoo Sports & Entertainment forums, there was a popular post titled "Celebrities Trampled by Link in the Past Two Years."

The author detailed a list of dozens of sports and entertainment stars.

It included over twenty boxers like Roy Jones, Tyson, and Hopkins,

as well as Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Emma Watson, Ms. Thomp, Lady Gaga, Taylor, and other famous singer and actor celebrities.

Although the post was potentially libelous and removed after half a day, it had already sparked widespread debate online.

More people believed that Link built his fame on news hype and riding the coattails of celebrities, seeing him as a celebrity in name only and not the bright and shiny youth idol.

Suddenly, a large amount of negative information about Link flooded the internet.

It included accusations of racism, using performance-enhancing drugs in competitions, plagiarizing other people's songs, drug abuse, hosting adult parties, and even having committed murder in his teens.

Someone also posted an image of an adult party online, where a man resembling Link and more than ten scantily clad women were engaging in a wild mess, creating quite a spectacle.

Although it was later confirmed by professionals that the image was photoshopped,

as Link often fought shirtless in the boxing ring, it was not hard to find such material, and someone had clearly framed Link using this kind of image.

The image was later removed by the platform, but it still caused a stir online.

Because everyone knew about Link's strength in that area, and since he had publicly admitted it, privately, people speculated that the scenes in the picture could be real, just not exposed.

Suddenly, more negative rumors and stories about Link appeared on the internet.

The many dazzling halos around Link were greatly diminished, and this reduction directly reflected in his album sales.

The offline sales couldn't be tallied just yet.

On various online digital music platforms, day-to-day sales fell by more than 25% from the previous day.

"Link, put the lollipop down; we're in a meeting."

In the video, Ivanka wore a ladies' suit and rested her hands on a desk, staring at him with a serious expression.

"I know, carry on, I'm listening."

In the study, Link said while eating a lollipop.

Ivanka shook her head, "It's clear that Jay-Z's group knows they can't beat us in album sales, so they've started to sling mud at you, tarnishing your reputation. Next, we will clarify some rumors through the media and use legal measures to uphold our rightful interests. Link, you'll be busy the next few days. Make sure to arrange your time."

"Got it. Can we dig up dirt on them too, like Jay-Z, who used to be a drug dealer? There should be a lot of dirt on them."

"It's no use. He changed careers more than a decade ago, and bringing it up now won't have much impact on him. Moreover, don't forget he's a billionaire in his forties. Even if there's dirt, it doesn't really matter," Ivanka said.

Link nodded; it did seem to be the case. This is also one of the reasons many older people turn bad: lacking moral constraints, they start to let themselves go.

"Ahem! Ivanka, I think people in their forties should be considered middle-aged, not old," Mrs. Mandy reminded her.

Ivanka smiled, "Yes, of young middle age. Mandy, keep a closer watch on Link for the next few days and urge him to complete all his tasks."

"Don't worry, I won't let Link drive around aimlessly again."

Mrs. Mandy nodded with a smile.

"Urge? You make it sound like Eva sent you to be my supervisor,"

"Link, Lana's first album recording is finished. When will you come and have a listen, or should we send you the audio source?" Mr. Graham said.

"I'll listen to it when I stop by, there's the MTV Music Video Awards next month."

"All right!"

After the video chat ended, Link closed his laptop and got up to stretch, when he suddenly noticed Taylor appearing silently at the door.

Her golden ponytail tied up, in a purple polka dot dress with fair legs under silver high-heeled sandals, she looked even more slender and tall.

"When did you get back?"

Startled by his sudden gaze, Taylor patted her chest and said, "Don't look at me like that; I just got back. I saw you were in a video meeting and was hesitating whether to leave when I heard you finished. I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation, I'm not interested in your work."

"I know, I didn't misunderstand, you don't need to explain so much," Link said with a smile.

"Who knows? The way you were looking at me earlier, you probably think I'm a petty woman who always sneaks around listening to your conversations with that big butt, right?"

"I didn't think that, I heard the car, and can you please not say 'big butt'? It sounds weird."

"But it's the truth."

Taylor walked back into the bedroom, took off her dress, and unhooked her bra, ready to change into a loose T-shirt.

Link approached from behind and hugged her slender waist, kissing her neck.

It had a warm scent and a smooth touch.

Even after all these years of marriage, the feeling was still wonderful.

"Stop it! I'm all sweaty, I need to take a shower first," Taylor said, knocking his arm away with hers.

"No rush, let's sweat a bit more, and then we can shower together later." Experience new stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"No! It's not even dark yet, stop moving around."

An hour later, as the sky darkened, Link came out of the bathroom in shorts, feeling refreshed.

But remembering those negative news stories, he took out his phone and opened Twitter.

Since he registered his Twitter account in March, after several months of work and accumulation, he now had 8.013 million followers. Although not the most followed celebrity account, it ranked within the top hundred.

He didn't tweet often, only 12 posts in total, all about promoting songs, boxing matches, and lottery numbers for gold. He didn't delve into politics or other social news.

Due to the abundance of negative rumors online these days, many haters flocked to his last lottery tweet to attack him.

Accusing him of not knowing how to rap, challenging Jay-Z and Kanye in the rap scene was just for clout, attention-grabbing, and album sales. They called him the king of music industry hype.

Haters also challenged him to release another rap to listen to, questioning why there hadn't been a single rap work since May?

The albums he released were not rap albums, leading them to accuse him of misleading consumers and suspecting him of commercial fraud.

Apart from the haters' comments, there were more messages from fans in the comment section, refuting the haters' remarks one by one, staunchly defending Link's reputation, and urging him to sue Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, and a few others.

Regarding the lawsuit against these individuals, Link and his team of lawyers discussed it. Although the comments made by Lil and others on the show were somewhat aggressive, they did not constitute defamation. Suing would not be very likely to succeed.

To win this public opinion battle, Link's best course was to use media channels and the power of public opinion.

Link sat on the couch, pondering for a while, then composed and sent out a tweet.

"Link!"

Taylor called from the bathroom.

"Yes?"

"You forgot to help me apply body lotion."

"Alright!"

Link shrugged his shoulders, put down his phone, and went back into the bathroom.