Powerful Conversation
Last week Starz Television Network gave The Source Magazine a sneak peek of their new show “Power,” starring Omari Hardwick and executive produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. In addition to watching the first episode we sat down for an interview with Jackson & Courtney Kemp Agboh, who is the show’s creator, writer, and show runner. The interview became more of a conversation as the two discussed the process of creating the show, the music made specifically for the it as well as 50’s upcoming Animal Ambition album, and some genuine insight that only Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson can provide (have you seen this guy on social media lately..?)
Before I could even begin with questions I was beat to the punch by Agaboh and Jackson who asked me what I thought about the first episode. I explained that as someone who had been a fan of 50 Cent since first buying the mixtape 50 Cent Is The Future over 10 years ago , and as a fan of crime drama and shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, this show is totally up my alley. Jackson began by mentioning how the actual character he plays will first appear in a later episode.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson: When it gets better, and I think by the time they make it to the first time they see me, they’re already going to be into the show so much that I get a chance to just be like…
Courtney Kemp Agboh: He has his own entrance.
The Source: During the first episode you find out about Angela and that dynamic with Ghost.
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson: But it’s real people, you find women in the conscience of business to the point that it becomes so important to them that they’ve made such an investment in themselves being tied to what they actually do that they won’t sacrifice their personal interaction, because in the actual work space if you felt someone else was attractive that does similar work to you it’s fine but she can’t be as stern as she was in the past, because if she does it’s like I wonder if she’s with him”.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: [Laughs]
Curtis Jackson: You understand what I’m saying? It’s double edge, it wont hurt the male as much as it’ll hurt the female in that actual concept. So she’s a lot more conscious of it, being that it makes her even more professional, completely conscious of being professional of what they actually do. And the actual Angela character she has that, she won’t actually share or she won’t actually lose, like even Greg. Her relationship with Greg, that’s just a relationship built to sustain her physical needs, period, it’s not that –
Courtney Kemp Agboh: It ain’t a love thing.
Curtis Jackson: It’s like if someone finds out, she’d be devastated.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Just the look on her face, when he leaves, and she just starts shaking the juice, you’re like “Oh, ok it’s this thing.”
Courtney you’ve been vocal about your background, and the research you did for the show, and how you kind of learned from Curtis to some degree.
Curtis Jackson: Look she gives me a lot of credit that is hers, and she did this. Even our communications, creatively bled out of just being about the show “Power,” into releases like “Major Distribution” that’s where the concept or the idea was developed for me Snoop and Jeezy to make that song happen, in a different time period, the releases happened then because we were having convos about this actual show at that current time.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: And I will say this, the show is part his background and part my father , and so it’s in terms of you know the specifics and the details and how it smells and tastes to grow up in Jamaica [Queens] at that time period and to actually be in the hustle, no I’m from Connecticut, there’s no way I would do that. But in terms of having to lead a double life in terms of having to lie to the people you care about, in terms of having to hide an addiction or cover one up, in terms of having to compromise your own character in order to get ahead that’s all me. You know what I mean? [Laughs] In terms of being on the hustle, being on the make, in terms of being a storyteller within that, that’s something that we have in common, so it’s absolutely a collaboration. But I had to sit there in front of the blank screen and make a script and that doesn’t come down to anyone but me. In terms of our early collaboration, in order for it to feel authentic and real and for you to not watch it and say “well this is a TV version of what this feels like,” you know?
I think that’s what a lot of people wonder going into it, what’s that going to be like, knowing that it’s 50 Cent’s show, but its written by the woman who wrote “The Good Wife”.
Curtis Jackson: When you see how actually sophisticated the actual characters are, and the things that’s actually driving the behaviors, then you go “I get it,” because it has their world or that thing. The references, even in music, there’s an audience for it that doesn’t actually experience that, that doesn’t come from it, everyone who bought the CD that actually listens to it, is usually someone that –
10 million people [that bought your albums] aren’t from the hood.
Curtis Jackson and Courtney Kemp Agboh: Exactly
Courtney Kemp Agboh: But I would also say there’s something really important in what you just said in that it’s not 50 cent’s show, it’s Curtis Jackson show. Curtis Jackson and I sat down and created something, 50 cent is a person, but that’s not, it’s not all that he is.
Curtis Jackson: And it’s before new information. So it makes you limited, look at “Get Rich or Die Trying,” that CD had all the dysfunctional behaviors in there, “P.I.M.P,” “High All The Time,” every area that you can actually see different things that are happening and then, those elements are in the actual show. But it’s been put into a group of actual people that were created and have other facets and other driving forces connected to it.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: I would say to build off that, if this is a fortune 500 business man, in that sense, if Warren Buffet created a show with someone, in a weird way people always forget that aspect of it. Ghost as we meet him he’s a successful business man, that’s also 50 cent , they’re both things.
Right because you don’t meet Ghost in the beginning [of his career] you’re meeting him now.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Exactly, it’s not “Get Rich Or Die Trying.” It’s not the hustler.
Curtis Jackson: How ruthless is the CEO in corporate America?
Probably less caring.
Curtis Jackson: Way less caring, the contract you signed it (at this point, to better illustrate his point Curtis jokingly grabbed my paper that had my interview questions on and stared at it as if he was the CEO he’s referring to) “You signed it? Ok that’s what you signed, you fucking signed it, that’s what it says idiot, I don’t care if you gave me your first born in the contract, I want the kid!”
Courtney Kemp Agboh: By the way who is a bigger hustler, Curtis Jackson 1.0, or Bernie Madoff, seriously?
Curtis Jackson: How many people had no one to turn to, at that point when they realized that Bernie Madoff is what it is and there’s no one to compensate for money taken, and your life savings is connected because you put it in, because no one could show you the returns like he was showing.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Right because “he’s a hustler baby.”
I know “Big Rich Town” is the theme song for the show, I think in the first episode I heard a song that isn’t on Animal Ambition, how much music did you create specifically for the show?
Curtis Jackson: There’s 11 songs, like that song you heard in the beginning.
Separate from Animal Amibiton ? Separate from Street King Immortal right?
Curtis Jackson: Yea in the very beginning of us communicating I went and I wrote songs that I felt were a representation of the characters that we were developing. One of them spoke to Tasha, the one of that spoke to “Big Rich Town” is Ghost, the parallels between Ghost and the perception of me is not that far, it’s why people don’t feel like I’m writing about someone else, but I’m saying in the actual song the lyrics say:
“My cocaine endeavors give me corporate ties, I’m supposed to lose, watch me win against the odds, you know all I got is my word balls and my instincts, I’m trying to make it, we already made it my friends think, we already on top, I got a bigger plan, no more controlled substances or hand to hand”
And that’s exactly where Ghost is, where he’s made it to the top of the actual drug business, and he’s like “I don’t know no old drug dealers, I don’t know guys that are old.”
Right , there’s no pension plan for a drug dealer
Courtney Kemp Agboh: That’s actually good by the way “There’s no pension plan for a drug dealer” … we might wanna take that …
I’d be honored. You worked with Joe on “Big Rich Town,” were there any other collaborations?
Curtis Jackson: I worked with Governor on a few of them, he did vocals for me. I actually wrote everything and then had him re-vocal the track. Because I knew exactly what I needed it to feel like. I had a specific sound I was trying to capture with it, and because New York became such a serious like character within the actual [show] being able to physically be able to be in New York. Look what happens next season, when he actually starts showing up to places where people are actually at.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: [Laughs] If there is a next season, we’re holding out hope.
Come on, WHEN there’s a next season, you have to will it into existence.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Exactly
Curtis Jackson: Yeah like when we actually started running up to places where you would be randomly hanging out, where you see those characters in the scene there, it starts to feel like “yoooo, he at Starlets, he at Perfections.”
To me you’re my favorite interview period, next to maybe 2pac, because I feel like you are super self aware. Have you ever felt like being so self-aware is almost a gift and a curse, have you ever wished you weren’t like that. I feel like that sometimes.
Curtis Jackson: I always said to myself that I knew that there would be an artist that came after me and some that were there before me that would be better than me at different portions of what it takes to actually be a star. I think there’s 4 qualities: quality material, performance, appearance, and personality. And it’s not until you become comfortable with yourself to the point where you can actually be as good as you actually are because that nervous energy doesn’t allow you to actually be that, and I looked at … so many of the actual artists that are creating something! That thing, they’re creating a persona for themselves that they’re not, I don’t think it’s as effective; it creates limitations to what you can do as far as presentation. For me, people don’t perceive me as funny at points, but then I have those moments that they can’t not laugh at it
Yea, you’re real funny on social media, they know that.
Curtis Jackson: They’ll look and go he’s crazy, this dude, no filter, and he’s not gonna stop, he’s just gonna go, and they go, I get to say things that they can’t say. I’m like I don’t care, what are you gonna do?
Courtney Kemp Agboh: If you are self aware, as a writer, then use that
Curtis Jackson: That’s the only thing that creates separation. Think about this, painful moments have stood out and is the best content for creative people and artists. Like even the loss of Courtney’s dad is what makes this project happen, of actually wanting to do this. Kanye’s car crash is that for him, me being shot, it’s a different energy connected to it, or passion that pours on to the actual screen in Courtney’s case, and in my case to the actual audio of things that I’ve created in my career. It’s what provided the opportunity for us to get to this point and move forward in a different fashion. The coolest thing about it is as you actually figure out yourself, and what is your driving force and your motivation for some of the shit you’re actually doing. Like I have to take a step back at certain points and say “Well how the fuck am I doing, but wait, I’m a fuck him up, I’m a fuck him up.” But why? Oh because they told us we were supposed to fuck each other up before I even got here.
Courtney Kemp Agboh: That’s why I don’t fight with women, because they tell us were supposed to, they put us against each other.
Curtis Jackson: Like with Jadakiss, the situation is like “Wait, what was we upset about?” [Laughs] Ok, I was upset with him, and I was upset with him, and you were standing next to him, so ok you got some of his shit, well we could see if we can fix it.
Well I’m glad you did, we love the new song [“Irregular Heartbeat”].
Courtney Kemp Agboh: Oh yea the new song is hot, I was watching a video this morning, I love that location, where did you find that?
Curtis Jackson: Oh it was a strip club.
*Room bursts into laughter*
Courtney Kemp Abgoh: Why did I even ask? Why did I walk right into that?