LOL, lemme rephrase: What happened in general, particularly to Kaldrick. Jest is definitely dead. But what would happen?

Rewatching the finale now. Did not notice the wink Jamal gave Black Rambo when he said "you need to get on your knees" (as in to pray, but also as in to…). I near-bout died. I forgive the sung rap battle now!

INFINITE JEST! Bwaaahahahaha!

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I assume Lucious legally changed his name as early as he was able to do so and never told Cookie.

An evolved and abbreviated reference to "spilling the tea", as when two girlfriends are visiting, having tea, and dishing gossip. The form that's become popular recently evolved from the term's use in black American gay slang.

More precisely, "run the jewels" is slang for robbing someone: http://www.urbandictionary….

19 is about right, at the absolute oldest. He might be closer to 18.

Hakeem is about 19, Jamal 23, Andre 26/27 (Dre's bipolar diagnosis happened during his junior year of college - placing him at 20/21, and Jamal was married to Olivia briefly when he was 18, and both events happened simultaneously). Lucious and Cookie (assuming they were around 18 when Andre was born) are about 45.

I have to wonder how and why no one raised a hand when they went over the outline for that scene in the room, before it ever got to the writing stage.

"It’s not like Lucious said 'How would you like to become this generation’s Adina Howard?'"

Sorry to be "that dude", but interpolates (replays a preexisting song), not samples.

I'm sure the arrangement between Lucious and Olivia was worked out five years ago. Her payment was supposed to have been fame and fortune as the wife of Lucious Lyon's son. There's probably a signed document somewhere only the two of them know about.

To be clear, that's her current regular hair in the flashback (the bleached blond look).

The Jamal/Olivia sham marriage was apparently part of the original script for the pilot, but was cut for time. I think it clearly shows the depths of manipulation Lucious went into trying to make his sons "perfect" reflections of himself.

Listening to the AfterBuzz Empire AfterShow live. Eric Haywood, the executive story editor, is their guest. Apparently Creedmoor was paying/offering to pay for these artists enough to cover breaking their contracts with Empire and defect from the label.

Jamal is pretty normal for a gay guy. It's actually a relief he doesn't fit the overly effeminate stereotype that doesn't accurately reflect the majority of gay men in real life.

You're So Beautiful - the Lucious Lyon version that's supposed to be this iconic hit - sounds, at best, like an album track from a 1997/1998 album. The song's supposed to be a few years older than that, and moreover, able to stand out as a hit among the "Creeps" and "Waterfalls" and "Down Lows" and "I'll Make Love to…

Eh…lol. Part of my biggest problem with music nowadays is that that wall between hip-hop and R&B has become so transparent. R&B is twice as old as hip-hop is; it shouldn't be lumped in under its own child.

Perhaps, but the one here is being sung by a man who'd just recently publicly come out. It stands to reason that he's singing about a dude while D'Angelo wasn't.

To be clear, though, Lee Daniels is, by his own admission, several magnitudes removed from hip-hop. He said he was "musically stuck in the era of Diana Ross and Donna Summer". "Empire" was based on an idea by Danny Strong.