50 Cent Brings the Style to ‘Power’ Season 2 Premiere
Rain couldn’t dampen the vivacity around Tuesday night’s second-season premiere event of Starz’s “Power.” Executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and several cast and crew members arrived in style to the Best Buy Theater in Gotham on a Grayline Sightseeing bus with the show’s theme song “Big Rich Town” blaring from the speakers.
“Man, the second season is so exciting for me because I actually work. I’m in eight of the 10 episodes, and I was around the set a lot more than they expected me to be because the acting talent is comfortable telling me if there’s a problem,” said Jackson, who also stars on the show. “Because they feel like I’m one of them. We’re working together aren’t we? And then I can troubleshoot and make sure things don’t ever spiral out of hand. So we have probably the most pleasant time on a project like this because everyone has someone that they can talk to.”
While last season ended with a bang — literally — showrunner Courtney Kemp Agboh said the bar has raised.
“What I didn’t want to do was try to sustain the same concept of the first season. The concept of the first season was really about secrets,” she said. “And the second season, I was like, ‘The audience knows [everything], let’s catch up with the audience. Bring the characters even with the audience so that characters go on a different journey than what the audience expects.’ My philosophy is always give the audience kind of what they’re expecting and then push past it.”
Agboh also teased a little of what to expect from 50 Cent’s character, Kanan.
“Kanan didn’t get what he wanted. So what happens when people don’t get what they want? I will tell you this. Kanan is going to be the biggest, baddest motherf–ker on TV. You mark my words,” she said.
The cast was also looking forward to watching 50 Cent perform after the screening.
Starz CEO Chris Albrecht and “Power” actor Joseph Sikora are both fans of the show’s theme song.
“You know my 50 joint is always ‘Many Men,’ and I think that rings so true for Tommy too, so we’ll see if he pulls that one out, but man, I think our theme song is so hot and so poppin’. You never get tired of it,” said Sikora.
Not only did 50 Cent and G-Unit crew perform several crowd favorites like “21 Questions,” “Magic Stick,” “Ayo Technology” and (finally) “In Da Club” toward the end of the night, but he also invited a few surprise guests like Jeremih to perform some of his hits. In between sets, 50 Cent also brought up some newer talent like Cleveland-born rapper Machine Gun Kelly, or MGK, and singer Elle Varner. The event was hosted by Time Warner Cable.
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