Kanan Starks

"Once a friend betrays you, you cut him, you don't think twice."

- Kanan to Tommy. "I thought about killing you a hundred different ways."

- Kanan to Ghost.

Kanan is a powerful drug lord and a main character the Starz TV show, Power. He was a supporting character turned hidden main antagonist of season 1, then one of the two main antagonists of season 2 along with Felipe Lobos and one of the two secondary antagonists along with Mike Sandoval in season 3.

He is portrayed by rapper 50 Cent.

Biography
Kanan is Ghost's former boss and mentor. He has been in prison for years because of a sketchy drug charge. He had once taken both Tommy and Ghost under his wing years ago and taught both of them everything they know. Even though he served as a advisor to Ghost's organization, he is secretly plotting against him and plans to return to the game in grand fashion.

Season 1
Kanan first appears when his son Shawn comes to visit him in prison and the two catch up on everything that's been going on. During this time, Kanan hires a beautiful but deadly assassin known as Pink Sneakers to kill Ghost and his associates. While Ghost is looking for the person that is killing off his crew, Kanan contacts him from prison and informs him that the RSK gang leader Rolla, who was a friend and protégé, is behind it, framing the gangster and causing Ghost to go assassinate him. Sometime later, Kanan is visited by a lawyer with the news that he will soon be released from prison. Afterwards, Pink Sneakers pays Kanan a visit and he tell her that she wants Ghost dead before he gets out and that she needs to get new shoes.

Season 2
Kanan is released from prison and visits Ghost, his family, and Tommy which surprises the latter. He later catches up to everything going on in the drug business. During this time, Kanan looks for Pink Sneakers, who failed to kill Ghost, and has one of her contacts attempt to find her but fails. He kills him and later learns that Pink Sneakers is in hiding in Miami. He orders his right hand man Dre go to Miami and kill her before Ghost does. Kanan and Tommy meet up with the RSK gang and their new leader Q-Dubs, which ends in Kanan killing him as the latter refused to work with him, Tommy, or Ruiz and his Soldado gang. Afterwards, Kanan furthers his plot to take over the drug business and kill Ghost. After a meeting with Tommy, Dre and his crew, Kanan has Dre kill one the latter's men, Brock as he disliked him and thought he would be disloyal. Later, He meets up with all the drug lords and gangs, including Serbian gang leader, Vladimir, Haitian gang leader Drifty, and Ruiz in order to meet up with Felipe Lobos and set up a new drug business with Kanan in charge and Lobos as their distributor once Ghost is dead. However, things change as Tommy and Lobos are arrested. Tommy is released while Lobos is still locked up and the drug lords agree to have Ghost killed. During this time, Kanan uses his son Shawn to kill Ghost. However, Shawn fails and Ghost sends him away. Kanan is later confronted by his son, to whom he admits to using him and then shoots and kills him. Kanan has Dre get rid of Shawn's body and has a confrontation with Ghost at a warehouse and the two fight and have a bloody, fiery showdown. Ghost stabs Kanan and then burns the house down, thinking he's dead. However, it is likely that Kanan survives and it is discovered that someone broke out of the warehouse during the fire.

Season 3
Kanan survives the fight with Ghost and goes into hiding in Washington D.C. at his cousin's house, but he is severely burnt and injured. After recovering, he helps robs a jewelry store and kills Dirt, who in on the heist after he opens the store's safe. He later plans revenge on Ghost once again and his cousin advises him to use Ghost to his advantage and then kill him. He returns to New York City and goes to Dre's apartment and watches his daughter. When Dre returns from work at the club, He is shocked that Kanan is there and still alive. Kanan is angry that he is working with Ghost and blackmails him into working with him once again by threatening to kill his daughter. He is later seen spying on Ghost and Tommy. He mater meets up with Dre, who promised to get him more information on what is going on with Ghost. Later after updated by Dre on Ghost's current event, he helps a old lady to her apartment (which was one of Ghost's old apartment) and kills her by smothering her to death. While Kanan continues to get updates on Ghost's actions from Dre, He meets Ghost's son Tariq. Kanan later picks the boy up from school and the two bond. Kanan later threatens Dre about warning Tariq about him, reminding him that he chose him. Kanan shows a soft spot for Tariq, thinking that he would be like a father to him as Tariq resented his own father. While Kanan is hanging out with Tariq, Jukebox later shows up to help. They tested his loyalty and Jukebox has him arrested and tried to force him to give up Kanan, which he passes. While they are all hanging out his apartment and plan to take out Ghost, Kanan talks with his cousin and she advises him to kill Tariq, which he holds off on that. They later drug Tariq and then send a text from his phone to Tasha, showing a picture of his son and demanding a ransom.

Trivia

 * This was Curtis Jackson's first villain role.
 * Kanan is the overarching villain of the series, as he has appeared in all three seasons so far, and has more history with Ghost and Tommy than anyone else.

Murders committed by Kanan

 * Pink Sneaker's contact: Shot in the head for failing to find Pink Sneakers.
 * Q-Dubs: Shot in the head, for refusing to work with him.
 * RSK member: Shot to death, for being a witness.
 * Shawn: Shot twice for not killing Ghost after Shawn confronted him.
 * Dirt: Shot in the head with a sub machine uzi.
 * Unknown old woman: Smothered to death.

Murders connected to Kanan

 * Anibal: Sliced in the neck from behind to weaken Ghost's drug operation.
 * Rolla: Shot in the head in his apartment by Ghost, after Kanan told him it was Rolla who sent Pink Sneakers after him.
 * Pink Sneakers: Stabbed to death by Dre, after failing to kill Ghost as he wanted Ghost dead before he gets out of prison and to also make sure she is not the one to tell Ghost it was him who sent her to kill him.
 * Brock: Kidnapped and shot by Dre because Kanan didn't like him and considered him as disloyal.