‘Empire’ Stars Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard Respond to 50 Cent Diss (Video)

“He loves to push buttons,” Henson tells TheWrap about the hip-hop mogul

“Empire” stars Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard are laughing off rapper 50 Cent’s diss of their new Fox series.

The back-and-forth started last month when Fifty slammed the Lee Daniels-produced hip-hop drama, accusing it of copying the promotional campaign for the Starz series “Power,” which the rap mogul executive produces.

“POWER Season 2 is unbelievably good trust me. I have the best writers and show runner. I like Terrence Howard and Taraji Henson. I don’t like that they would copy the marketing,” Fifty said on Instagram, in a post he later deleted.

Now Henson and Howard are going on the record about Fifty’s slam. During the press junket for “Empire” Tuesday in Hollywood, the two stars told TheWrap they’re not mad at Fifty.

“50 Cent is a comedian,” Henson said. “He loves to push buttons. He’s a funny guy. I never took offense to it. If anything, I thought he was trying to jab at him,” she said pointing to Howard. “He’s jealous of his looks.”

Howard also chimed in saying, “50 is my monster man. We served jail time together in his film [‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’], we were naked together. I love the fact that we’re both pushing the envelope with our shows.”

While the two took the high road, a day earlier Henson had some choice words for the rapper. On Monday, when a Twitter follower asked her to comment on Fifty’s criticism, Henson shot back: “I pay attention to $’s NOT cents.”

Despite Henson’s hilarious reaction, Fifty isn’t taking the situation too seriously. He responded to Henson on Instagram Tuesday with humor in a video post. We’ll spare you the salty language, but you can click here to check out what he had to say, including calling the Oscar-nominated actress a “fine motherfu**er.”

“Empire” premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.

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