Television’s first great hour-long musical drama of 2015, Empire, has become a water cooler conversation initiator after making its debut in early January. Starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, the FOX series has already been dubbed Hip Hop’s equivalent to ABC’s insanely popular country music-based Nashville. Focused on record label and media company Empire Enterprise, Howard stars as Lucious Lyon; former drug dealer turned rapper who has built the American dream through even more questionable means. This is where Henson’s portrayal of ex-wife Cookie Lyon comes in. Recently released from prison after a seventeen year sentence for drug charges, Cookie wants half of Empire Enterprise as cash gained through illicit dealings funded the company’s early beginnings. A huge bulk of the drama also comes through Lucious’ recent diagnosis of ALS and which of his three sons get control after his eventual death. This leads to an interesting power struggle between executive eldest son Andre, singer/songwriter middle child Jamal and hot-headed aspiring rapper and youngest sibling Hakeem.
Already a hit with both viewers and critics, Empire takes inspiration from news and rumors that have spread throughout Hip Hop for decades. Those with both underlying and surface level knowledge of the culture are bound to have a grand time naming those varying aspects. With that in mind, DX will be presenting a weekly series based around the show entitled “Empire State of Mind” which will recap episodes and offer insight into possibly inspired scenarios among others.
This week, we explore some of the things Empire gets wrong in terms of Hip Hop and the music industry at large.
Hip Hop Labels Never Reach The New York Stock Exchange
Part of the series’ narrative revolves around Empire Enterprises as it makes the final administrative steps to becoming publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Alongside the power struggle between Lucious’ three sons and Cookie, his recent diagnosis with ALS complicates things even further. This is why several episodes in, the Empire Enterprises’ leader tries to convince Anika’s father to grant him a bill of wellness as one of the requirements for proceeding with an IPO. Those who understand the music industry knows the total implausibility of that ever occurring considering even heavy hitters from Motown to Def Jam all were eventually swallowed by bigger entities. Quite interesting considering the show mentions major label artist but not the record companies themselves. So in the world of Empire, the big three consisting of Warner Brother’s Music, Universal Music Group or Sony Music (who provides music for the show) don’t exist. If they did, Empire Enterprises sounds like something that UMG would eventually acquire.
Hip Hop Cops
Considering Hip Hop’s history with law enforcement, the investigation of Bunky’s murder by Detective Walker seems pretty weak and inadequate. Alongside rummaging through Lucious’ trash and weak witnesses, there’s a level of incompetence as the detective attempts to close the case. Anyone with passive knowledge of Hip Hop understands the lengths authorities will go to acquire someone suspected of anything criminal. Coupled with the FBI’s investigation on where exactly the seed money for Enterprise Empire came from, there’s no way things would proceeded this lightly. The way the government authorities tried to take down Murda Inc. in their indictment couldn’t have been any better proof. Remember this documentary? Yes, it’s that serious. Even the deaths of Tupac and Biggie have very persuasive evidence that their deaths were orchestrated by individuals of higher authority. There’s a reason why Jay Z is a lot more low-key now than in his Rocafella days.
Late Trends
During the first episode, Lucious mentions the rise of the Internet for low album sales as if this hasn’t been known for several years by now. There isn’t even much mention of streaming services nor iTunes as a distribution center for most music consumption. Even the episode where Hakeem asks for nearly a million dollars for a music video is ludicrous as average budgets are significantly lower than they were in the past. The years of epic music videos have been on hold for a while now. Even the idea of homosexuality or general changes in the perception in black masculinity sounds weird as things have morphed over the years. This is a generation of Hip Hop where it’s socially acceptable for rappers to wear dresses and red fingernail polish in some eyes. There are also those who have been open about their lifestyle like Frank Ocean, Big Freedia and Zebra Katz.
Hip Hop Insures Offspring Artistry Often Never Stands A Chance
Hakeem may be a popular artist in the world of Empire. In reality however, there’s no way in hell consumers would approve. Cookie mentions that the youngest son’s music was inspired by Bunky despite being the only son to grow up with money. There isn’t a better example of that than Lil Romeo. Even to a lesser extent, Corey Gunz and Diggy haven’t done nearly as well as their parents. When he tried to get gully, folks easily saw through that. Part of the reason is by nature, Hip Hop’s root is the struggle. If one hasn’t struggled much, it’s fairly difficult for anyone to relate, which is why children of famous Rap stars with similar aspirations normally never do well. Let alone anyone in that category attempting to rhyme as if they’re from the streets.
Time Issues Regarding Lucious’ Rise
Part of the promotional campaign around Empire revolves around Lucious telling his story of going from mixtape rapper to entertainment mogul. With the mixtape game not hitting similar highs since the mid 2000s, this story doesn’t make much sense. Things get even weirder with flashbacks that have an early 90s aesthetic. Even his music creation process in Philly during that era doesn’t make sense. What gangsta rapper / producer in the East Coast during that moment of time neglected samples in favor of harmonies and acoustic guitars? The only group from Philly that even used live instrumentation then was The Roots and their lyrical themes were more socio-political than Lucious’ style.
” after making its debut earlier this month”… actually Fempire made its debut in Janurary.
It’s a good show! People spend too much time looking for reasons to knock down something. If you don’t like it, make something better!
Co-sign
Yeah I don’t get why any amount of effort and time were put into writing this article. There are many things that could have been written about besides tearing down one of the most popular shows on TV, which happens to have a predominantly black cast. #crabsinabarrel
STFU! it’s a television show that’s what makes it good of course it’s going to be exaggerated.
Co-sign
Right! They’re acting like this is supposed to be a documentary of the evolution of the business of hip hop!
Who woulda thought Glee for black people would do so well. Probably the same people who keep giving Tyler Perry money.
Not just black people tuning in.. women in general, breh.
aint no white girls watching this trife
Honestly, I believe they could’ve expanded the story line of Bunky’s murder. At least added some type of “closer” with a decision from DA not to charge the dude who claimed he killed em in self-defense.
Nonetheless Empire has great writers, great story lines with stellar actors.
It couldn’t be more obvious that this website is being paid by FOX to do all these articles on this fuGAYzi ass show.
Categorically false. Honestly, we’re just fans of the show. Thank you for checking the piece.
do you guys watch GLEE too? what about Twilight?
LOL so you cant make it in HIPHOP without being a druggy or some fucked up individual. How amazing… Im black and will not watch this show. its not part of my culture….
Do you only watch shows that are part of your culture? I would think that it would be hard to find shows that perfectly reflect your life, especially since most television shows offer a larger than life view of reality.
Why was this article written? How about the High School Musical people don’t go around singing and shit all day.. This show empire was never stated to be NON FICTION so why are you expecting it to be? There’s always a group of people or a person to hate on something that shows people of color or be critical fuck you URAL GARRETT and this non constructive criticism
Who cares whether its an accurate story or not?
Its a great show, with a great cast
Fempire got their interns leaving comments on here defending this trash.
WHOEVER WROTE THIS: TAKE THIS L
This is the best show on tv we all know its not real mixed with a little of everything ,Nothing in Hollywood is real ,You got one thing wrong the murders of Tupac ,Biggie, Jam Master Jay went unsolved by both FBI and local police from one coast to the next drop the ball with hundreds of eyes watching these men be murdered in jam master jay case shot in front of so call friends who were cowards in his case when it came to saying who did this !
best show on tv? LOL its never been more obvious that most of these comments are fake. FEMIRE street team in full effect.
Thank you. I was thinking the same thing about the murders. I didn’t even understand how that sentence could have been written, but i guess like dozens of other articles about Empire, it’s really just click bait. Everyone wants to benefit off of the show’s popularity.
“Hip Hop Labels Never Reach The New York Stock Exchange”
Yeah and high school chemistry teachers never get to be drug kingpins, the point is that this is the premise of the show. If you don’t want to accept the premise because you’re desperate for some sort of blogger street cred, don’t watch the show.
“During the first episode, Lucious mentions the rise of the Internet for low album sales as if this hasn’t been known for several years by now.”
Hey guess what? People STILL do it. You don’t think record executives still throw that out there? They’re constructing a narrative, stop being all uppity cause now a TV show is talking about “your thing.” What, you gonna talk about the type of coats his ex-wife wears, too? Wanna make a blog about how their chain game is weak? Fuck outta here.
real talk. Its a tv show, not a documentary. you don’t understand television on a basic level. this shit is fucking disappointing.
damn these FEMPIRE fans be mad emotional, catching feelings and shit cause someone pointed out how ridiculous this gay show is
For real, I’m sick of these fictional tv shows not being real. Its like when they released Game of Thrones it was all realistic until they added dragons. Aloso in Boardwalk empire Al Capone is played by an english guy when we all know Al wasnt an Englishman. Damn these TV networks not being factual with their fictional stories…
Hiphop heads can be some of the most ungrateful people ever. Steal music, bitch about “realness”, and then they finally get a good hiphop themed show and its not “real” enough. GTFOH
this is not a good hiphop themed show. we would rather watch The Wire or Power
For goodness sake, it’s a tv show. It’s probably also a bad idea to take Empire to task when you call Nashville “insanely popular”. Did you bother to check out the ratings for that show? Nashville draws fewer than 5 million viewers a week. That’s not in half of the number for Empire.
Furthermore, past episodes have shown that the Lyons don’t just run a record label. Even this past episode listed some of the other business ventures that they have. The main focus of the show is on the record label, and I will agree that in the real world the success of the company would be based on the other ventures, and not so much on the recording arm, but Empire is not the real world.
One last thing, I don’t think that Hakeem is popular. He just launched his career, and he launched it with a song that was meant to show that he’s not a good writer. Part of Hakeem’s character is to show that he is not as talented as his brother or father, and that he is focused more on women, money, and has some serious mommy and daddy issues. He had a song that had a good refrain, but then we saw that he could not produce a followup, which is why he begged his brother for help in episode 6.
Lighten up! Its a TV show!
Its a T.V SHOW for Christ sake…. T.V. is for Entertainment….
agreed ma! Love this show
i dont find homo sekz entertaining