50 Cent has been a proud advocate of gangsta rap ever since he entered the mainstream. Even following the rapper’s transition from music to acting, he still managed to show his acknowledgement and relation to the gangsta lifestyle through his characters and soundtracks.
On Power, 50 played the role of Kanan Stark, an agent of chaos and gangster of the worst kind. Now, in his new Kanan-oriented spinoff, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, he is continuing in the role. So it is evident that the rapper (real name Curtis Jackson) still has an affinity for the archetypical gangsta.
Like his character in Power, Jackson grew up in the neighbourhood of Jamaica, Queens, the same community that birthed Nicki Minaj. However, things were not always easy for the rapper when he resided there. In an interview with the online entertainment magazine Page Six, Jackson spoke on Power Book III: Raising Kanan and how it is semi-autobiographical. He then went into detail about the things he experienced while living in Jamaica.
Speaking on the neighbourhood and other locals in the area, the rapper admitted that growing up, he got bullied by thugs and gangstas from the community. However, in a shocking revelation, he declared that, despite their stature, no one scared him more than his mother.
Elaborating on the semi-autobiographical nature of the series, Jackson revealed, “[There’s a scene] from the first episode where Kanan gets roughed up, and he goes back in the house and [his mother put the toys in the socks]. That really happened. Like, that was from my life,” he said. However, although this doesn’t sound too bad, he divulged she was the typical “smother,” and he felt like the walls were closing in on him at times.
Jackson continued, “There’s a point where, things that you are afraid of, that I got bumped around a lot in the park, but I was more afraid of my mom than the people I got bumped around by because I could not escape her,” he said honestly. “Her being a single mom at that point, she was everything.”
The rapper’s mother worked two jobs, making her a tired lady with a short fuse, and although she was always loving, lived life on the edge, never knowing she was going to come home, especially during her stint as a drug dealer. As a local crack vendor. his mother dealt with the roughest people, became coarse, and “tough love” was her aura.
The rapper’s mother, Sabrina Jackson, passed away when he was eight years old due to a fire. Having given birth to the rapper aged only 15, she was 23 when she died. 50 claims a rival drug dealer who orchestrated it. Speaking with the online publication ContactMusic in 2004, Jackson alleged, “Someone put something in her drink and turned the gas on. After that, every time something went wrong, I’d think, ‘If my mother was here, it wouldn’t be like that.'” After his mother’s death, he went to live with his grandmother. Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Season 2 is available on to stream in the US via Starz On-Demand, US Netflix and for Uk viewers on Lionsgate+. You can watch the trailer in the video below.
