Photo Credit: Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ with Mekai Curtis as Kanan, Nile Bullock as D-Wiz, Antonio Ortiz as Shawn ‘Famous’ Figueroa, and Donte Grey as Buck Twenty | Starz
Power Book III: Raising Kanan, is more like historical fiction than your average crime drama. We’ve heard the stories about drug Kingpins and mob bosses in the late 80s and early 90s and have seen movies about their lives. Viewers have always been drawn to the fast-paced, high risk/high reward lifestyles portrayed in crime films. The violence, money and taboo personality traits of the characters seem to become iconic to fans across the world.
New York City has always been a major hub for organized crime and many of the Mafia movies and series take place within the five boroughs or tri-state area. Many of these stories that are portrayed in the films are often times based on true events. Raising Kanan takes place in South Jamaica, Queens in the early 90s. Many people believe that it is the dramatized version of the stories of top Jamaica drugs pins Fat Cat Nichols, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, Pappy Mason and other big names from the late 80s and early 90s.
The fictionalized Raising Kanan, follows the childhood of Kanan Stark. Kanan Stark is a major character from the original Power series, in which the time period is from around 2014 to 2020. The story goes back to explain the origins of Kanan and how he came to be the vicious gangster we saw in the original Power series.
As a child Kanan is part of a family where his mother and his uncles run a major drug business in South Jamaica. Kanan desperately wants to be a part of the family business and does everything wrong trying to prove to his mother that he is ready. His mother has dreams of sending him away to a better school where he could possibly escape the life of crime that she had been a part of, but Kanan’s mind was set on following in his mothers footsteps. With the man of the house away in prison, Kanan’s mother Raquel takes on the role of both mother and father, raising Kanan with the help of her two brothers Marvin and Lou Lou.
Photo Credit: Starz.com Power Book III : Raising Kanan – Season 1 Episode 3: Stick and Move
Kanan is very close to his cousin Jukebox, who got her name from singing for money when they were younger. Kanan is only 16 and Jukebox is 17, they are both still dealing with the normal challenges of growing up as teenagers, as well as being part of a crime family.
The antagonist in this first season of Raising Kanan is a five percenter, kingpin drug boss, who drives a bullet proof BMW named Unique. He’s a classy clean cut gangster who runs his operations out of a tailor. Kanan’s mother Raquel, commonly referred to as Raq, has always had a mutual agreement with Unique over drug territories. But because of a twisted series of events, Raquel and Unique end up going to war. “The streets needed a body,” because once blood is shed the flow to violence is hard to stop. Raquel and Unique tried to handle their differences in a civil manner but eventually things turned violent for both sides.
This is a story of trust, betrayal, love, hate, life and death. Kanan starts this season off as an innocent child, clueless to what really goes on behind the scenes of a drug business. But he slowly but surely learns the harsh realities of the game.
Considering how cold and heartless Kanan was in the original Power series, it is safe to say that raising Kanan must have been a grim and intense experience. This is why his mother is so much of a central focus in this first season. Understanding his family gives the viewers a better understanding of why he is the way he is in the future.
