Joey Bada$$ Says Unique Is Based on Two Major Movie Characters

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Joey Bada$$ says Unique on 'Power Book III: Raising Kanan' is based on two infamous movie characters from the '90s.

Published on August 18, 2022

Power Book III: Raising Kanan is one of the most thrilling spinoffs in the Power Universe. Set in the ’90s, the series is the coming of age story of Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis). His drug queenpin mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas (Patina Miller), has indoctrinated him into the family business. However, Raq’s ruthlessness and willingness to put her son in danger even shocked her brothers, Marvin (London Brown) and Lou Lou (Malcolm Mays).

Raq has also squared up with rival drug dealer Unique (Joey Bada$$), which will undoubtedly cause major issues this season. The actor/rapper has said his character is based on two infamous movie characters, which means all hell will likely break loose soon.

Unique is going to get revenge on ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’

A lot has happened to Unique since Raising Kanan first debuted. When we first met him, he was the Thomas family’s main rival and was looking to eliminate them as competition. However, Raq outsmarted him and got him sent to prison.

At the end of the season 2 premiere, we saw Unique walk out of prison. Though he doesn’t have much to return to after several months, we think he’s going to get revenge on Raq.

Unique is based on two movie characters

During the ’90s, there were numerous films about the inner city and the drug dealers who commanded the streets, especially in New York. Therefore it makes sense that Joey Bada$$ channeled those characters in order to depict Unique on screen.

“Of course, I grew up watching movies like New Jack City and Juice,” he told Hip Hop DX. “I want to say Nino Brown and Bishop were like my main influences for Unique, aside from my own observations as a kid with a bunch of my uncles and cousins and just being from New York and seeing real characters like that in the streets.”

Joey Bada$$ studied the characters to make sure that he nailed his portrayal of Unique. “But hell yeah, I wanted Unique to be on that level of like Nino Brown meets Bishop from Juice,” he said. “There are a lot of scenes where I would tap in and be like, ‘Yo, that felt like that 2Pac or Wesley Snipes moment.’”

In ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 2, every character will pay the consequences of their actions

While it’s likely that Unique will be looking for a way to hurt Raq and the rest of the Thomas’ he won’t be immune to paying for the consequences of his actions. Now that Raq has moved her product to the projects, Unique’s organization has been left in shambles.

He will also need to rethink his strategy and pay for the things that he’s done in the past. “In this season, you get to see everybody wrestle with the decisions they’ve made and the consequences of what they did in the first season and how that relays and correlates to the person that each individual has become now,” Curtis told Essence.

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