J.R. Rotem Tells Us Method To Penning “Empire” Hit Songs For Hakeem & Jamal Lyon

Written By Cyrus Langhorne

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[After landing a songwriter/music producer role on season two of “Empire,” hitmaker J.R. Rotem talks to SOHH about his involvement on Fox’s hit series.]

For me, as a producer – whether I’m doing it for a hit show or whether I’m doing it for one of my own artists or outside artists, I am sort of the overseer of the song. It’s in the same way that a movie director directs a movie. In my particular case, I am a pianist and a composer so I’m definitely making the tracks but with “Empire,” there’s a couple different characters which sing.

Obviously there’s Hakeem, Jamal and the girl group. I’ll talk to the show and they might say, “This week we have a scene which involves this-and-that, this happens in the plot. We need a song that’s going to kind of be about that.”

So it’s my job to get into the studio and be like, “Who is the character we’re writing for and what type of vibe? What type of vibe does it attract? What type of songwriters with the right lyrical touch can I bring into that? How do I direct them so it will be dope and stand on its own? You can look into it in iTunes but it also supports the scene.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAaxyMYkZ48/?taken-by=jrotem

There’s sort of a balance between that. You don’t want a song that literally belts out every single thing that’s happening in the scene or else that would just be a little bit too cheesy and on the note. It would have to loosely reflect what’s going on and it has to tie-in.

There’s a lot of things that go into it like that and it has to reflect the character. Some characters are more rap and some are more R&B, so you gotta make sure it ties into that.

It’s just about putting all of those things together and making sure it fits the scene within the show’s deadline.

Stay connected to J.R. Rotem on social media:

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jrotem/

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Written by Cyrus Langhorne

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