Ghost and Tommy and Tariq and Brayden are drug-dealing duos that immediately come to mind when you think about the Power Universe. But where do Kanan and Famous fit in that pantheon? Raising Kanan stars MeKai Curtis and Antonio Ortiz weigh in on the matter and more.
In Season 3, Kanan and Famous are still on their own with Raq’s (Patina Miller) baby boy, looking for a way to spread his wings free of his mother.
While Kanan is the ambitious one, Famous, who once thought he was going to make it as a rapper, is not as reliable, and instead of having a hustler’s spirit, he would rather sit in the apartment and chill because, despite rapping about the streets needing a body, he is not about that life. Still, he will be forced into it to make ends meet.
CassiusLfie spoke with the two actors before the Season 3 premiere about their characters’ evolutions and their rank as a drug-dealing duo in the world of Power.
Ortiz Says Famous Has Lost All Of His “Safety Nets”
Source: Starz / Power Book III: Raising Kanan
Famous is still trying to find his place in the world. Because he is a lazy bum, his mother kicked him out after his music career fizzled out.
Ortiz explains his character’s journey from Raising Kanan’s first season to now as he adjusts to life without what he describes as “safety nets” to help him out.
“I think because mine is not smaller as in significance, but smaller as in just how far I’ve traveled,” Ortiz begins. “I think my character has gone from basically just being in this world of a bunch of different safety nets and a bunch of different fallbacks, a bunch of different places where if everything else fails, I still have this. If everything else fails, I still have that. And I feel that through the seasons, I have here and there lost those safety nets, and I’ve realized what the real world is. So through Season 3, that basically becomes more and more apparent.”
MeKia Curtis Says Kanan Is Now Fully Accepting The World Around Him
Source: Starz / Power Book III: Raising Kanan
For Kanan, Season 3 looks like it will be the moment where he fully commits to the drug dealing life because he is desperate to free himself of his lying mother.
Curtis explains his character’s eagerness to “dive a little further” and fully accept the world around him.
Kanan is figuring out the world around him.
“Kanan is figuring out the world around him. Through Season 1, you watch him dip his toes into what reality might be, ” Curtis says, adding, “And in Season 2, you actually see him dive a little further into what’s happening, and by the end of that he’s in really deep water, so to speak. He’s full-on wading in the truth of what’s happening. And then in Season 3, he’s accepting what the world is around him, and now he’s trying to figure out how to sink or swim within that reality. I mean, he’s dealing the hand that he’s been dealt and just moving accordingly.”
Where Do Kanan & Famous Rank As A Drug Dealing Duo?
Source: Starz / Raising Kanan
Of course, we had to ask Curtis and Ortiz where they feel Kanan and Famous rank as a drug-dealing duo. Ortiz admitted to being “biased,” opting not to answer the question, but his co-star didn’t bite his tongue and gave reasoning for putting the Raising Kanan duo at the top.
“No, there’s a couple of different ways you can look at that, right? You can look at tactility, like how tactile they are when they doing it. Efficiency, which they actually had that on lock when they was out there pushing [dope in Famous’ mixtape cassette cases.]”
He continues, “We number one, you get to see so many different sides of them. But that’s the beauty in their relationship. That’s the beauty in brotherhood throughout all the relationships in the Power-verse, or whatever. But it’s just like you see them be vulnerable with each other. You see them put their heads together at certain times. You see them get to the nitty-gritty when they need to, but you also see them balance each other out because one is so extreme at times and the other one is like, ‘relax.’ So that’s the springboard of their relationship.”
Gotta love the confidence.
You can watch the entire interview, where they also talk about their favorite social media reactions to the show above.
