50 Cent Says Once Starz Greenlit ‘Power’ He Was Getting Paid $17K For Playing Kanan, Executive Producing, And Serving As A Music Supervisor

50 Cent faced some growing pains when launching his series “Power.”

While speaking on the podcast “Earn Your Leisure,” he notes a time when there was a clear division between television and film production. When he was looking to introduce “Power,” he felt there was major pushback.

“Actors that were successful on TV, the film actors wouldn’t go near them, like they would stay away from it because they felt like it was a higher grade of quality, that they wanted to stay with more cachet with you being a movie star than you being a television star,” he recalled. “Now we’re producing premium projects that allow Forest Whitaker and “Godfather of Harlem.” You see Academy-Award-winning actors choosing television ’cause it builds a consistency, and they can pay out the money that keeps the talent happy with staying there, but you do need to know with ‘Power’ everybody told me no. I pitched that show to all of the networks, and they were like ‘No,’ and I wanted to make the project so bad.”

50 Cent claims he was paid $17,000 to be the executive producer and play the character Kanan Stark. He also notes it took several seasons for the cast to be accepted by broader media.

“When I came back with the music and we pitched it and I was playing and I was talking to Chris Albrecht, because at the time with Chris I always recognize him because he’s an innovative thinker,” 50 Cent said. “He’s one of those guys that could see it. He gave me the green light on the project right, and I only was getting $17,000 to play a reoccurring character, the Kanan character, to be the executive producer, and d-mn near be the music supervisor for the project, and they wouldn’t accept the cast of ‘Power’ for three seasons.”