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Source: Fox Promotion / Fox Promotion

As part of Radio One’s St. Louis Radiothon for Ferguson Relief, he served as a co-host and provided a screening of the second episode, which raised an additional $6,000 for the Urban League Save Our Sons program and hosted a charity viewing party for the season finale of Empire for the Prison To College Pipeline Program at John Jay College Of Criminal Justice.

Malik Yoba, who played one of Terrence Howard’s character Lucious Lyons’ trusted right-hand men in the monstrously-successful TV show “Empire,” claimed he didn’t know why Fox execs or Lee Daniels had his character killed off on the show after only one season.

Yoba, it has been reported, was terminated on the show for outing gay actor and fellow “Empire” star Jussie Smollet. The co-creator of the show is critically-acclaimed and award-winning director Daniels, who has long been openly gay. The next rumor you heard was about him being fired for drug addiction. Malik drew the line in the sand on that one.!

He sat down with Jet Magazine and set the record straight:

I just find it really interesting the timing of negative press. We did a week of positive press during and following the show finale and then Saturday night this thing comes online, these accusations that clearly state in the article none of it is confirmed. If you look at the original article it says no sources have been confirmed yet, but that was enough to get people responding to a salacious headline and then re-posting it and re-distributing it without doing any fact checking.

I absolutely never had any issues with substance abuse; that’s not consistent with what I’m about. So, the fact that it’s just been circulating so wildly and irresponsibly is a sad fact and I think that it underscores, the reason and need for why we started iconic32, we use popular culture to promote social good and if you look at all of the interviews I’ve done, including earlier interviews with JET, it was all about how we’re supporting arts education programs through a number of our partnering foundations and to provide opportunities for young people to participate in something positive. So this is an example of why our company needs to exist: Because people, in this case, are happily using pop culture to promote something that is actually, quite evil.

And so it’s just a sad commentary on the world we live in right now. In over two decades in this business or at any time before I’ve never ever had this type of negativity spoken or written about me. And it’s unfortunate because I have children. I take care of a family through what I do. And unfortunately, people have no regards for that. I’ve chosen to stay in my lane. I know what I’m about. I know what God I serve. I know why I’m here. A wise man said to me years ago – using a football analogy: “They can only hit you if you’re carrying the ball.” And clearly, I have a mission and I’ve been true to that mission for over 30 years and a history and legacy of service –that’s how I’m dealing with it.

You can read the whole interview here.

What do you think?

Make sure to read:

Malik Yoba On Negative Rumors Being Spread : ‘I Know What God I Serve.’  was originally published on elev8.hellobeautiful.com