A fresh Variety interview brings competing accounts from 50 Cent and Courtney Kemp about the partnership that launched Power.
50 Cent has ruled out another collaboration with Courtney A. Kemp, reopening a disagreement about their roles in building Power. In a new Variety interview published October 17, the rapper and television producer said, “I don’t look forward to working with her ever again.”
Jackson described using music to help sell the series to then-Starz chief Chris Albrecht. He said the pitch alternated discussion with song excerpts, and that he produced eight tracks, including the theme.
Kemp disputed his account in a response included by Variety. She rejected his recollection of production spending and said he rarely attended budget meetings. She also stated, “I have never once understated his importance in the genesis of ‘Power.’”
Kemp distinguished between creating the series and helping launch it: she credited Jackson’s involvement while maintaining that he neither wrote nor created Power. The accounts remain contested. The accompanying original opening sequence provides musical context, not footage of the new interview.
The original credits provide useful context. A January 2014 announcement from MIPTV organizer Reed MIDEM identified Kemp as creator and showrunner and Jackson as an executive producer and cast member. It also announced that both would join lead actor Omari Hardwick for an onstage conversation following the show’s world-premiere screening in Cannes.
Power’s first season ran for eight episodes, with Starz’s official listing identifying 2014 as its release year. The drama followed Hardwick’s James “Ghost” St. Patrick as he tried to leave drug trafficking behind through his nightclub business, with Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton and Joseph Sikora among its central cast. The new exchange concerns the partnership behind that series, rather than a newly announced cancellation or change to an upcoming production.
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