The Empire star actor Jussie Smollett has rapped about his recent court case in his new song ‘Thank You God’ only a few weeks after being released from prison.
Back in December, Smollett was found guilty of staging a hate crime and misleading the Chicago Police Department about the incident after a lengthy court battle.
The incident itself occurred back in 2019 when he was first arrested for filing a false police report after staging a racist and homophobic hate crime against himself. Police ascertained that two masked men who attacked him in the street with seeming racial and homophobic motives were actually Nigerian brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo.
According to police reports, they had been extras on Empire and Smollett later paid them $3,500 to carry out the attack as a publicity stunt in the hopes of raising his profile.
His single tackling the subject in an unflinching fashion has been released in the hopes of raising funds for the organisations that “kept it real”. All profits from ‘Thank You God’ will be directed to Rainbow Push Coalition, Secure the Bag Safety, and Illinois Innocence Project.
In the track, Smollett boldly raps: “It’s like they’re hell-bent on not solving the crime/ Taking out the elements of race and trans and homophobia that’s straight taking lives/ But turn around and act like I’m the one that killed the strides.”
Smollett also discusses the impact the case has had on his reputation after he was dropped from the Empire cast and suffered further career setbacks as his case unfurled.
You can check out the track below.
