Power’s Producers 50 Cent And Courtney Kemp Agboh Talk Season 2 AND Empire ComparisonPosted by Brad Balfour
May 29, 2015
With the second season of Starz’s Power, lead character Ghost (Omari Hardwick) struggles to evolve beyond his nefarious past in order to build a successful business, take care of his family and develop his relationship with his old flame. But as a new season opens, all that is threatened through complicated entanglements, possible betrayals and the re-emergence of his mentor and ex-con, Kanan.
This Starz series follows New York City nightclub owner James St. Patrick, street-named “Ghost”, who has been at the center of one of the city’s biggest drug rings. In the first season he goes from balancing these two lives to realizing that he wants to leave his drug-dealing world in order to develop his legitimate business, and commit to his mistress (Lela Loren) who had been his high school love.
Born Curtis James Jackson III on July 6, 1975, 50 Cent raps, writer and his strategized a career started in the Queens drug trade but evolved into a love of music and a career removed from the street. That doesn’t mean the street is forgiving; he took nine bullets in a shooting 15 years ago. So he reflected and used his background to develop and produce his latest passion, this television series with producer and writer Courtney Kemp Agboh, who had previously worked on The Good Wife and The Bernie Mac Show.
Recently this Executive Producer, show co-creator and song creator joined his collaborator, co-creator and Show runner Kemp Agboh in holding a roundtable discussion at Manhattan’s Park Hyatt Hotel. Before a small group of journalists they pondered and revealed a bit about the future of the show, its characters and the big question in the room: what was their reaction to Empire and comparisons between the two shows.
So let’s just jump in and address the comparison between Empire and Power that’s being made ever since that show came out after yours and grabbed a lot of attention for also being about music and drugs.
50 Cent: Actually, I started those comparisons by pointing out that they copied our marketing. It’s a corporate decision to make the artwork a certain way. Courtney actually approves and develops what we put out for the television show, but it’s a corporate decision for someone to follow someone else’s art and to put Power in the tagline.
It’s not very often that a television show hits its target audience like a bull’s-eye and Power did. And because that’s the same audience that they were targeting for Empire, they used that in the tagline and created similar art, saying, “It’s on Fox, it’s free, its commercial television, we will get that audience to watch this.”
And they were right. They got a big demographic checking it out, and now they feel like they can show people of different ethnicities on television and have the same success and numbers that they have had with other projects in the past. It’s cool overall. I don’t have a problem with the talent.
Taraji [P. Henson] got mad at me. She said some things. I thought Terrance would. Like, I want the lead to come after me. Taraji comes and I’m like, “Oh how am I going to deal with this? I don’t know what to do. I might have to date her.” [Laughter] You know she got that DC in her? A little fire starts burning.
What a problem to have in life.
50 Cent: Yeah. I have all these complications going on.
We knew all about Empire, it was all over the place. But we found out about Power when you came forth to say that they had copied. Then it became an issue.
50 Cent: Well, you know what, that’s a part of me implementing things that I’ve done in the past in music culture. And what it is, is also attaching myself to their market.
This same table couldn’t talk to people from Empire and not ask about Power. It’s really just putting them both together on that note. It’s a huge difference. Our show is a lot grittier, and it has the special touch of Courtney Kemp. [Laughter]
A lot of the details in it, we communicated with each other so much from the very beginning. It’s like, you will see names, and a line of executive producers, and I don’t know who these people were. It’s me and Courtney during the very beginning of the development. And because I knew so much about the project, in communicating with her as she developed the characters, I was able to write music that I felt was a representation of each one of the characters.
So when we approached it, I wanted to create something that had a musical component to it that was up to standard that would make you feel the way Super Fly and Curtis Mayfield made you feel in the past, because that was like the best project to me.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Can I say something about the comparison? I think it’s cosmetic for the most part. Actually I feel kind of sad when we bring it up ourselves. I expect that sometimes, because people say, “Well the shows are with black leads.”
Yeah, but are you watching the shows? Or are you just asking the question to ask me the question? It’s kind of disappointing.
If you took a show that was about Britney Spears’ family and what they went through in the music industry — let’s just say you pitched that show. And it was an all-white show and it was about this family going through this, and fighting and all these things.
No one would ask me about that show. I wouldn’t get any questions about that show. It’s a cosmetic comparison for the most part. And it’s a shame, because they get to do what they do and we get to do what we do, and we should be allowed to have more than one representation of people of color on TV at the same time.
50 Cent: It’s real important. For our show, it was important that we shot in New York so we can really convey New York City energy. Empire is based on New York and the music business, but it’s being shot in Chicago. So it’s tough to look at it and not see Chicago. If you are from around there you get lost in that.
And just overall, when you look at the show, we took the time. We were all on Courtney’s watch. And she was saying specifically, she wants to hear the dialect of someone who is Dominican versus someone who is Puerto Rican, and to feel those different things so people see themselves of Latino descent in the actual project. And there’s so many different facets of New York City that you have to have all of that there. Like, you got the crews, the guys not even from here. They’re from Russia.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: You got everything. It’s super important that we stay authentic, and we have the time to do that. That’s the other thing when you talk about the comparisons. It’s so unfair to them. They have to make so much television so fast. We have all this time.
But it’s not a comparison if you haven’t seen the show. The only comparison is the fact that they are two black shows.
50 Cent: Yeah, and actually the comparison should be closer to Glee.
But to add a caveat, there’s a connection: the promo guys from the Empire record label would come to Club Truth.
50 Cent: Empire is Glee. Look, whenever the music drops out and you hear the audio play, and a person singing, it’s a musical. I would have kicked and screamed until they left the ambience of the room in it so you feel like the person is rapping over music playing from somewhere else in the room, instead of it just dropping all the way out and hearing music playing.
And it’s a different show. The show’s been cast for the acting talent to be musical stars. And this is why you see them performing at Billboard Awards. The musical performance is the Empire soundtrack. We have that without focusing on it because I’m going to sell records anyway.
Do you want to incorporate more of that kind of musical performance into the show and, now that Empire’s out there, feel you can’t?
50 Cent: The idea was to have music play under…
Courtney Kemp Agboh: It’s more about score. We aren’t making a musical. And we also aren’t making a music show.
It’s not centered around music; it’s centered around drugs and the club.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Yeah! It’s about Ghost…
50 Cent: The nightclub allows us to place music in it that works. It has to be music that would be good enough to work right now, at the time, because there is a place for bad music. There’s television! That’s when someone’s cousin’s song plays in the background and you be like, what is that?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: It disappoints me, even that statement, “there are two black shows”, it’s like why do we even have to look at them as black shows? Scandal is not a black show. How To Get Away With Murder is not a black show. I feel like as long as we are, it’s a little bit like sometimes you know, in politics they move the question. “There’s so many children dying, but look, over here! There’s gay people. Be mad about that.”
People, I want to move the question. Let’s stop talking about the shows as “black shows”. Let’s talk about them as successful shows, or good shows, or shows that are complicated and you can see different people of all different…
I mean, Tommy is an interesting character. Should we have a whole conversation about how he’s white? “There’s a white character on television, Let’s talk about it!” I just want to grow the conversation and push us into a new way of discussing things.
50 Cent: What’s cool about it is, Tommy is Eminem. You got a white artist that grows up in black culture, and because of his passion, just [like] people in general, his passion for it allows him to do it better than a lot of black artists.
When your hips rock like Elvis, similar to James Brown, you know? You get to be someone special in history. And when Em can do that, it’s the same thing. Tommy’s grown up under those same circumstances but had to be more extreme because people are looking at him like he’s not with the shit, or not about it. Because he’s just different.
If you just listen to Power, it’s all about the writing, the words. What’s the writer’s room experience?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Oh, sure ok. And Curtis is in the writing room.
50 Cent: I’m always there. [Laughs]
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Basically a television room is like an Improv performance, because we are all talking all the time — shooting out ideas, this that and the other. In order to write for TV, you have to be able to come up with an idea really fast, have a conversation, understand why it works, understand why it doesn’t work, understand its greater implications. You know what I mean?
So here’s an example from the first season. When I was writing the second episode — because I did that by myself before we started — we put that keychain in there, ok? It was just a little thing about them stealing something together as kids. But then it’s like, what does that mean later, right? So that’s why Yasmin gets ahold of it.
We always try. The show is very much plotted and I think if you watch The Good Wife at all, I learned a lot of lessons there that I take and I apply. But one of the things is, when you drop some little tiny thing up here, we always try to connect that later. And it’s a gift for the audience that’s paying attention, but it’s also about the fact that the whole show is about the domino effect. How one decision you make over here, will carry over here.
Now Ghost: We find out why Kanan has a beef with Ghost in Season Two. But Ghost made a decision that affected Kanan and now that decision has come to roost, you know? And so it’s all about the interconnectedness.
But in terms of writers room experience, its definitely yelling, and laughing. We play music in the middle of the day. We try to keep it fun because we are joking so much. Its just really funny, because we are talking about death, heartbreak, destruction, and pain.
50 Cent: That’s why it’s so important that it was paced as it was for the first season, because it allows you to get into Ghost’s confusion. He made a choice in his life. That could have been an alternative title for this show, Choices.
Power resonates the same in whatever language. It means the same thing. And we did it like that because we believe that it’s going to be a huge success from the beginning. I told Courtney,”This is going to work! Are you kidding me?”
Courtney Kemp Agboh: We are very different in that way because I’m a writer. So I’m like a Woody Allen, self-hating, “AAAARGH! I don’t know if it’s going to work,” and he’s like, “It’s going to work, because I said so.”
50 Cent: And that energy, I take into the room when I’m pitching it.”
Courtney Kemp Agboh: You’re questioning whether it’s going to work or not? I just said, “It’s going to work, fool.”
One of the things that I think is fascinating about the show is that there is always this tension. Are they going to be alive by the end of the show? [laughter] Who’s going to be dead?
50 Cent: That’s the luxury of dealing with the creator. She kind of created that because of the talent. So no one gets too comfortable because your ass can die. You can be removed out of this show so quick that nobody remembers you were here.
But what is good about the show, is that you sit there and say to yourself, “Is there a way to retire as a drug dealer? Can there be any retirement?” You are raising the issue in a valid way without necessarily closing it off as a possibility.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Well, you can [nods towards 50]. [Laughter]
50 Cent: We can’t put that on the recorder.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: That’s why I didn’t say anything. [laughter]
50 Cent: There’s a guy who sits there. What is going to be tough is other people being conditioned for the lifestyle. Even Tasha just wants things to stay the way they are.
The interpretation of the Season 1 is the point that she is in the spa and she explains why Ghost proposed to her. Because she’s pulled over and she says give me the gun and the cops come. Now is she saying give me the gun because of how loyal she is and she how much she loves him? Or is she saying give me the gun because if you go to jail right now…
Courtney Kemp Agboh: I ain’t got shit.
50 Cent: Who’s going to take care of me?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: What’s funny, the original version of that scene, she was pregnant with the twins when that had happened. And so in the first draft, she had hidden the gun under the bump. Then we decided not to take it all the way there because the chronology would not have worked out exactly. There were 10 the first season, it just wouldn’t have worked. But what we wanted was the idea that she would go that far as to put a loaded weapon by her babies in order to save him.
50 Cent: Because she relies on Ghost to do what he does to create that comfort for her. She’s saying, “I want it to stay the way it is. This whole idea of you going off and the nightclub is losing money.”
Courtney Kemp Agboh: “You’re an idiot.”
50 Cent: “What are you doing? It’s just a way for you to filter money, illegal money.” As long as people are in the room, you can say you made lord knows how much because you have to pay taxes on it. Ain’t a question, IRS is going to be like,”Fine, Im glad you are making that money so you can give us the cut we are supposed to get, and see you later, Mr. St. Patrick.”
Courtney Kemp Agboh: “Thank you very much for your tax return.”
What I really do like about it is that there is that authentic grit to it. Because I’ve worked in clubs and had owners that had certain backgrounds and then went on to move away from that and do other things. And it is possible. There’s always that tension of “can this happen?” How are you are going to develop that further in terms of is it going to go backwards and two steps forward?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Well the question is philosophically for the character, would he have been better off staying in his lane? You know what I mean? Is trying to change who you are so risky that in fact the choices that you have already made when you are younger dictate..
50 Cent: Come back
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Yeah! Exactly. It’s also that question and it’s the larger question too.
50 Cent: It’s you’ve changed, and the people around you haven’t, so they view you as if you are still a threat because you are still in existence. Even if a person had to attack Tommy, following him, making his exit. They know that it is a strong possibility that you are so tight that you show up. This is the reason why I have Ghost get rid of his protégé.
It’s autobiographical as far as you are concerned…
50 Cent: Well, the younger components, they do things that are a little more extreme. Like when they do decide to kill, they come on like no one could have stopped. And it’s because they are not really assessing the repercussions.
At the present moment there is some real gangsta shit going on but they come through. So it’s if you leave the young guy there, he can come at you with stronger force [than they would if they were more experienced and strategic.]
Courtney, in a recent interview you mentioned that season two was sort of the season of Kanan, what did you mean by that?
50 Cent: Boy! [laughters]
Courtney Kemp Agboh: What I meant was, when you are watching Kanan on screen, there’s a bunch of things that are happening. One thing is that here is a tremendous actor and this season people are going to see his talent as an actor in a completely different way. He’s in most of the episodes this season. It’s not like last year where it was little pieces. It’s whole stories now. He’s in 8 of the 10?
50 Cent: Yeah, eight.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Ok. So he’s in a huge amount of the episodes, it’s a lot of story that is being carried by Kanan. That’s one thing. But the second thing is that the first season we were very strategic about Kanan, because people were seeing “50”.
The first time he came on screen, we shot a hero shot so that the camera is low and he comes around the corner. In episode 3, he fills up the whole frame. We did that on purpose because we wanted to be like, it’s superman coming in — it’s the first time you see the cape and the suit.
Then as you live with him he becomes Kanan. “Oh shit! What’s Kanan up to?” And then in the second season, we are hoping is that people stop thinking “Look at 50”.
50 Cent: Yeah, she definitely did it, and we accomplished something that is very difficult. It’s convincing the audience that the lead is going to die.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: And the way you do that is by…
50 Cent: The marketing. And you have me there so, I’m coming out and they are going, “Oh it’s his show. This mother fucker done tricked us. He waited the whole time to get us at the end to say its his and now next season its all him and Ghost is dead now. Damn. Why you do that? We like him.” [laughter] Right?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Well, it frees up our storytelling also, in a really nice way. Because as 50 said, anyone can die at any time. It’s not a show that is about the same people all the time.
50 Cent: It’s important to make it as dangerous as the lifestyle.
With that being said, without giving it away, if you had to describe season two in one word, what would it be?
50 Cent and Courtney Kemp Agboh: Intense
They both said it at the same time.
50 Cent: Because it follows the intensity of the finale all the way through to the ten episodes this season. The way it felt when it ended. The action in it and everything.
The title Power is interesting. In the first season, the only person that had power was the person behind bars. Was that purposely done or was that something that came afterwards?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: I’ll tell you the reason the show is called Power from my perspective — the show is actually about being powerless. The show is about the fact that we, as God’s children, are not in control of anything. We think we are, we run around with our little plans and designs, and “I’m going to get this to happen, and I’m going to get this to happen, and I can do this, and I can do that.”
No you can’t! And the truth is, no one in the show gets their plan exactly the way they want it. Even Kanan. Kanan is like, “Listen, I said pink sneakers, you need to change your shoes, change up that wig, and go shoot Ghost.” Does he get that accomplished? No!
50 Cent: So there is hell to pay [Laughter]
Courtney Kemp Agboh: But the idea is that all of us think that we have power. Ghost is amassing this great amount of power and at the end of the day he can’t get out. So I think that, for me, it is very much about that spiritual journey, that spiritual journey of powerlessness, and that’s why it’s called Power.
50 Cent: And it’s the quest for power.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: That’s the other side.
50 Cent: In the chain of the positions, Ghost is in a powerful position. He’s actually running things. Tommy’s going to people and communicating it so he has that. You work at McDonald’s and because you mop the floor, and you work the fries, and make burgers and stuff like that, they say,”Oh guess what, you are going to be the manager now.”
Now that you are a manager, you are still at the shit pot. You are still at the local fast food joint. But the vested status connected to you giving directions makes you feel powerful.
And this is what Tommy has: being able to communicate to the other people, and then he doesn’t identify with Ghost removing himself from the business, allowing him to make all those communications.
There’s so many different areas where they feel powerful because of the delegating of different responsibilities at certain points. Even with Lobos, there’s a point where he is saying, “Maybe you are the guy.”
There’s also the balance between brutality and intelligence.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: But with Kanan, you get both.
Yeah, but the point is that intelligence can outweigh brutality and vice-versa. You mentioned the younger versus the older.
50 Cent: And there is the point that more of Kanan is in Tommy’s actions. And while he is the most honest person in the story, he has a child’s honesty at points, he will say exactly what he is thinking. There’s no confusion or anything behind it. Ghost, even the nickname Ghost is because of him having the ability to do sneaky.
Yeah, he’s stealthy.
50 Cent: And with Kanan, it’s just the savvy of watching so many people with not so good intentions in the lifestyle that allows him to be manipulative at points.
Prior to telling Ghost to get rid of Rollup, he helped him in the previous situation. He told [Ghost] exactly what he needed to know before he told him what he needed to done. That’s being patient. During a 10-year period, who knows if he would ever need you to come back. He’s going to force him to come back with his actions after the fact.
There’s so many powerful dynamics in the story. Look at the power that Tasha has over Shawn. It’s the lust factor. And the position. Some people out here have cool positions, [but] they aren’t necessarily cool people, so they don’t know what they like until they see someone with it.
Shawn’s perception of Tasha is also his viewpoint on Ghost and the powerful position he is in. So when you see Wiz Khalifa with Amber Rose, don’t forget the fact that he saw Kanye West with Amber Rose before he was someone that we can make note of and that’s what makes her a choice. A lot of these things are confirmation of success also. Don’t tell me she ain’t hot now that I got her, goddammit.
Will there be a soundtrack for Season 2 like there was for Season 1?
50 Cent: There will be music that comes out. We even got a song “Lotto” from Rotimi. Myself and Rotimi, one of the talents that you will meet in season 2. And there’s my solo album. The material is starting to come out. SKI, Street King Immortal will be out.
Okay, so speaking of other things… On “Dancing With the Stars,” Patti Labelle danced to your song “In da Club.” What did you think of that?
50 Cent: My grandmother is a really big fan of Patti Labelle. I enjoy her music myself. I had her come to [my grandparents’] 59th […anniversary]
I had a renewal of vows for [my grandparents because they went to the justice of the peace and got married; there wasn’t a whole bunch of money around then, at that point. [My grandmother] wasn’t really excited about the idea in the beginning, but then when she got into it she was like, ”Oh I can’t have a flyer like that. I can’t have that.” She went into her little dream mode of what her wedding would be like.
Patti Labelle, and the Temptations, they came to perform at my house in Connecticut. I had it in my yard. Then when she chose that as a song I was like, “Wow! Look at Patti”, because she is one of the ones who won’t let it go. Diva forever.
Father’s Day is coming up. What do you plan on doing with your son?
50 Cent: I’m just going to spend time with him. I’ll go get him and we will run around and stuff. I like shopping for him. I buy stuff that he has no idea what it is and it’s cool, I just like seeing him with it.
Season 2 trailer
Clip – They Would be Happy to See You
