Showtime’s new television drama The Chi has kept us tuning in week after week, and one of the critically-acclaimed series’ most talked about charterers is Emmit.

“He’s a young playboy obsessed with sneakers. He’s a father still living at home with his moms and just trying to mature as a young man, but now he has to take care of a whole ‘nother being. We are kind of seeing him make his mistakes and trying to be young, wild and free, but [he’s] got to make the sacrifices,” said Jacob Latimore, who plays the teenage dad, while stopping by The Breakfast Club this morning. The singer-turned-actor from Milwaukee, Wisconsin discussed his character, The Chi’s role in humanizing Chicago, and his music career.

On his music career: “Once the merger happened with the label, I was basically re-introducing myself to a whole new label. It’s a story that a lot of artists have where things just go sour and it never really works out. I was really young, too.

On Chicago: “I’ve been in those neighborhoods. A lot of my family lives there, so I understood the humanizing of everything. I knew how to ground the characters and relate to a lot of real experiences that people go through. Everybody’s not bad.”

On women receiving equal treatment in Hollywood: “We’re in a process now of breaking down a lot of barriers in Hollywood. I’m so down for women being equally paid. And being equally treated as actresses and artists. I’m all down for it, because we all have things that we believe in and want to strive for.”