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| Freda Hakeem Freestyle Battle |
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| Mallory Carra | Entertainment |
On Periscope, Hakeem declares war — erm, (rap) battle — on Freda Gatz for his last name. Cookie and Laz don’t want Hakeem to do battle because of what Lyon Dynasty could lose if he does, which leads to some shoving and Cookie slapping Laz for even daring to lay a hand on her youngest son. In a sweet scene, Jamal and Hakeem eat chips and encourage each other with regard to their respective projects.
Jamal is a candidate to work with Pepsi, but he needs a kick ass song in order to be picked. Naturally, he turns to Cookie again to help him with the song. While they’re working together, Lucious visits and sees Cookie’s jacket, but Jamal shrugs it off. Then Hakeem catches Cookie video chatting with Jamal and he gets insecure about his mother’s love. Jamal tries to get Lucious and Cookie to work on the song together with him — but all they do is argue and take bets on the rap battle.
At the Pepsi showcase, Cookie and Lucious argue some more, but Jamal wants none of it. He sings a song that combines both Cookie and Lucious’ ideas. Pepsi loves the song and Jamal tells Cookie and Lucious that he wants both of them to produce his album — but who releases it depends on the outcome of the rap battle.
Andre and Mimi butt heads about how to approach the Jago streaming deal, and Andre compares it to how Lucious is handling Hakeem’s rap battle with Freda. Lucious insists that Empire needs to start being aggressive. Finally, Lucious signs the Jago deal, declaring that he’ll own the world one day. Spoken like a true mogul.
Meanwhile, Anika is going Boo Boo Crazy, holding a knife in one hand and a positive pregnancy test in the other. Actually, she’s taken a bunch of them — all positive. Rhonda and Anika randomly get Boo Boo Smoothies together and Rhonda reveals that her pregnancy has gotten her lots of favor with Lucious — and a Boo Boo Light Bulb goes off in her brain. She visits Hakeem, who Boo Boo Dumped because he says he’s in love with Laura (didn’t I predict this a few weeks ago?), and she decides not to tell him.
Time for the rap battle! It has their names in lights and everything. The crowd loves both Freda and Hakeem. After some powerful verses, Hakeem destroys his last name in lights with the mic stand and announces that he’s dropping the Lyon name. This provokes Lucious to have a flashback of him as a child sleeping on the streets. The crowd declares that “Hakeem No Lyon” won the battle.
As Cookie and Hakeem celebrate, Cookie’s sister Candace shows up looking for Loretha, which I’m guessing is Cookie’s legal name. Candace tells Cookie that their sister Carol is on a drug bender and left her kids with Candace. And so Cookie and Candace are off to Philly!
Hakeem sends Laura home in an Uber…driven by Anika in a blonde wig, getting her Boo Boo Crazy on. I wonder where she’ll take poor Laura…