Exclusive: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson On Getting Production Right On Raising Kanan With 90s Setting & Giving Other Artists A Gateway To Another Platform
Coming up this week is Episode 6 of Starz’s hit series ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan,’ where Lou’s new artist showcase becomes the nexus of the rivalry between Raq and Unique. At the same time, Kanan cooks up a drug-selling scheme with Marvin.
Set in South Jamaica, Queens, in 1991, “Raising Kanan” is a prequel to the original Power franchise. It is a sprawling family drama 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.
When we catch up with Kanan here, though, he is the fifteen-year-old only child of Raquel “Raq” Thomas, a cocaine distributor with an emerging network of dealers across the city. 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. 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. 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.
Cast includes Tony Award Winner Patina Miller as Raquel Thomas, Kanan’s queen pin mother, MeKai Curtis plays the titular character of Kanan Stark, the cast also includes Omar Epps as Detective Malcolm Howard, London Brown as Marvin Thomas, Malcolm Mays as Louis “Lou-Lou” Thomas, Tony and Grammy Award Nominee Hailey Kilgore as Jukebox, star of the Oscar© winning short Two Distant Strangers, Joey Bada$$ as Unique, Toby Sandeman as Symphony Bosket, Shanley Caswell as Detective Shannon Burke, Lovie Simone as Davina Harrison and Quincy Brown as Crown Camacho.
BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales recently spoke with executive producer Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson about the challenges on putting on a series set in the 90s, casting Patina Miller, and giving musical artists a gateway to another skill set.
How much of a challenge is it with this series set in the early 90s and you have to have the setting, clothes, music, and etc right?
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson: That definitely is a challenge. To make sure everything's lined up but I'm paying attention. When I look at the rough cuts of it as we get to the scenes. I see what everyone is seeing. If a car in the background is a modern car, then we got to cut it. You got to change the shot frame and frame it and but I'm looking for something that's not right and so I can pull it out. I'm very critical of when you're doing things wrong. If I see earrings in one shot but it’s not in the next shot, I'm like “nope.” Who's not paying attention, who’s asleep at the wheel? Because that could be something that easily was taken out of there and edit if you paid attention to it.
When it came to the character of Raq, what made you think of Patina Miller?
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson: Well, I didn't even know it was possible for me to get her. When she became available, I was just static. I was very excited. I know the level of training and the discipline for Broadway and she already set herself with so much stuff that it's just dealing with the words ahead of time to get back in the performance because she already has that so down packed and you could tell when you see. On screen she looks like she's a six foot five, 210 pounds heavyweight champion. Do you see it? She's cute little thing. When you see her walk up, you go “Yo, that's the same?” You look twice before you recognize her as who she is when she's dolled up like at the premieres and stuff like that. You see, it's a little different energy from what you get from her character.
What goes into bringing in artists and having them expand their skill set in the acting world?
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson: I'm so excited when you can put them in a role that they know the character and they can find that place where they understand it. In Mary J. Blige’s case, she knows the character, she knows that family, that energy there and people who have behave very similar to the things that she's doing the show. So that is exciting to have the platforms that they can fit comfortably into, and do some work in a different platform obviously from music. There's not a lot of people who have success in television production from music culture. So it allows me to be a gateway for other artists that want to do something. They'll come to me long before you actually see him and we start the dialogue. Like when I put Kendrick in Power, that was two years in the making. He was watching Power for two years while saying “I'm ready, I'm ready to do it.” And then we finally get together and he comes on. He won all kinds of awards for his first performance.