Once upon a time Kendrick Lamar was just a rapper with a Lil Wayne co-sign. A few classic albums, a lot of Grammys and a Pulitzer prize later, Kendrick is now starting to act. Like so many rappers before him, most recently Lil Yachty, Kung Fu Kenny is making the jump to the screen on tonight's episode of the TV show Power.
Kendrick plays a junkie named Laces in the vein of Andre Royo's Bubbles from The Wire. He shuffles around with messy hair, trying to sell people gift cards. "I scratched some of the decorations of them cause I ain't like the way the shit look, but these shits still good," he says, trying to sell 50 Cent's character, Kanan, a bundle of the cards. In another scene, Kendrick tries to sell the cards to a guy who, distracted, gets shot by 50 Cent riding by on a tiny bike.
Apparently it was Kendrick who reached out to be in the show. According to showrunner Courtney Kemp, “what happened was [50 Cent] was like, 'Kendrick had mentioned he wanted to be on the show' and then I got on the phone with Kendrick and said, 'What do you want to play?'"
The episode is available now on the Starz app.
