50 Cent on the final season 6 of hit TV show Power and how it may continue on Starzplay

POWER, THE HIT drama that straddles the glamorous Manhattan lifestyles of the rich and infamous and the underworld of the international narcotics trade, returns for its sixth, and final season today. With an extended run of 15 episodes, this final chapter will take one last look at the nefarious world in which the STARZ original series' characters captured viewers' attention since the award-winning, critically-acclaimed show premiered in 2014.

Courtney A. Kemp created Power. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson executive produces the series through his production company G-Unit Film and Television as well as starring as lead drug dealer Kanan Stark.

Did you have any idea that the series would last into this many seasons?

I was saying this in the beginning that it would go. I said seven seasons because of The Sopranos and the success of The Wire. In the beginning the promotional portion of it was on my back completely. So I went around and I did all the publicity and everything from the very beginning of it until season three and then it started to shift. And it was really cool because the people had started to embrace the cast and really wanted to talk to them.

Has playing Kanan taught you anything?

For me, the Kanan character speaks to a portion of my 50 Cent presentation. It is because he is street-oriented and because the characters are developed from the environment that I came out of. So they are going to identify with me. And then I went a step further with creating music that mastered tones of the characters. So I created the Kanan tape, a song that I released that sold a million copies. These things make the audience connect with me in a different way. The goal for me was to make them think that I'm not just a talented actor, but say that 'I am Kanan'. Then I know that I really got the essence of it.

What is the importance of the soundtrack for the series?

What I was trying to do when we approached this is we didn't want to make the show like Empire who had kind of a similar idea but they were trying to make two businesses - trying to make a television show and then make the ability to sell music off of the actual television show. We were trying to create moments where the music, the quality of music they played in, it is just seen as good music. There's a place for bad music and usually it's television. This is the last place you spend the money in the budget. What you hear with us is people who have submitted music and the artists are really excited to hear the material on television.

Do you think the diversity on the show has been a crucial part of its success?

We used New York City as a backdrop. So the location, New York, is such a diverse place that we've tried to have everything that is represented there in the show. You've got Serbians, you've got white, black, you've got Latinos you got differentiations of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans and their dialects and how they speak at different points. And, with all these different things in the show, you can see yourself. You know culturally people act like that. People make a personal connection to those characters. It is more crucial that they did identify with the flaws in the characters. Although, sometimes if a story is well told I can enjoy it regardless if I can identify with knowing someone like that. You show me a movie about an Amish family and if it's shot correctly and the story is told right, I'll sit there. I'll just enjoy it because it is just human. It will have enough things in it for me to relate: emotions and laughter, the joy, the pain the different things that are universal for us. They willl still be in the story.

What does it feel like to be saying goodbye to Power?

This is not the end of anything because I've convinced the Starz Network that Power is Marvel and we just keep going because this is an endless tunnel. This is success. Success is an endless tunnel and you have to be prepared to continue to remain on that path. The entrepreneur lives that way. And this is how Starz has adapted their viewpoint to the Power franchise. This season is an extended season, so it's fifteen episodes instead of ten episodes. They've been crying and kicking and saying "why is it ten, why is it ten, it should be longer!" - not understanding premium versus network television. Now they'll get a chance to go on that fifteen episode experience.

Audiences across the Middle East can enjoy watching the final season on STARZPLAY, which will be adding every new episode to its platform on the same day it airs in the United States starting from today, August 26.

• City Times