Lucious Lyon’s middle son hits the studio with a new album — and a new manager.
If you scored an invite to Lucious Lyon’s yacht party last week, then you’ve already won at life. But if you were lucky enough to sip a glass of Empire’s exclusive line of champagne on the deck, then you heard Lucious make his exciting announcement: Empire will be releasing albums by not one, but two of Lucious’s sons, Hakeem and Jamal. What Empire diehards know is that in Jamal’s case, it won’t be his debut album. That self-titled album was released to moderate fanfare several years ago. Outside of Williamsburg or Berkeley, though, the album didn’t have the wide commercial success that Empire had hoped.
Jamal’s trying to change all that with his second album, due in stores and online this spring. I caught up with Jamal at Bushwick Brew, his favorite watering hole and performance space, to hear a taste of what he’s got in store for this album. He plays a few bars of a hook that any real fan would recognize as a reimagining of his first single, “When I Get You Alone.” This brand-new version retains the soulful, alt-funk groove of the original while delivering an entirely new, modern vibe.
“It’s not what I’ve added, it’s what I’ve taken out,” Jamal says. And to a large extent, he’s right. For his debut album, Jamal, with the help of his father, collaborated with some of the biggest producers in the game. But as Jamal takes more creative control over his sophomore effort, he is adamant that his sound is going to be completely different this time around. “I’m experimenting a lot more musically and trying to strip everything down. I’m excited for people to hear how I’ve changed.”
Jamal plays a little bit more of “When I Get You Alone,” which will have a new title once it’s recorded. All of a sudden, a voice pipes up from the background. “Fix that bridge!!” We turn to see none other than the “heart and soul” of Empire and its self-proclaimed co-founder, Cookie Lyon, who also happens to be Jamal’s mother — and manager.
When Cookie enters the coffee shop, the obvious comparison to Mama Rose’s entrance in Gypsy — “Sing out, Louise!” — hangs in the air, and it’s so obvious that I decline to make it. Cookie is back at Empire after spending nearly two decades in federal prison on drug charges. And before the ink was dry on her release papers, she went hard at work with Jamal on his second album, for which she’ll serve as producer.
It may seem on the surface that for this second album, Jamal still isn’t independent — that he’s merely traded one parent-producer for another. But Jamal says his working relationship with Cookie is much more collaborative. “I trust her input and her instincts. After all, they worked for my dad, didn’t they? But I’m not afraid to go my own way if I feel strongly.”
As for Cookie, she says her job is to give notes where they’re needed and hustle to get Jamal’s music to a wider audience. “I heard his first record while I was still locked up,” says Cookie. “You can’t imagine how proud I was to see my baby following in our footsteps. But he was a lot younger then and hadn’t really found his own footing as an artist.”
That sentiment — that Jamal’s first record was too tentative — was shared by critics at the time, who pointed out Jamal’s abundant musical talent but questioned whether he was being his most authentic self. Jamal bristles at this critique. “Who’s their most authentic self at eighteen?” he asks pointedly. “I was a kid. A kid who had the backing and the resources of a major label but none of the artistry and uniqueness that I have now.”
Jamal’s commitment to individuality is one that’s shared by a lot of musicians. But in today’s pop culture environment, consumers often pay lip service to uniqueness while still demanding a reference point, someone to whom an artist can be compared. “Jamal won’t be compared to anyone,” his mom insists.
“In a few years, y’all will be comparing everybody else to him.”
- Cookie Lyon
