50 Cent vs. Courtney Kemp: The Power Feud Returns

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has built a television empire at Starz, but one of the people who helped launch it will not be part of his future.In a recent interview with <em>Variety</em>, the rapper-turned-producer was asked whether there was anyone he had clashed with so badly that he would never work with them again. He named Courtney Kemp, the creator and showrunner of Power.

"I don't look forward to working with her ever again. I don't think that she's wholeheartedly a bad person, I just think that it got out of control for her." — Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson

Who Gets Credit for Power

At the center of the dispute is a question of authorship. Kemp wrote the series, which ran for six seasons and became one of the biggest hits in Starz history. Jackson believes his role in getting it made has been minimized.

"After the success of 'Power,' she would go, 'I wrote it,'" he said. "Well, you did write it, but I uploaded everything that you wrote, and we got a 'no' from everybody before we got a 'yes.'"

Jackson described a pitch process built around music. When the team presented Power to Chris Albrecht, then the CEO of Starz, they alternated between describing the show and playing roughly 90 seconds of songs he had written to capture each lead character.

"I produced eight songs that went into it, including the theme song," he said.

Asked whether he felt Kemp was downplaying his contributions, Jackson offered a softer explanation.

"I think she forgot," he said. "Because in the beginning, the sell for the show was '50 Cent.' That's it."

Leverage and the 40 Percent Drop

Jackson also recounted the moment he says changed his relationship with the network. During a stretch when Power was off the air, he told fans, "Y'all know what time it is, and I'll tell you when the show comes back on." According to Jackson, Starz then saw 40% of its subscribers disappear.

Network executives called him in, he said, and asked, "What kind of partner does this?!" Jackson told them the real issue was programming. If viewers were willing to cancel and return only when Power came back, he argued, the network had nothing else people wanted to watch.

That conversation became the opening for his next move.

I forced the 'Power' universe on them when they saw the forty percent decrease," he said.

The episode also showed executives how much influence he held, he added.

A Fight Over Budgets

Jackson claimed that spending on the original series had ballooned to nearly $12 million an episode, and he singled out wardrobe as one example of waste. He said every clothing item was being purchased three times.

When it came time to make BMF and other projects, Jackson said he cut costs by having clothing companies provide wardrobe for promotional purposes, since the brands would gain "ten million eyeballs" on their products.

The Raising Kanan Disagreement

The creative split extended to the franchise's spinoffs. Jackson said Kemp "was trying to run the entire network through one show" and opposed Raising Kanan because she did not want to tell a story whose ending audiences already knew.

Jackson saw it differently.

"I told her, 'This is the late-'80s going into the '90s, and that was the golden era for the drug trade,'" he said.

He credited showrunner Sascha Penn with turning the prequel into "a masterpiece" that ran for five seasons.

Kemp Responds

Kemp pushed back in a statement to Variety.

"While 50's recollection of budgets and production requirements is uninformed, as he was rarely in a budget meeting, I have never once understated his importance in the genesis of 'Power,'" she said. "While he did not write nor create the series, he was a large part of its birth."

She also questioned why the subject keeps coming up.

"I am completely bewildered by his need to mention me in interviews or podcasts," Kemp said. "I have completely moved on in my career, and I hope that the imminent success of 'Street Fighter' allows him to do the same."

Two Versions of One Success Story

The exchange leaves two competing accounts of how Power became a franchise. Jackson casts himself as the salesman and strategist; Kemp as the creator who has always credited his part. Both agree on one point: without each other, the show that changed Starz might never have been born.