00:00Come on, man.
00:02This is my story.
00:06This is the South Side Jamaica Queen story.
00:08Don't call it a comeback.
00:10I've been here for damn.
00:11You said you was gonna get me involved.
00:13You pull that trigger, you in it.
00:17You can't afford the war right now, Rocky.
00:20I ain't getting on my knees, Nick.
00:22Not for you or no man.
00:26Hi, how you doing?
00:28I'm good. I'm excited.
00:29Good. It's good to see you again.
00:31I talked to you after your NAACP Image Award win for Power Book 2.
00:36And I'd ask you if you've been nervous, you know, about another iteration of Power.
00:39You said, you know, a little bit at that time, putting that out.
00:42So I'm curious how you felt ahead of releasing Raising Canaan and if you see more awards coming for you.
00:48You know what? I feel good about it.
00:50The project we captured, the 90s, probably the best I've seen so far.
00:55You know, like, there's the fashion, the music, the energy, the whole nostalgia of it is just, it's right.
01:04And I think the television viewers in the nightclubs right now listening to the trap music so they don't really understand why this music is significant and how things felt in that time period.
01:14Like, hip-hop was still a baby in 91.
01:18Like, it's still, it definitely wasn't as big as it is now.
01:21Like, now hip-hop is pop music.
01:23It's so popular, you know, and the difference in the layers and the things that are going on in the show, I think it's going to take them to another level of creativity and energy around it.
01:36Because when the younger audience sits down to watch, they go, yo, it was like that back then?
01:41Like, you know what I'm saying?
01:41It takes them to, when they see their mom and other people around enjoying the music, they're like, you don't know nothing about that.
01:48That was me, boy. That was when I was.
01:53Yeah, Jamaica, Queens, was the first place I lived when I moved to New York.
01:56And even I just felt like some weird, like, nostalgia about being in New York.
02:01And we, you know, for essence, we featured Makai Curtis as one of our summer screen kings in our last issue.
02:08And I'm just personally so excited to see everything he'll do.
02:11What was it about his performance in the audition process that let you know he was a big guy?
02:16I, when I, I was there for them to perform together.
02:20Okay.
02:21And I'm watching them, I'm like, yo, like, cause I'm looking like, nah, he do look like, like the, you see, we did this thing where his face morphs from mine into his, where he came in.
02:31And I'm like, nah, he do look like, and I was just watching him to see what he was doing performance wise.
02:36And then him and Patina, that chemistry was so good that it's like, shit, we got it.
02:40Like, we're done.
02:41This is it.
02:42And then, so I should agree with me and we just went from there.
02:45But the, when you watch him, there's points that he starts to, it's like the slur of words.
02:51He's not moving his mouth at points like that.
02:52And he sat, watched interviews and different things that I was doing when he saw me doing that in it and put that into his performance.
03:00So I was like, it surprised me that he would take, have that much detail.
03:05You know, what he was trying to do for the character.
03:08And then when I spoke to him about it, I was like, you know, you're a good guy.
03:13You know, because if you looked at Kanan and everything that he'd done in Power, you, you might say he's the bad guy, the nemesis of it.
03:22And Kanan is, it's the loss of innocence.
03:26So you see the trauma, what he went through to turn to him into what it was when I was portraying the character then.
03:32So it's cool.
03:33It's very, very interesting, man.
03:35The energy and jukebox.
03:38I love that.
03:38You had that relationship when I put her on Power and then see it where it started, you know.
03:45Yeah, yeah.
03:47And, you know, speaking of Patina, I became an instant fan.
03:50Her first episode, I was like, I thought she was from New York.
03:53Her accent, her energy.
03:55And it's interesting.
03:56I interviewed the cast together and they all kind of rally around her like the queen bee, you know, even off camera.
04:02Yeah.
04:02I'm curious for you, you know, working with her, you know, what it's been like.
04:06And, like, how did you know she was your life?
04:09You know, she is exactly that.
04:13Like, her energy is that.
04:15Like, that's not like, the cast don't usually talk to each other about who's possibly going to be a breakout person.
04:22Like, she already walks in with that intensity.
04:25Like, so you, they feel it because creatively they don't see, they don't see sides.
04:30I don't see her looking, like, she's like, what, what, what's in this next?
04:35And she already knows what it is.
04:37Okay.
04:37So it's like, there's no point that there's the preparation.
04:41She, how she prepares for it is a little more intense than, you know, the other actors that are involved in it.
04:46And then, then they look at it, they respect it.
04:49They go from there.
04:50Like, Joey, Joey Badass.
04:52Oh, shit.
04:53We lucked up with Joey Badass.
04:55We won an Oscar.
04:56We said, who, who expected that?
04:58Out of, like, he won an Oscar for a short film.
05:01And then his long-form performance is unique.
05:04Yeah.
05:05And Raising Cannon, and you see that it's not a fluke, that he got real chops.
05:11So I'm excited that it feels like that it was, when I'm watching it with that, I'm going, wait, when did he do that?
05:17This is happening.
05:18And I'm like, well, good.
05:19Because I got him on in here, in this project already.
05:24And it was, like, it was real funny, because Puffy was a part of the executive production on the short film.
05:32Okay.
05:33He was, like, getting his little excitement for being involved with that little dunk.
05:38And I'm like, all right, that's cool, because I got a movie.
05:40I got this.
05:42Nice.
05:43And lastly, you know, thinking about this being so rooted in Jamaica, Queens, which is, you know, your roots.
05:48You know, thinking about where you are now, what would you have told yourself when you were Canaan's age?
05:54Oh, man.
05:56Shut up, stupid.
05:57You're doing everything wrong.
06:00I was doing everything, you know, I was supposed to be doing in the early stages.
06:05And, you know, like, I think that's a part of coming of age and growing.
06:09Yeah.
06:09You know, people are like plants, man.
06:12They're not going to be the same.
06:13We're going to change over time.
06:14And when they choose to be together, hopefully they grow in the same direction.
06:18Yeah.
06:18You know, and not apart, but true story.
06:22Like, I look at it and I would probably not do a lot of the shit that didn't result in anything, you know, I could look at it and say, this helped me be successful.
06:33But ups and downs do prepare you for, you know, my setbacks are for my getbacks.
06:41Yeah.
06:41You know, and because I've had them prior to that, there's no obstacles that come in front of me that I can't get around.
06:49You know, like, there's no, the bigger thing, you know, the stock market crash, the guy that was successful his whole life jumped off the side of the building.
06:57Right.
06:58And the market goes back up.
06:59Yeah.
07:00And get your ass back out of the sidewalk.
07:05Yeah, you seem pretty fearless now.
07:07Is that accurate to say?
07:09Yeah, yeah.
07:09You know, like, I'll try, like, if I'm passionate about it, if I like it, I'm going to get it.
07:14I'm going to go do it.
07:15You know what I'm saying?
07:15And that's what really my interest in the finances is to do what I want to do.
07:22So if they don't want to invest in ideas, cool, I'm still going to do it.
07:25I'm still going to make the project over here.
07:27Yeah.
07:27And, okay, like, I'll pay the writers in advance.
07:31I'll pay for the things that I need to move it forward.
07:35Yeah.
07:35You know, so it's cool.
07:38Like, there's a, at this point, and it's just a very short period of time, things went, like, it grew from the before to 21 television shows.
07:51Yeah.
07:52Across nine different networks.
07:53And part of it is, I don't see, I look at networks like the banks, the Chase Manhattan Bank or Wells Fargo or whatever else.
08:04And they have the money, but they don't necessarily know what they should be spending it on.
08:09And I bring them the right idea.
08:11Yeah.
08:12You know, so that's the goal.
08:15All right.
08:16Well, I look forward to talking to you for being mad, if I'm sure.
08:19Yeah, I'll be back.
08:20Yeah, exactly.
08:21But thank you so much.
08:22It was great talking to you.
08:24It's a pleasure.
08:24It's a pleasure.
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