Last week, in episode 7 of "Empire," Lucious’s (Terrence Howard) journey involved finding the right embellishments to his new track “Boom Boom.” This led him to having flashbacks from his childhood life with his bipolar mother, played by Kelly Rowland.

Meanwhile, Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) grew suspicious of Cookie’s (Taraji P. Henson) new lover Laz (Adam Rodriguez), who, unbeknownst to Cookie, is the leader of the group that kidnapped Hakeem. Hakeem put his foot down against Laz to make it clear that he is the other boss in the Lyon Dynasty.

Later, Hakeem helped Laura (Jamila Velasquez) promote herself by performing in the middle of the street, singing “I Will Survive” in Spanish. The stunt got the crowd going and the two kissed afterward.

Meanwhile, Jamal (Jussie Smollet) got invited to play on The Living Room Sessions, and he celebrated it with Cookie by getting drunk and having a midnight studio session.

This week, "Empire’s" 8th episode has Hakeem going toe to toe with Lucious' protégé, Freda.

The upcoming battle is the talk of the town, which gives him boost in terms of promotion in social media and hip-hop circles. Cookie is not happy with this development and castigates Hakeem for being suckered in by Lucious to participate in the rap battle. Laz tries butting in the situation, but Hakeem shoots him down and accuses Cookie of being too emotional.

Elsewhere, Anika (Bre-Z) and Rhonda meet each other. Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) spots Anika tearing up and asks her if she is okay and invites her for a drink. She tells Anika that while she and Andre (Trai Byers) didn’t plan on having kids for a long time, pregnancy has made her happy. She also opens up to Anika about Lucious treating her better now that he learned about her pregnancy. She said that the drastic change has Lucious dropping by their house just to chat. While she tells all of this, Anika has a concerned look on her face.

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