Empire-Building: TV series reveals ruthless hip-hop

One of the year's hottest dramas, Empire, has kicked off on South African small screens.

You get the sense early on of the ruthlessness of Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), music producer and owner of Empire Entertainment and the show's protagonist. He's in the studio listening to one of his musicians recording a new song.

The singer seems to be hitting all the right notes but Lucious is not feeling it - so he walks into the booth and says callously: "Go back in your mind to a year ago when you found out your brother had been shot. How did it feel? How did it feel when you had to go identify his body?"

He walks out and the singer unleashes a powerful, growling high note. Job done.

But when the doctors break the bad news to the producer that he has a terminal motor neuron disease, he must choose an heir. Does he pick his eldest son, Andre (Trai Byers), who has no idea about music, his musically inclined son , the soulful and gay Jamal (Jussie Smollett), or his rapping, spoiled son Hakeem (Bryshere Gray)?

But that's not all folks. Lucious's ex-wife, Cookie Lyon (Taraji P Henson), is just as calculating - after all, she turned him into a rap star before he could dream of affording the champagne he now drinks and the rugs that adorn his mansion.

It was her drug money Lucious used to start his company.

Suddenly he's too big for her and talks about taking the company public. She's initially bamboozled ("Public? What the hell is public?").

But she retaliates. She wants to be reunited with their sons, a seven-figure salary and a title, head of A&R. If her demands aren't met, she threatens to reveal where the money for the business came from, ruining any hopes of a public listing.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that some of the action in the pilot , which premiered this week, was inspired by director Lee Daniels' life.

The most distressing is a flashback to Lucious catching an effeminate five-year-old Jamal in Cookie's scarf and red high heels during a shindig, and shoving him into a rubbish bin - Daniels' father dealt similarly with him.

It promises to be a thrilling series.

• On Fox (DStv 125), Wednesdays at 9pm