‘Power’s “50 Cent” Jackson Waves Off ‘Empire’ Promo Feud – TCA

At today’s panel for Starz’s Power, the show’s executive producer and co-star Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson took a relaxed tone toward the whole brouhaha over the last month, in which he accused Fox’s Lee Daniels’ music industry show Empire of ripping off Power’s promo campaign. Jackson originally expressed his accusation in an Instagram post, which he later removed. Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard responded and shrugged off 50 Cent’s gripes across social media. Jackson denied that the feud was a P.R. stunt and said calmly, “Well the word ‘Power’ was used in the tagline. They didn’t have to do that. But I have a lot of friends connected to that program.” Jackson then named such buds as Terrence Howard, Timbaland, Brian Grazer among others. Jackson realized that getting in a fight with Henson, just wasn’t worth his energy.

Added Power creator Courtney Kemp Agboh about the feud, “Their show is music driven.  We’re doing two different things. Broadcast is so hard. I’ve worked in it. You don’t have the advantage to show your sex and violence. On Power we have this amazing thing to do whatever we want.”

Power tells the story of James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick) who has an eye on his rising glamorous nightclub business, while handling a lucrative drug business. Season 2 continues to show Ghost’s struggles to go legit. However, he is juggling two relationships with his wife, Tasha, and first love Angela, who is an AUSA investigating his drug org.  Ghost is trying to untangle himself from the drug biz before Angela discovers who he really is. Jackson plays Kanan, Ghost’s mentor, who is freshly sprung from jail, looking for revenge. Season 2 kicks off this summer.