After two months without any contact with my former associates, Pepe got in touch with me through a mutual friend because he wanted a meeting at a café in Amager. I heard that Pepe wanted to sign with Ali Sufi at Sony. Grounded and Sony removed all my songs that Sony had released from Sony’s playlists on Spotify since I was on Warner now. To make matters even crazier, it was Pepe who made me aware that it had happened.
At the meeting, he wanted me to give him my last three songs, especially “Caliente,” which I had recorded with the German rapper Kontra K, and let him release it because, in his opinion, I was done in the music business and now the time was his. I refused to give him my songs or cease my career for his, so our meeting was over.
We walked out toward the parking lot, where he got into his car and called me over. He told me he and Livid had been down and lost for several months, but they had been working on some songs. He also said that some mutual friends from back home had told him that I wasn’t doing right by him and that I should get out of his way so he could succeed. Pepe then said that he was sad, and he wanted to take a trip to Germany to get away for a few days.
When the conversation ended, we both had tears in our eyes. The air wasn’t completely cleared when we parted, and Pepe left for Germany. The next day, I got a call. I was told that Pepe had just died of cardiac arrest in a hotel in Hamburg.
I thought it was a lie. Pepe couldn’t be dead; I had just spoken to him yesterday! I ran over to see his family, to see if I could get confirmation, but when I reached the parking lot, the entire older generation of boys from the block were all crying. That was all I needed to see to know what I had been told was true.
After Pepe’s death, I ran away from the gray, concrete blocks of Askerød. I had experienced too much loss in such a short time. I lost Pepe after we had seemingly gotten clear of our pasts and were headed to success. Unfortunately, we lost sight of what was important and got seduced by the trappings of fame. Everything we had fought for, hustled for, and used leverage to negotiate for was now in danger of crashing down all around me. However, there was a way I could come out ahead: record a new hit.