Fox's new series Empire has taken the world by storm, having just hit a viewership high of 14.2 million viewers. But now it looks like hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is coming for them with a lawsuit, claiming that the show ripped off the story of his life for the lead character Lucious Lyon, according to All Hip-Hop.
Diddy has seemingly had it in for the show with reports surfacing last month that he banned his son Quincy from appearing on the series because he would have to sign over the music rights for any songs that appear on the show. However, Quincy is still reportedly being sought after for the show's second season.
It seems a little farfetched for Diddy to think the story was based on him, if reports are true. Yes, he is a hip-hop mogul, but much of the story beyond that doesn't match up. Is one of his sons gay? Did he build his label with drug money? Does he have ALS? Did someone do time for him in jail? Did he kill one of his cronies? By admitting that the story was based on his life, he would be admitting to murder and deceit. Maybe it's just the white parties he's referring to...
The creator of Empire, Danny Strong, actually acknowledged the inspiration for the show in a recent interview Sway Calloway, saying it was loosely based on Jay Z, who started off as a crack dealer before finding success as a rapper.
"There's certainly some truth in that, the Jay Z story, which very much inspired certain elements of Lucious Lyon, was that story," he said, adding why he decided to give the character a drug-dealing background.
"For me, I don't think in terms of 'we have to be careful of certain things because of certain negative stereotypes'," said Strong. "I view it as, the entire cast is African American, we're gonna have all different types of characters, and we're just gonna tell good stories. We're not gonna sit here and play defense or think that our show is a representation of Black culture in it's entirety. It's not. It's just this story. And for me, the story of people who have some sort of criminal past or gangster past is not individual to Black culture, it's individual to so many cultures within American society. To me it's an American dream story. This is metaphorical to so many people in America. How they rise up to power is through these means. Our goal is to tell a great story and to do the best that we can."
What do you think? Does Diddy have a point? Sound off in the comments section below!
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