Omari Hardwick captured the eyes of viewers as the gun-toting father and kingpin at the center of Starz drama Power, and now he’s coming for their ears with his new podcast.
Hardwick, a proud poet, announced the arrival of his new podcast titled Poetics, which will be apart of the Luminary network. The actor will interview a different guest from the hip-hop culture during each episode, and guests will be required to submit their own pre-written poem to be dissected.
“I’m asking rappers to come in and sit down and recite a poem,” Hardwick told Billboard.
He’s also asking them to leave their toxic masculinity aside.
“Lose the machismo,” he instructed. “Poetry has a vulnerability that rap and MC’ing doesn’t. You gotta be vulnerable. That kind of takes it to another level and gives [artists] a different look.”
Upcoming guests on the show include Wyclef Jean, Dave East, Big Daddy Kane, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and more. Hardwick said he was most amazed by the latent talent of Brooklyn MC, Casanova, comparing the grit in his storytelling to some of the characters that appear on Power.
“Casanova’s been the most impressive to me,” Hardwick explained. “He just started rapping three years ago. He was locked up, and he was in solitary confinement for a multitude of years. You could say a lot of people find their pen in jail, a lot do, but he’s been the most impressive to me because when I asked him if he found his pen in jail, he said, ‘No. I never found a pen in jail. I found it after that.’” he continued.
Watch the trailer for Poetics, which debuts May 2, above.
