How Michael Rainey Jr. of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Spends His Sundays

Michael Rainey Jr. had looked up to the rapper 50 Cent since he was 8 years old. So when he landed the opportunity to work with him (real name: Curtis James Jackson III) on the Starz crime drama “Power,” he couldn’t have been more excited.

“Once I heard 50 Cent, my eyes just lit up,” Mr. Rainey said.

For the past 10 years, he has been an actor in the “Power” universe — first in the original series, which ran for six seasons, and now as the star of the spinoff “Power Book II: Ghost.” He plays Tariq St. Patrick, the student-turned-drug-dealer son of the original series’ lead character, Ghost.

“He’s basically raised on lies, so he really grew up with trust issues,” Mr. Rainey, 23, said of his character. “He has the smarts, but I feel like he’s just a product of his environment, of where he grew up and the kind of family that he was raised in.”

In the fourth, and final, season of “Power Book II: Ghost,” which premieres on June 7, Mr. Rainey says fans can expect “nonstop, high-stakes action.” “It’s like no other season of ‘Ghost,’” he said.

Like his character on “Power,” Mr. Rainey grew up in New York. An only child, he was born to Shauna Small and Michael Rainey Sr. in Louisville, Ky., and raised on Staten Island.

“The environment and culture of New York have always been a part of my life growing up here, and made it easier to relate to my character in ‘Power’ and bring my genuine experiences to my performance,” Mr. Rainey said.