Empire Comes to Power 105.1

Jussie who plays Jamal Lyon and Yazz who plays Hakeem Lyon talked to Angie Martinez about how the show has changed their lives, their newfound fame, and what superstars they want to see come on the show.

Jussie tells Angie that while he was “doing good” right before being called for the role, things were still hard for him.

“I worked regular jobs like everybody else,” says Jussie. “I was a waiter, a bartender and a clown for children.”

Yazz tells Angie all about his last “regular job” before landing his role on Empire, which was at a Pizza Hut from where he got fire from for “writing a song while mixing chicken wings in a bowl.” His salary? $200 per week.

On their new found fame, Jussie tells Angie that he can’t even food shop without bumping into some Empire fans.

“It’s crazy…there’s so much love. You go into whole food and you see a whole truck full of older women….like a church group…and they walk up like ‘Jamal’ and they can’t figure out how to use their camera phone..it’s been beautiful,” he says.

How have things changed for Yazz? He tells Angie that the chick meter has gone way up.

“I made a schedule…it’s fun I love the love,” he says. “It can be 4’olock in the morning and I’ll still take a picture with you in the airport.”

Talking about how other television shows choose to showcase homosexuality in a flamboyant way, Jussie says this is simply because writers are being “very small minded” and it may be “all that they know.”

About the quite intense scene on Empire where he is thrown in the garbage by TV dad Lucious Lyon, Jussie says that it set the tone for the show and made people fall in love with it.

“It was a really important scene. I’ve seen that scene a good 50 times and every time I get emotional,” says Jussie.

On Iman Shumpert saying that two characters on the show are based on him and girlfriend Teyana Taylor, Yazz says he hadn’t even heard of that rumor.

“Let it be a hit show…stop trying to find things,” he says.

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