Following months of speculation and anticipation, Fox recently dropped the trailer for season two of its ratings juggernaut Empire. A lot has changed since viewers were first introduced to the Lyon family in early January. Head patriarch Lucious discovered his diagnosis of ALS was something a lot less life threatening yet, was charged with the killing his former friend Bunky and finds himself currently incarcerated. This a 180 from the series beginning with his ex-wife Cookie being released from prison. Getting over the closeted homosexual hump, middle son Jamal takes over Empire Enterprises and even manages to get a little Suge Knight-ish during a few episodes. Meanwhile, oldest son Andre is still coming to terms with his bipolar disorder. Empire Enterprises’ greatest threat comes when Hakeem forms an alliance with Lucious’ ex-fiance Annika who is possibly helping a rival record label. Wrapping everything together is Cookie’s power struggle to get the piece of the company that is deserved. As the second season of Empire is surely set possibly break more viewership records, DX is proud to present the next edition of “Empire State Of Mind.”
Already becoming the greatest diss record of 2015, it was quite surprising to see Terrence Howard get back to faux rapper thing since Hustle & Flow came out ten years ago for “Snitch Bitch.” Regardless of how people feel about the controversial actor, he’s good at playing sympathetic anti-heroes. Especially very believable rappers with questionable qualities. Going from pimping in Memphis’ darkest hood to the luxury Philly office of Empire Enterprise as Lucious Lyon, he’s done it yet again this week. This time however, Howard brought North Carolina’s elder statesman Petey Pablo along for the primetime family drama ride. The story is almost coincidental. Who to thought an off the cuff loan of $200 dollars years back would eventually lead to such an opportunity. Greatest lesson learned from this ladies and gentlemen? One never knows how one random act of kindness can supplement the future.
Getting in contact with Petey Pablo after his primetime television debut on Fox’s Lee Daniels pushed series, the “Rise Up” emcee talks relating to Luscious’ jail situation.
Terrence Howard Once Called Petey Pablo Prolific
DX: Wednesday night, Twitter was on fire after the “Snitch Bitch” scene. And all of this came from you lending Terrence Howard $200?
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Petey Pablo: All of that. Who would have ever thought man. Let the truth be told, I’m just a genuinely good guy. Like trust and believe, my past hasn’t always been squeaky clean. At the end of the day, my reputation speaks for itself. I’m a real live goon and gorilla. No jokes at all. But, at the same time, I’m one of the rare ones. I’m gudda-gudda but genuine. I’ve never hurt people that I didn’t have to and did some stupid stuff that was unnecessary. Even doing the wrong things, I had a method to my madness. I had dignity, respect and guidelines. I am a respectable hoodlum. I was really like the modern day Robin Hood. Terrence Howard told me he lost his wallet, credit cards and identification. With no thought to it, I just told him to pay me back when he could because if I would want them to do that for me if I was in the same situation. By me giving him that money, there wasn’t another thought in my mind again. Until he calls my phone thirteen years later and said, “Give me your address back so I can get you this money back.” I said bruh, you don’t owe me any money. He said it again, “Give me your address or I’ll hang the phone up and you’ll never hear from me again.” I was like ok, here’s my address. I look in the mailbox the next day and it’s a check for $15,000. I told him that wasn’t the amount and he said that he’d been looking for me for 15 years; the rest was for interest. I was like wow. Then he said, “Now that we got that out the way, I need you for Empire.” Who in the hell can argue with that? That’s nothing but God man. Nothing but God. Like I told you, I planted that seed years ago.
DX: We all know that Timbaland serves as the music supervisor for Empire. What went into the process of working with him again on “Snitch Bitch?”
Petey Pablo: When Terrence said, “I need you for Empire.” I asked him about what he needed me to do. He said, “I want you to write music for the show because we got good music on there but it’s missing that feeling.” He was like, “You have really been there and done that so no one can really speak about that and also being a prolific artist” and those are his exact words. I asked him what he wanted them to be about. He gave me the guidelines and told me exactly what was going to happen in each scene. He told me exactly what was going to happen on the show. He pretty much said that he wanted these songs to go with these scenes. I was like ok cool. I hung up the phone and went directly to work. In 24 hours, I sent that man four songs. They picked two of them and “Snitch Bitch” was one of them. “Snitch Bitch” really blew Fox away. They were like, “there’s no one person who could have written this song in 24 hours.” We have another song that we’re trying to find the right scene for at the moment. After that, they brought me in for filming and being the genuine guy I am, everybody loved me. They were like, Petey was a great guy to work with. I really appreciated but for me it was natural.
DX: You did have experience from your time in jail.
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Petey Pablo: Yeah, so you’re talking about something I actually know.
DX: When I spoke to your manager earlier, you were in a long conversation with Timbaland. Working with your longtime collaborator in that environment must have been different right?
Petey Pablo: Me and Timbo been brother since 2000. The first time we met was the beginning of this long lasting relationship. We’re always working. Regardless of me putting music out or not, I have so much music together. The crazy thing about it is that the music we did ten years ago, still has substance to be played with the music out today. We were listening to records the other day and the kids in the room with us were like we should put them out. We looking at each other like we did them records seven years ago. It goes to say that when you have two creative that make great timeless music, it don’t matter. For the most part, it’s great to have an individual that you can be brothers with. We’re brothers outside of the music, but we’re musical brothers. When I say musical brothers, the music that we do, we do it because there’s a love for the music. We’re not doing it just to put out an album. If an album opportunity presents itself, sure, we can consider it. Right now, it’s the greatest feeling in the world.
DX: I know you’re pretty active on social media. It must have been wild watching the reaction of everyone seeing “Snitch Bitch.”
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Petey Pablo: Man, I loved it. I even loved the jokes about it because I’m a cool dude. I’m open minded and understand that people have their own sets of opinions. I loved the people who loved it and the people confused about it. I loved the people who hated it. The reason is that 15 years later and you’re still talking about me. To the haters, I don’t hate them at all because in my reality, they’re like Grammys. The more haters I have, the more accomplished I am. Haters can’t talk about people who haven’t accomplished anything. Haters are your biggest supporters. I don’t get upset with them. When they say stuff to me on social media, I don’t retaliate or curse them out. I’m like the dude on taken. I’m going to find you, beat you up and it is what it is. I can’t go back and forth with every single person on social media. I can’t lend too much positive energy to their negative energy. It’s like a traffic light. Each one works individually for an exact purpose. You can mix green and red because it’ll confuse the whole system. If I’m on a positive path, I have to remain on the positive path.
DX: Will we see Clyde again?
Petey Pablo: Hell yeah you going to see Clyde again. With the grace of God, the love from Lee Daniels and we this ears of Timbaland, yes you will.
