Joey Bada$$ has enjoyed tons of success as an actor, and he’s now left a lot of fans upset as his longest-running role yet has come to an end.
On Sunday (December 31), the Brooklyn native shared a video montage of Kadeem “Unique” Mathis from seasons one to three of Power Book III: Raising Kanan.
“Unique Forever,” he captioned the post about the fan-favorite character played by him. “Much love to my @raisingkananstarz family. It was an honor and pleasure.”
A lot of fans were disappointed, with one writing: “I’m so sad, I don’t even want to watch it anymore fr.” Others took a different angle to his departure with comments like “The whole female viewership don’t even care about Kanan growing up now” and “They done killed the finest n-gga off the show.”
The 28-year-old MC’s peers also hopped in the comments section to show their support, with Project Pat writing: “Killed that role,” while J. Stone added: “Damn Nique.. it was a good run !”
Whereas Ab-Soul kept it succinct with a church emoji, Mysonne said: “Great job King!!” and Nas’ manager Gabriel “G-Code” Zardes commented: “Killed that role”
Additionally, former NBA champion and All the Smoke co-creator Stephen Jackson hopped in with: “I’m hurt bruh.”
In an interview with PEOPLE that was published last week, Joey Bada$$ talked about his three-season run and how fans will react to his departure from its narrative.
“I don’t think they’re going to like it one bit,” he said about the show’s viewers accepting his character’s death. “I think a lot of people are going to be a little disappointed.
“I think a lot of people are going to be a little let down. It’s like, ‘What the fuck? He’s dead?’ It is not even the end of the season! It’s the fucking middle of the season!”
About playing Unique, he said: “This type of role was something that I held back on playing for a long time because I just didn’t want to get pigeonholed into being a drug dealer-type of actor because I was a rapper. I felt like that was so close to home.
“I wanted to show people — with things like [the short film] Two Distant Strangers and Mr. Robot — that I had range, but I felt like this role came at the right time, and it was perfect.”
Last year, Joey admitted during an interview with XXL that working on Two Distant Strangers was so intense it landed him in therapy.
“I’m not gon’ lie, I had to do therapy after I shot Two Distant Strangers because it was a lot of internalization,” he revealed about the Oscar-winning short film on police brutality. “I remember the first scene in the movie, when I’m coming out of the girl’s apartment and police see me and they slam me on the floor.
“I remember shooting that in real time and it was people driving by, they would stop, and they would roll down their window and they’d be like, ‘Yo, is this real? Or is this for a movie? What’s going on? You good?’ It’s traumatic for these innocent bystanders as well.”
