50 Cent Just Declared He Will Never Work With Power Creator Courtney Kemp Again, and Her Response Is Turning Heads

It takes a lot to get 50 Cent to burn a bridge. The rapper turned television mogul has built a career on saying exactly what he thinks, but even by his standards, what he told Variety this week was a bombshell.

During a new interview published on October 17, 50 Cent was asked whether there was anyone in Hollywood he had such a difficult experience working with that he would refuse to collaborate with them again. His answer came immediately: Courtney Kemp, the creator of Power, the hit Starz crime drama that changed both of their careers.

“I don’t look forward to working with her ever again,” he said.

He explained that while he does not believe Kemp is a bad person, he feels their professional relationship deteriorated after Power became a success. According to the G-Unit founder, Kemp began minimizing his contributions to the show, even though he says he was there from the very beginning. When asked whether she had downplayed his involvement, he answered simply: “I think she forgot.”

What 50 Cent says he did for Power

50 Cent’s central claim is that he was far more than a famous name attached to the project. He says he produced eight songs for the show’s original pitch, including its theme song, and described using music to help sell the series to then Starz chief Chris Albrecht. The pitch, by his account, alternated between discussing the show and playing song excerpts, with his celebrity helping to get the series off the ground.

He also took aim at how the original series was run, alleging that production costs climbed to nearly 12 million dollars per episode and criticizing certain spending decisions. His position is that his approach to later productions helped bring those costs under control.

The interview came as 50 Cent was out promoting his role as Balrog in Paramount’s Street Fighter, which opened in theaters on October 16. Just days earlier, he walked the red carpet at the film’s wild Los Angeles premiere alongside co-stars Jason Momoa and Roman Reigns, as we reported from the premiere. Earlier this month, he told Andrew Schulz for Interview magazine that in the early days of Power he was paid 17,000 dollars an episode while serving as an executive producer, a recurring cast member, the man behind the theme song and, in his own words, the head of marketing, because nobody yet knew who stars like Omari Hardwick or Naturi Naughton were.

Kemp pushes back

Kemp did not let his version stand unchallenged. In a statement to Variety, the Power creator disputed his recollection of the production budgets, noting that he rarely attended budget meetings. She also insisted she has never understated his importance in the genesis of Power, acknowledging that he played a key role in bringing the series to television, while maintaining that he did not write or create it.

She went further, questioning why her former collaborator keeps discussing her publicly when she has moved forward professionally, and said she hopes he eventually does the same. It is not the first time the pair’s working relationship has made headlines, and if history is any guide, it will not be the last blunt exchange in Hollywood this year, much like Ethan Hawke’s no-holds-barred GQ interview that took aim at the industry’s power players.

A decade of Power

Whatever the two sides remember differently, the record shows that Kemp created the series and served as showrunner, while 50 Cent joined as an executive producer and played the feared drug kingpin Kanan. Power debuted on Starz in June 2014, ran for six seasons and ended in 2020, growing into one of the network’s biggest franchises.

The universe only expanded from there, spawning the spinoffs Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan and Power Book IV: Force. In 2021, Kemp signed an overall deal with Netflix, and this year she created the eight-part crime drama Nemesis with Tani Marole, which arrived in May and earned a second season order in June. The Power universe itself is also finding a new home: a Netflix rights deal includes the United States rights to the original Power and international rights to its first four series, with the rollout set for November.

It is the kind of high-stakes Hollywood partnership that has played out in other Variety cover stories too, like Ben Affleck’s recent Variety interview about his Netflix crime thriller Animals, where he opened up about the casting of Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez. But this time, the drama is happening off the screen.

What happens next

For now, neither side is backing down. Kemp says she has moved on and wants the conversation to move on with her. 50 Cent says he will never work with her again. The empire they built together, though, is not going anywhere, and neither, it seems, is this feud.

Sources: The Jasmine Brand, AllHipHop, Variety (Oct 17, 2026).