Unique

I'm done bein' dead, Raq. See, I'm alive as a motherfucker now. And I want you to watch as I take back everything from you.

—Unique
"ALLOW ME TO RE-INTRODUCE MYSELF"
Season 4

Unique
Seasons	Raising Kanan: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4
Portrayed by	Joey Bada$$
Biographical information
Full name	Kadeem Mathis
Aliases	Unique
Nicknames	'Nique Ubiquitous, Unprecedented, Unusual (by Stefano)
Occupation	Drug lord Tailor
Status	Unknown
Relationships
Family	Unnamed Mother Ronnie Mathis†(brother) Jerome Mathis (son)
Affiliations	Ronnie Mathis(formerly) † Sal Boselli(formerly)† Worrell† Marco Boselli† Early Tyler Quân† Phil Russo
Enemies	Raq Thomas Marvin Thomas Lou-Lou Thomas Boselli Crime Family Ronnie Mathis † Deen †
Partners	Pernessa Reed (baby mother) Raq Thomas (ex-lover)
Appearances
First	"BACK IN THE DAY"

Kadeem "Unique" Mathis is a major character in the Power Universe, serving as the secondary antagonist in Power Book III: Raising Kanan. As South Jamaica's biggest drug dealer, Unique is the main rival of queenpin Raq Thomas. He is portrayed by Joey Bada$$.

Description

This section consists of the character's official description/s, provided by Starz.

• Season 3

Season 3

Handsome, hard, shrewd and one of the biggest drug kingpins in South Jamaica, Queens. Unique was handed the keys to the castle by his brother, Ronnie, who’s spending the rest of his life in prison. Unique is Raq’s main rival in the quest for domination of the streets. Unique is tough, but fair. If someone crosses a line – he will always retaliate to protect his own.

Biography

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Kadeem “Unique” Mathis was born on March 15 1966 in South Jamaica section of Queens, New York. Unique and his older Brother Ronnie were raised in a single mother household in poverty. She didn't express love or affection to them. They both grew up in a rough gritty environment and got involved in the streets at a very young age.

Past

Following the incarceration of his brother, Ronnie Mathis, Unique took over his business and became the biggest drug dealer in South Jamaica, putting him at odds with queen pin Raq Thomas.

At some time ago, he met Pernessa, and the two parent a son name Jerome.

Season 1

In 1991, Unique meets with his new dealer, Buck Twenty, to organize a drive-by on the Thomas family where Buck fires warning shots to get Raq's attention for a parley between the two. The day after the shooting, Raq approaches Unique to discuss the incident, and Unique admits his harmless intentions. Unique acknowledges his men who attacked Raq's crew earlier, and assures Raq that he has checked them, but asks why her crew was on the blocks above 139th Street, which Ronnie and Raq's predecessor High Post agreed to be a demilitarized zone. Raq responds by disowning Post's negotiations. Unique then questions Raq's insistence on getting an extra block when she proposes the blocks they take north of 139th, eventually relents to her demands when she suggests retaliation from Unique's threats to her family, and the two form a truce negotiating the division of the corners the both of them operate on.

Unique and Raq meet again following Buck's death.

After Raq's son Kanan Stark, and one of his best friends, D-Wiz, kill Buck Twenty for selling on what Kanan thought was still Raq's corner, Unique puts a bounty on Kanan's head, which results in Kanan being ambushed outside Raq's residence. Unique and Raq meet again the next day. Raq offers money for Buck's family, which annoys Unique, who remarks that it will not fix the broken truce between the two because of Kanan's actions. Unique then demands all of Raq's corners as a necessary consequence of Buck's death, and assures Raq that he would revoke Kanan's bounty upon her insistence, but warns her that he cannot control Buck's people.

[More to be added.]

In Paid In Full, Unique realized that Raq was responsible after recalling her words of never see her coming. He is then surprised to find his missing jacket (placed by Marvin), before police break in and arrest him. Unique protests how he had an alibi for the shooting of Howard.

Season 2

During The More Things Change, he is still in jail after three months and is on the verge of being released after his alibi checked out, much to the anger of the Corrections Guards. While walking down the hall, he is caught in the middle of a brawl when he is bumped into by another inmate who was on the verge of bullying another inmate named Marco with friends. Unique told him to watch out but was angered when the inmate hurled several racist insults at him, and he violently beat him up in retaliation. The other inmates tried to attack only to get beaten down by Unique until the guards put an end to this. As the guards detain Unique, a grateful Marco quickly jumped to his defense, saying the racist inmates started the brawl and Unique goes with it by claiming self-defense. Regardless, he was subsequently released.

In Sleeping Dogs, Unique has lost his crew because he is still being looked at by the cops. He later takes Raq's money and Julianna, cousin of Raq's Columbian supplier hostage and uses her to have the Thomas family meet him to talk things out. When the family arrives, he greets them and says he only wants talk. Unique states he is officially retired, due to his crew abandoning him and being closely watched by the cops. Although they are distrustful, he says because he holds leverage (Julianna) against them and they agree.

In Pay the Toll, Unique is contacted by Raq and her family about putting in a good word with the Boselli family in Jersey after they heard that he is friends with the Mafia Boss's son Marco Boselli.

During It's a Business, Man, he and Worrell witness Marco arrive for the money before Unique talks about Marvin to Worell.

In No Love Lost, he warns Marvin how he's finished if Sal discovers Marvin set up the hit that got Marco killed.

Season 3

In the last episode Made you look, after the deaths' of Ronnie and Detective Malcolm Howard, Unique appears at the warehouse standing over the corpse of his brother, Ronnie. He is shown to have several scars and may have brain damage from his assault form head injuries as he is believed to be dead, his whereabouts is unknown.

Season 4

Unique recovers with the help of Early Tyler, and under severe head trauma and with an incomplete knowledge of what transpired. He stayed in hiding, while hoping to reunite with his family. After recovering, he impulsively assumes that Raq was working with Ronnie and Kanan against him, and is violently locked on seeking revenge.

When Raq returned to her home, she finds that she has an unexpected visitor in her kitchen. Unique was eating a butter pecan ice cream before addressing the stunned Raquel. Unique proceeds confronting Raquel believing that she and Ronnie were conspiring against him and set him up to die but their plan hit a hitch when he survived. Raq tried to truthfully deny responsibility but Unique held her at gunpoint and did not buy it, though informed her he and his gang are taking back his old corners and he was the one who killed her lawyer. He also makes it clear that he is going to enjoy bring down her organization. Unique then leaves the house.

The next morning, Raq informs the rest of her family that Unique was still alive and his plan to bring them all down.

Murders

Committed by Unique

• Trez-G: Shot in the head for getting high and not paying attention to the re-up supply.
• Two Italian Mob Members: Shot to death for shooting Worrell .
• Dario: Shot in the back to save Raq.
• Andre Barnes: Shot to death in his vendetta towards Raq.
• Richard: Shot in the stomach as revenge against Raq.
• Sunny: Shot in the stomach as revenge against Raq.
• Three Henchmen Gangsters: Shot to death as revenge against Raq.
• O-Cee: Shot in the head for interrupting and annoying him.

Connected to Unique

• David Kan: To avenge Quân's death, Unique hired E-Tone to kill him.
• Stefano Marchetti

Quotes

"Lou Thomas, behind enemy lines like a muhfucka. It's kinda crazy how this shit work, right? I mean, our crews beefin', yet here you are. Here I am. And nobody's shootin'. Nobody's dyin'. You know, it makes one start to wonder, right? I mean, is this shit in here right now real? You and me 'bout to speak like regular ol' citizens? Or is the wild shit out there real? Or... is nothing real at all?"

—Unique to Lou-Lou

---

"N****'s just like his sister, man. Comin' here after killing my people, now want to ask me for favors and shit. That's called fucking audacity, my n****s. Give it to the n****. Jews call that type of shit chutzpah. That n**** got some chutzpah."

—Unique about Lou-Lou

---

"He's a riddle wrapped up in a n****."

—Unique about Lou-Lou

---

"All right, listen up. Y'all know why y'all here, right? So I ain't gotta spell it out for n****s. But let me be motherfucking clear. This is a motherfucking war, you hear me? We at war with that other side. Now I don't care how old they are, who they with, or where you find 'em. Anybody down with Raq... gotta go. All that peace shit, it's done. Ain't no way back to peace. I want the whole Southside to know: you ain't with us, guess what, you against us. They gotta go too. All them old scores being settled today. All them old debts being collected, repaid right the fuck now, you hear me? Man, woman, child, I don't give a FUCK! They gotta go. I want all Raq's people fucking dead. FUCKING DEAD! YOU HEAR ME? FUCKING! DEAD! These our fucking streets. THESE OUR FUCKING CORNERS. GO TAKE THEM SHITS, MAN! LET'S GO!"

—Unique

[More quotes to be added.]

Trivia

• He was presumed dead in the mid-season finale of Raising Kanan's third season after being brutally beaten with a metal pole by Ronnie. However, in the season finale, it's revealed that he survived.
  • Unique was intended to die in that scene because of scheduling conflicts with Joey's tour, which led Joey to leave the show. After the scripts were written, however, Joey realized he did not want to leave and called showrunner Sascha Penn, after which the writers adjusted the scripts accordingly to bring back Unique. Penn stated that the season's ending was "completely reconstructed" and "required a complete re-imagining of the engine" of the third and fourth seasons.
  • According to Detective Howard, the police found blood all over the floor of Unique's tailor shop and bone fragments on the metal pole Unique was brutally beaten with.
• Joey stated the audience would see and experience a "way more hyperactive, irritable, just rageful" version of Unique as a result of his head trauma in Raising Kanan's fourth season.
• Unique and his brother Ronnie's names have the same number of letters, both with the alias Unique and with his real name Kadeem.
• Unique is one of the two Power Universe characters whose writers intended them to die before their fate was changed, the other being Lauren Baldwin.
• Both Unique and Kanan secretly recovered while everyone thought they were dead. Both also approached someone they know to help them (Early in Unique's case, Jukebox for Kanan).
• Unique is the main antagonist in Season 1, a secondary antagonist turned anti-hero in Season 2, anti-hero in Season 3, the main antagonist turned secondary antagonist in Season 4, and the secondary antagonist in Season 5.
• His fate by 2018 after Raising Kanan, whether he is alive or dead is unknown.

Gallery

Best Of- Unique - Power Book III- Raising Kanan - STARZ

Best of Unique.

Appearances

Power Book III: Raising Kanan
Seasons	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Season 1	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Season 2	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Season 3	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔					✔
Season 4	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	?	?	?
Season 5	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?