Unless you’ve been living under a rock capable of blocking out every imaginable light source known to man, you’ve probably already heard of Fox’s latest television smash, Empire. Part drama, part musical, Empire tells the story of Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) and his Hip Hop empire co-founded with his on-again off-again love interest and co-founder Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson). Created by Lee Daniels – of Precious fame –and Danny Strong – Jonathan Levinson on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – this King Learian weekly drama successfully fuses the many strands of nighttime drama into an imminently watchable show. Lucious has ALS, one of his best and most loyal friends is shot point black in the face, Cookie is released from a 17 year prison sentence, their oldest child Andre has Bipolar disorder, their middle son Jamal is gay and Empire Entertainment is about to go public.
And that’s just episode one.
But one of the storylines that appears to have the most widely discussed fan base is Jamal’s sexuality and the fraught relationship he has with his father. (Early on, a much younger Jamal appears at a gathering of his mom and dad’s friends sporting high heels and women’s clothing. Lucious drags the boy outside and shoves him into a garbage can in an alley.)
Part of this interest is the novelty. Few, if any, have tackled rampant homophobia among professional Hip Hop artists and their producers. But Jamal, played by Jussie Smollett, has been a huge reason why the show continues to increase its size of audience share week after week. (The show is up four million viewers since its inception in January.)
But at the end of the day, questions still linger about Smollett. The is-he-or-isn’t-he game, a preoccupation of many a passive watcher, continues. But a report in MadeameNoir.com seems to confirm what many have long ago had already assumed: Jussie Smollett is gay. “I’m not willing to confirm or deny anything. I live my life. If someone’s looking for a box to put me in, then that’s not going to happen. But I live my life. If you really want to know about me, just watch because I don’t hide anything. I just choose not to talk about my personal life.”
Malik Yoba, who plays Lucious’ longtime business partner and loyal friend Vernon Turner, offered far less parsing on the subject: ““I think that our show represents a huge opportunity to stay in the culture beyond entertainment value and there’s an intrinsic nature of you have the gay factor, right? So, obviously, Lee is gay. That was an important storyline for him. I think it’s important for people to see themselves. Even within the Black community. But if you aren’t really, really taking it off of screen and making it live in the community in a significant way…like I know Jussie, he is gay, and he’s very committed to issues around the LGBT community. He and I have a very close relationship.”
Empire can be seen Wednesdays on Fox at 9 p.m.
