Lucious Lyon's Return to Rapping Was the Best Part of 'Empire' Tonight

Lucious Lyon laid down complete fire tonight. If only Clyde was there.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Wow, amirite? No cannibal cameos, no problem.

You may be one of the viewers who genuinely likes Empire's original music and enjoys hearing the Lyon family casually break the fourth wall as say, "Drip Drop," is played on popular radio. I, on the other hand, enjoy Empire the show, and then its music, as something purely to laugh at. And to that end, the show may have outdone itself tonight with Lucious Lyon's simply amazing behind-bars-banger, the fantastically titled "Snitch Bitch." Whether you find it ironically enjoyable or genuinely good, we all wondered if the show could top last year's music. Leave it to the boss himself to get the season's hit factory going—IN JAIL no less. I literally laughed out loud when Lucious walked into his secret prison studio to find his crew, established earlier in the episode, already prepared to record, with studio equipment—a Macbook and a Casio lmaoo. Of course Lucious Lyon's prison goons are studio proficient. Dogs had the beat ready and used their ridiculously spacious and acoustic prison room for live instrumentation and background, Kid Cudi level humming. And the lyrics? Good God. Biting. Scathing. Potent.

But that pales in comparison to Terrence Howard's impassioned delivery. If Uncle Vernon—ostensibly the snitch demeaned with such palpable fire by Lucious—wasn't already killed, with the candlestick, in Andre's house, I would've feared for his life after watching this. I'm just thankful Evil C.O. Ludacris allowed Lucious to perform the song in full before bursting in and nearly robbing Empire's fictional musical community from hearing such a gem. A joint made in the joint, and in one take? Off the top? Lucious just outdid Gucci Mane and Hov. This might be the first Empire song I actually download. This shit sounds ready-made to be the centerpiece single on the next DJ Khaled album. If you see a snitch bitch, let em know that Clyde told you.

 

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