(One hopes a similar windfall awaits Timbaland protege V. Small wonder Columbia recently signed him to a solo deal in real life. Smollett nearly upstages Yazz with an unhinged vocal on the chorus of "No Apologies" and lends gravitas duetting with Estelle on her recent single "Conqueror" that the song lacked as a solo cut. He’s flashy on Tim’s sinister horn stomp "Keep Your Money" and sufficiently wounded on "Good Enough" to distract from striking similarities to Justin Timberlake’s "What Goes Around… Comes Around". When his lithe warble cuts through these tracks, you’re not cocking your head to the side to imagine a star you’re hearing the real thing. Jussie Smollett’s Jamal is the light of the "Empire" soundtrack. His calling card "Drip Drop" made waves online, but the mechanical precision of the performance kills it dead, and "Empire"’s biggest Hot 100 success is the Jamal-led "You’re So Beautiful", anyhow. The songs that are meant to validate him as a talent are ingratiating aspirational boilerplate.
Unfortunately there’s very little space between the performances on the show depicting Hakeem off his game and the "good" Yazz performances included on the soundtrack. It’s frequently suggested on the show that Hakeem values the night life more than his craft, and if the character is intended to be a sendup of pop-rap underachievers, it’s a respectable stroke of withering humor. It’s never clear whether "Empire"’s music is meant to exist in the present mainstream hip-hop landscape or to mirror it as commentary. Hakeem’s girlfriend Tiana (Serayah McNeill) is an R&B chanteuse who seems styled after Rihanna. Rapper Hakeem is a bad-boy type, a sort of amalgam of Tyga, Chris Brown and Kid Ink. Jamal is the Frank Ocean-reminiscent singer, both in his yearning, cerebral songwriting and his quest to find acceptance for his sexuality. The show’s lead performers are feuding brothers Jamal and Hakeem Lyon (played respectively by the pensive Jussie Smollett and the preening Bryshere Gray AKA "Yazz the Greatest").
Even so, the ripped-from-the-headlines story arcs that make the show so enjoyable for hardcore music fans sometimes hinder its music. Empire’s resident musical supervisor is none other than Timbaland (with assistance from sometime collaborator Jim Beanz), who has supplied show creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong with polished, radio-ready sounds.
EMPIRE SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 FREE SERIAL
Unlike Fox’s last flagship musical serial "Glee", however, it is not matching its improbable Nielsen success on the Billboard charts thus far. It’s a hit on social media thanks to the scathing wrath and inimitable style of Taraji P. It’s a ratings juggernaut, smashing decades-old records for increases in viewership with every episode. It’s a hip-hop musical ( they don’t do well) about a family dynasty (rap has very few) led by a tenacious singing mogul ( hmm) and the drug smuggling, songwriting wife who took a fall so that her husband and sons might prosper. Fox’s "Empire" is many things, all of them absurd.