Xzibit Becomes a Series Regular on “Empire” for Season 3

Big things are on the horizon for former rapper turned actor Xzibit!

We first saw Xzibit make his Empire appearance at the almost-wedding of Lyon heir Hakeem and Laura, as Lucious Lyons‘ drug dealing and music producing frenemy and now the reckless, music industry bad boy will be becoming a series regular for the upcoming season of Empire.

According to TVLine:

The rapper-actor made his debut as Lucious’ drug-dealin’, music-makin’ adversary in the Fox smash’s Season 2 finale. His promotion takes affect in Season 3, which kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 21 (9/8c).

Empire showrunner Ilene Chaiken foreshadowed Xzibit’s status upgrade in an interview with TVLine last month, telling us Shyne will be “a central character” in Lucious’ Season 3 storyline. The EP, meanwhile, stressed to EW.com back in May that, “Shyne isn’t necessarily an adversary, although I think he could become an adversary.

“Lucious has a long history with him — history that’s going to come back and bite Lucious for a lot of earlier slights,” she continued. “If you have a guy who’s not afraid to die, not afraid to go to prison, that’s a very dangerous adversary.”

Xzibit’s character was a WILD ONE at the wedding and I know that fire and “I don’t give a ***” attitude is going to cause some big trouble this season. I can’t wait!

By Monique C. Tillman