--- title: Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for "Empire" description: "If you see this on Empire, you just know where he got it from," the mogul said at the TIME 100 Gala Tuesday night. canonical: https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-22T20:29:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:15:08.506Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for 'Empire' og:description: The hip hop superstar joked that his TIME 100 gala performance would turn up on the Fox show og:url: https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5facefde0291275/6987ec5335ba6f2f0ec0aff7/kanye-west-performs-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World - Dinner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for 'Empire' twitter:description: The hip hop superstar joked that his TIME 100 gala performance would turn up on the Fox show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5facefde0291275/6987ec5335ba6f2f0ec0aff7/kanye-west-performs-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for _Empire_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 22, 2015 8:29 PM UTC  Kanye West performs on stage at the TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 21, 2015. Kanye West performs on stage at the TIME 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 21, 2015.Kevin Mazur—Getty Images for TIME  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 22, 2015 8:29 PM UTC During his [performance](http://time.com/3830889/kanye-west-time-100-performance/) at the TIME 100 gala Tuesday night, Kanye West jokingly warned fellow honoree Lee Daniels not to steal any of his act for the characters on his TV show _Empire._ “Lee don’t try to take this on your next season, though man– trying to have one of the brothers pulling my sh-t man,” Kanye said in between songs, an apparent reference to the sons of Lucius Lyon on the hit Fox show. “If you see this on Empire, you just know where he got it from.” The hit Fox show tells the story of a terminally ill hip hop magnate whose family members—and ex-wife—are fighting for control of his entertainment empire. West performed hits like “New Slaves,” “Blood on the Leaves,” and “Gold Digger” while bathed in golden light in front of several shirtless men covered in white chalk. So keep your eyes peeled for some topless chalk-covered guys backing up Jamal or Hakeem on _Empire._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/"},"headline":"Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for Empire","datePublished":"2015-04-22T20:29:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:15:08.506Z","description":"The hip hop superstar joked that his TIME 100 gala performance would turn up on the Fox show","url":"https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/","keywords":["TIME 100 Gala","Kanye West","TIME 100","empire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5facefde0291275/6987ec5335ba6f2f0ec0aff7/kanye-west-performs-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5facefde0291275/6987ec5335ba6f2f0ec0aff7/kanye-west-performs-time-100.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World - Dinner","caption":"TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World - Dinner","creditText":"Kevin Mazur—Getty Images for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100-gala/","name":"TIME 100 Gala"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3831885/kanye-west-time-100-gala-empire/","name":"Kanye West Warns Lee Daniels Not to Steal His Act for Empire"}}]}] ```