Bryshere “Yazz” Gray Talks Creating New Music for Second Season of “Empire”

Chuck Hodes/FOX(NEW YORK) — When Empire returns next season, there will be a lot more music. Ne-Yo has signed on to contribute to the show’s soundtrack. He’ll be joining Timbaland, who is the Fox series’ executive music producer.

Bryshere Gray, who portrays Hakeem Lyon on the series, tells ABC Radio he’s excited to welcome the R&B singer. “Man we gotta all-star team. You got Timbaland, you have Ne-Yo, so you get a great dynamic of R&B, hip-hop and whatever we want to create. So I’m excited,” he says. “I’m excited to get in the lab second season.”

Gray adds that he’s not concerned there could be too many cooks in the kitchen now that Ne-Yo, who is known for making mega-hits, has joined the series.

“Nah. I’m excited to even be working with those two at the same time,” he explains. “You know? It’s a great blessing.”

Gray, who goes by Yazz when rapping, describes how Empire comes up with the songs on which he’s featured, such as “Drip Drop” and “You’re So Beautiful.”

“I’ve been doing music since I was 16 years old. I love writing. I’m always in the studio and I just love what I do,” he explains. “I write my own music, [then] collaborate with a writing team, Team Timbaland. We collaborate.”

Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Chris Rock will be joining Gray on Empire’s season two. Gray tells ABC Radio he doesn’t know how the guest stars will be folded into the series just yet.

“You have talented actors on a major TV show. So we’ll see what happens,” he teases, adding, “…[we have] the most incredible writers in the world.”

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