All-star

hip-hop
All-star cast brings Fox hip-hop drama
to limelight

Rockingham County Newspaper Group

By MEAGAN SyLVESTEr
TV Media

ollowing two Academy Award nominations and a number of box office

hits, Hollywood film director Lee
Daniels (Lee Daniels The Butler, 2013)
has assembled an all-star cast for whats
been dubbed a sexy and powerful new
drama, based on the king of a booming
hip-hop empire and the battle for his once
coveted throne.
Terrence Howard (Sparks) and Taraji
P. Henson (The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button, 2008) will again step
into the limelight together as a hip-hop
power duo following Craig Brewers
2005 film Hustle & Flow, but its clear
Empire airing Wednesday, Jan. 7,
on Fox is neither an extension of the
Its Hard Out Here for a Pimp storyline,
nor an expansion of those roles, Howard

Page 6

said during an interview with

AndWePresent.com.
Djay [Howards Hustle & Flow
character] is a completely different animal; as far as I know, he doesnt exist
anymore, said Howard, who would be
nominated for an Academy Award for
the role. This guy [in Empire] is someone who finds himself at a strange road
in life ... where you have to make a decision about who are you and what will
you become.
Critics have recently compared
Empire to the likes of Entourage
and Dallas, only this program is set to
an original urban soundtrack produced
by Timbaland, an industry giant who has
worked with the likes of Nelly Furtado,
Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliot since
his music debut more than 20 years ago.
Television programs tuned to catchy
soundtracks have been major crowdpleasers as of late, with shows such as

Glee and Nashville gaining widespread popularity among viewers from

all demographics. But according to Malik
Yoba (New York Undercover),
Empire will strive to widen its audience with a predominantly black cast,
breaking barriers and creating space for
blacks in mainstream television.
A show like this with a cast of people of color, the perception could be this
is a show for people of color, Yoba said
during a backstage interview with
AndWePresent.com. But music has
proven that 75 per cent of consumers
are [non-blacks].
Daniels and the cast are also using
the show to stray away from generic stereotypes, leaning towards healthy images of blacks in the media. Were more
than just the hired help, the best friend
of or the cute girlfriend of, said

See COVEr, Page 9

Jan. 7 - 13

Cover

Academy Award nominee Henson in a

similar interview with AndWePresent.
com. We have lives and stories, and I
feel like its my obligation to portray
and bring those stories to life.
As for the storyline, Yoba says in the
interview that Lee Daniels work never
lies on the surface, and viewers will
have to look deeper to see how challenging social topics are first exposed
and then discussed as a result. From

dealing with fatal illnesses to homophobia to sibling rivalries to nepotism,

Henson says these are things most other
big-name directors tend to avoid all
together. [Lee Daniels] pushes envelopes where a lot of directors in
Hollywood are scared, Henson said. I
dont like to do projects unless they
scare me, and [my character] scares the
hell out of me.
Remaining faithful to his longtime
colleague and the shows executive producer, Howard steps in to star as Lucious
Lyon, a former street thug whose raw
talent and thirst for innovation built

Empire Entertainment from the ground

up. The record label working within
the ethos of the American dream
could be compared to real-life Roc-AFella Records, founded in part by hiphop icon Shawn Jay-Z Carter.
Lucious hard-earned success, however, comes crashing down when he is
diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease, rendering the music giant unfit for
business in a matter of just three years.
Forced to preserve his hard-earned legacy, Lucious begins grooming a successor
and looks no further than his three loyal
sons. What better way to ignite 99 prob-

Sunday Prime Time



5 PM

5:30

6 PM

lems between three ambitious siblings?

As Lucious breaks the fateful news to
family and friends, including longtime
business partner Vernon Turner (Yoba),
his children want nothing more than to
take the helm, but each will have to
prove himself fit for CEO.
According to an early preview released
by Fox, Lucious favorite son is Hakeem
(Bryshere Gray, a.k.a. rapper Yazz The
Greatest), who also happens to be the
youngest of the sibling pack. Hakeem is a
gifted but spoiled lyrical genius who
appears to value fame over the kind of
hard work his father deems necessary.

The middle son, Jamal (Jussie

Smollett The Mighty Ducks, 1992), is a
different kind of music prodigy, but
unlike his baby brother, he shies away
from the spotlight in favor of a simpler
life and is further pitted against his
eldest brother, Andre (Trai Byers,
90210), who acts as the companys
chief financial officer.
With a star-studded cast and an
Oscar-nominated director, producer and
writer at the helm, Empire is shaping
up to be a huge hit for Fox. Catch the
series premiere of the hip-hop drama
when it airs Wednesday, Jan. 7, on Fox.

January 11
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Rockingham County Newspaper Group

Page 9

Jan. 7 - 13