This is something that became a habit after I was injured because I had to wear like hooks, braces because I got shot in the face. “He surprised me with how much detail he put into his performance. Curtis’ performance, the Southside Jamaica Queens native admits, has even caught him off guard.
Kanan is part of a drug empire in Southside Jamaica Queens his mother Raquel “Raq” Thomas (Patina Miller) runs with her brothers Lou-Lou (Malcolm Mays) and Marvin (London Brown), with his cousin Jukebox, who in the series Power puts him on the path to his dramatic death. Helping 50 bring the story of Kanan’s loss of innocence to life is Mekai Curtis who plays the young version of the character loosely based on details of the rapper-turned-TV mogul’s own life, captured most notably in the film Get Rich or Die Tryin, named after his game-changing 2003 debut album. “Kanan is such a bad character, such a bad person, that you wonder what kind of traumas, things he experienced prior to that, that made him ,” he explains. “Even for the theme song, I had to use Keni ‘Risin’ to the Top’ because at that point R&B music was so much stronger than hip hop music, was still in its infant stage growing into being bigger and better,” he shares.Ĭreating a prequel to a Power character few viewers would say they like would be a very unlikely choice for many, but 50 Cent sees it very differently. In his quest to do the era justice, he left out no detail. And, I think that’s significant, because when it’s done right-like with a higher quality production value-people look at it and they just drift off into the period. “The nostalgia, the time period, the clothes, the energy of the things going on and then I’m able to inject how the neighborhood itself felt into the actual story. “The nineties changes it for me,” he explains. Instead, 50 shares that he’s driven by a need to document what he and many others consider a very important era in hip-hop and not just in his personal life. Some may assume it’s simply because Raising Kanan is the prequel to 50’s own Power character but he insists its more than that. It’s my favorite out of them all so far,” 50 Cent tells EBONY about Power Book III: Raising Kanan, the third installment in his successful Starz franchise during a brief one-on-one Zoom.
The first season of “Raising Kanan” is an exploration of these betrayals, the secrets and lies that accompany them and the ways in which they fester, metastasize and ultimately erupt.Ĭast includes Mekai Curtis plays the titular character of Kanan Stark, Omar Epps (“Love and Basketball”) as Detective Malcolm Howard, London Brown (“Ballers”) as Marvin Thomas, Malcolm Mays (“Snowfall”) as Louis “Lou-Lou” Thomas, Tony© and Grammy© Award Nominee Hailey Kilgore as Jukebox, Joey Bada$$ as Unique, Toby Sandeman (“The Royals”) as Symphony Bosket, Shanley Caswell (The Conjuring) as Detective Shannon Burke, Lovie Simone (The Craft: Legacy) as Davina Harrison and Quincy Brown (Dope) as Crown Camacho.ĭid you catch the premiere (or plan on peeping it)? Tell us down below and peep the Twitter hysteria over Power Book III on the flip.“This one is more personal. In an increasingly fractious world, family often feels like the only refuge from all the divisiveness and discord and yet, at the same time, we often discover that it is those closest to us who betray us and our values most. Much like the original “Power,” “Raising Kanan” explores themes of identity, violence, and legacy, but it is also a deep dive into the very pathology of family the unique, complicated and fraught dynamic between parent and child, mother and father, brother and sister. When we catch up with Kanan here, though, he’s the 15-year-old son of Raquel “Raq” Thomas–a cocaine distributor with an emerging network of dealers across the city. Set in South Jamaica, Queens, in 1991, “ Raising Kanan” is a sprawling prequel to the original Power franchise that revolves around the coming of age of Kanan Stark–Ghost and Tommy’s mentor, partner and adversary, who ultimately dies in a hail of gunfire in the eighth episode of Power’s penultimate season. After silencing naysayers with hit “Power” spin-off “ Power Book II: Ghost,” STARZ expanded its cinematic Powerverse, yet again, with “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” that premiered with a Supra-sized BANG fueled by Patina Miller’s screen-searing performance as Kanan’s mother (and Queen pin) Raquel “Raq” Thomas.