When there's beef Son to Mother ... Kanan vs. Raq
One of the best parts of season three of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, is the strained relationship between Kanan an his mother, because it's not what we normally see.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan is flipping the mother-son relationship on its head.
We’re used to urban tales where a son dotes on his mother or wants nothing more than his mother’s approval.
I think about Boyz N The Hood, where Doughboy did all he could to gain his mother’s approval as an example.
What’s been fascinating about watching Power Book III is Kanan (played by Mekai Curtis) is filed anger and resentment toward his mother, Raquel (played by Patina Miller). Kanan doesn’t want her approval. He rejects her attempts at reconciliation. He’s not mama’s little boy.
I love this storyline.
Kanan’s strained relationship with his father makes sense. He doesn’t know him. He’s a cop who he tried to kill.
Who put the battery in Kanan’s back to be a killer? His mother.
Often, shows allow boys to justify their mother’s actions, reserving all the hate for dad. That’s an easy story to tell when compared to what we’re seeing on Power Book III.
Kanan is uninterested in why Raq moves how she moves. Why did she keep things from him? What was her story?
He doesn’t care.
Truth is we’re all products of our trauma and there has been plenty on how boys, particularly young Black boys, deal with the trauma of a bad relationship with their fathers.
But when trauma is from Mom? That’s something to explore.
It’s not that mothers do not acknowledge their faults. There have been times when my own mother has told me she wonders if her choices in life impacted me as an adult. I automatically reject that notion. Maybe it’s a mama’s boy reflex. But there’s something that will not allow me to blame mom for anything.
It makes me believe we as men, Black men in particular, absorb the negative things we’ve heard, learned and seen about Black fathers and that makes it easier for us to blame them. It’s also the reason (sometimes) we go out of way to forgive our fathers.
It’s a reason why Kanan’s character and his attitude toward his mother is so intriguing. I’m not giving away too much of the show from this season (if you’re a season season behind, oh well), but in this scenario Raq is a victim.
An older man, a police officer, impregnated an underaged girl and lied to cover for it, saying Kanan’s father was a neighborhood gangsta.
That lie falls apart for so many reasons, but Kanan comes to seek guidance from his actual father, even as the disdain for his mother and her lies and manipulation grows.
I’m not disagreeing with this character arc. I like it. It’s different. I look forward to seeing more. How does a son forgive his mother for lies and deception? It should be fun to watch.
Scarface shines
“He greets his father with his hands out
Rehabilitated slightly, glad to be the man's child”
This isn’t the opening to a novel. It’s Scarface’s song “I Seen a Man Die.”
This isn’t a get off my lawn rant about how rap music used to be. Rather this is an appreciation for what Face did at the Tiny Desk for NPR with one of his best songs.
It didn’t feel like a musical performance. It was Scarface having a conversation, with voice inflections and body movement helping to emphasize moments in the song.
That’s part of the beauty of Scarface’s music in the Tiny Desk forum. It forces you to focus on the lyrics. He’s one of the greatest lyricists the game has seen, but I found myself drawn in more by the setup. His style is perfect for the Tiny Desk.
Watching this performance (instead of the music videos from back in the day) allowed me to see the emotion behind the lyrics. Which words evoked a soulful turn of his head? Which song would have him closing his eyes as he became entranced with his own lyrics?
The backstory to recording the wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard about a musician before (he was high!), but it was the perfect setup to the song.
Do yourself a favor and check it out.