'Empire' Loses Timbaland, Signs Ester Dean & Rodney 'Darkchild' Jerkins

One of the first things that got Empire on people's radars, well before it premiered, was the fact that Timbaland would help its hip-hop sound like actual hip-hop by playing music supervisor. Now his supervisory role has come to an end, with the news dropping less than a week before the Sept. 21 Season 3 premiere.

Shawn Holiday, senior VP of A&R at Columbia Records, which releases Empire's albums, tells Billboard, “We were happy to work with Timbaland during the first two seasons. But we wanted to take a different approach for Season 3." He goes on to tease more "very emotional" musical moments from Taraji P. Henson's Cookie, plus the new characters played by Mariah Carey and Jussie Smollett.