Jussie Smollett

At a young age, American singer/songwriter Jussie Smollett stepped into acting and would later earn his widest recognition for playing a central figure on the TV drama Empire. Prior to his teenage years, he took a part in The Mighty Ducks and filled a minor role in the small-screen miniseries drawn from Alex Haley's Queen. In the mid-'90s he shared the screen with his siblings on the sitcom On Our Own. After stepping away from show business for a lengthy stretch, he reappeared near the close of the 2000s, highlighted by a guest spot on The Mindy Project. Several years afterward, while already tracking material in his personal studio, Smollett secured the part of R&B performer Jamal Lyon on Fox's musical series Empire; the timely opportunity thrust him into the center of the show's strong viewership. Across the first season, original tracks he performed, among them "Keep Your Money" and "You're So Beautiful," climbed into the Top 50 of Billboard's Hot 100. As that debut season wound down, Columbia—the label handling Empire's releases—announced that Smollett had secured an actual recording deal. Six Empire soundtrack collections appeared before his own first album arrived in early 2018; Sum of My Music included the single "Catch Your Eye" with Swizz Beatz along with "Freedom."