Cavs' Iman Shumpert Says Fox Show 'Empire' Is Ripping Off Him and His Girlfriend
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert may not watch the Fox series Empire, a show that chronicles the hip-hop world, but he does have a beef with the show.
Shumpert and his girlfriend Teyana Taylor have distinct hairstyles; Shumpert rocks the flat top, and Taylor—an R&B singer—is known for her full, curly look.
In the series, Hakeem Lyon (played by Bryshere Gray) and girlfriend Tiana Brown (played by Serayah McNeill) each have similar hairdos. Interestingly, Brown is also an R&B singer.
Shumpert has been made aware of the similarities.
He may be cracking jokes in the tweet, but he's not thrilled about the situation.
Shumpert shared his thoughts on the show with Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group:
"They're using my girl's character, her style, her look and she's not getting anything for it. They didn't even change her name. They could have at least let my girl audition for the part instead of stealing her character completely.
And come on man, they're really using a guy with a flat top like me. Come on. That's ridiculous. They never called us. We were blindsided. We found out by our family and fans when the show aired.
I don't see how they can deny it. Everybody knows.
"
Haynes tried to get a comment from Empire but was unable to reach the show's producers.
"My girl and her fans are more mad about it than I am," Shumpert said, via Haynes. "I'm a ball player, but that's her field. That's what she does. Me personally, I don't plan on taking any action but I don't know about her."
After Haynes' story began to circulate around the web, Shumpert wanted to clear up the situation with some tweets (since deleted):
"Lmao y'all gotta chill with the #empire stuff. We were having a convo after the game and he wrote the article. No one is mad...
— Iman Shumpert I (@I_Am_Iman) March 12, 2015"
". @ChrisBHaynes boy do you have the #empire fans angry at me lol. They think I want attention. #socialmedia
— Iman Shumpert I (@I_Am_Iman) March 12, 2015"
"And btw @ChrisBHaynes you were more mad about the character than me. And Shump would never use the word "blindsided" ever in life #Empire
— Iman Shumpert I (@I_Am_Iman) March 12, 2015"
"Lmao yall got my teammates tryna roast on the bus and everything
— Iman Shumpert I (@I_Am_Iman) March 12, 2015"
[Empire, Twitter]
