Actor Terence Howard poses at the NAACP Awards
Actor Terence Howard poses at the NAACP Awards in Los Angeles, California March 4, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, Fox's new musical drama series "Empire" is making a lot of buzz after it premiered on Jan. 7 with lead stars Terence Howard as Lucious Lyon and Taraji P. Henson Cookie Lyon. Riding the show's hype are rock stars Snoop Dogg and Courtney Love who are scheduled to make an appearance for the upcoming episode of the show.

The rapper will play as himself in "Empire's" episode 11, which is scheduled to be aired on the latter part of February or early March. A no stranger to the small screen, the 43-year-old singer-songwriter also appeared in other series including "Monk" and "The Bernie Mac Show." He even lent voice for animated shows like "The Bonndoks," "The Pjs" and "Futurama."

Prior to Snoop Dogg's involvement to the show, the "Sons of Anarchy" star recently revealed to The New York Times about her upcoming project with "Empire" as she plays a semi-biographical role. Love will play as a rock star with drug problem, a role that she wouldn't mind playing and even joke around of researching about it.

Meanwhile, "Empire" premiered with a whopping 9.8 million viewers and a 3.7 rating among adults 18-49. This is the network's highest-rated series debut after "Touch" in 2012 and is now the top-rated show in the demo. With only a few days in the small screen, the show outperformed Fox's "Gotham" premiere and managed to retain the hype throughout its show.

"Empire wants you to think it's a hip-hop Nashville, another prime-time musical soap full of sexy edge, juicy melodrama, and buzzy beats you can tweet along to," according to Entertainment Weekly's review. "The joyous surprise of the pilot (the only episode available for review) is that it's something deeper -- a richly realized family drama -- and something provocative -- a saga of a black gay man that directly confronts hip-hop's homophobia. Now, that's something to tweet about."

Other stars who are in the show include Bryshere Gray as Hakeem Lyon, Lucious' youngest son, Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyson, the middle son, and Trai Byers as Andre Lyon, the eldest son. Malik Yoba plays as Vernon Turner, Lucious longtime friends and Kaitlin Doubleday as Rhonda Lyon, Andre's wife.

"Empire" episode 2 returns to the small screen on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 9/8 p.m. central. Check out the episode 2 promo, "Outspoken King," courtesy of Television Promos.

To reach the writer of this article, email rornos.IBTimes@gmail.com.