In the to start with episode of Lee Daniel's songs biz drama Empire, Lucious (Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson's Hustle and Flow counterpart) introduces his ex-wife Loretha "Cookie" Lyons as the "coronary heart and soul" of Empire Entertainment, the label she co-launched ahead of receiving delivered off to prison for 17 years soon after getting the slide for their mutual drug offenses so that he could build, well, a musical empire.