Timbaland believes his involvement with ‘Empire’ has helped him to “reinvent” himself

Speaking about his role as music director for the production and the impact it has had on his life to Yahoo Online, he said: “I’m a risk-taker. I reinvent myself. ‘Empire’ was a stepping stone.”

And the ‘The Way I Are’ hitmaker has thanked the programme’s director Lee Daniels for being a “great mentor” and for giving him the opportunity because he has always wanted to be involved with a television project or movie.

He continued: “I had other things that I wanted to do in TV and film, and [director] Lee [Daniels] was a great mentor for me.

“He’s pointing me in the right direction, so he’s there for me,”

And the American star has revealed he struggled to break the music industry when he was younger, and was forced to make his songs “stick out” so he would be noticed.

The Virginia-born artist said: “Being from Virginia, we had to go hard to figure out stuff. We came in the game at a different time, where you had to be great or you wouldn’t get noticed. I wouldn’t get played on the radio if something did not stick out.”

But Timbaland is proud of his successful career, which has seen him work with “special” people, including artists Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and Missy Elliott.

He said: “All the people I’ve worked with, they were special. But I never got a chance to work with them in the beginning. I’m having fun building and finding out what’s special [with these artists]. That’s something I’ve never experienced, really.”