“Unlike many villains that we’ve seen before—we were never able to go into their world,” the rapper said.
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00:00Even the love bond between Younique and Rock,
00:05I don't think the writers initially had that in mind.
00:09But if you remember, or if you go back to season one,
00:13when Younique and Rock meet up in the park for the first time
00:18and after their exchange, I literally did an ad-lib of a line
00:23and, like, I kind of flirted with her character.
00:27I told her something about, like,
00:28oh, you need to come to the shop,
00:30let me work on that jacket for you.
00:32And I think that was the first time that the writers saw,
00:36like, oh, snap, like, this could go somewhere.
00:40You know what I mean?
00:41So I definitely thank the whole production team
00:45for allowing me the freedom
00:47to be able to even do things like that.
00:57Younique was presumed dead, but as we all know, he's back.
01:01How does it feel stepping back into the role
01:02after those shocking turn of events?
01:06It felt great, man.
01:08You know, ending off at what felt like,
01:13you know, my last day on the set
01:16and being able to come back with just a whole new energy,
01:21a whole new side of the character
01:26that I was able to portray.
01:27I mean, it was very exciting.
01:29So I saw that the public was really, really happy
01:32about you coming back to, man.
01:34And your character has been a fan favorite
01:37despite him being a villain.
01:38How do you feel about his impact on the show so far?
01:41Oh, I feel great about it.
01:43I mean, I think that the reason why people are able
01:49to take a liking to Younique,
01:51because unlike many villains that we've seen before,
01:56we didn't get to really go into their world like that.
02:00You know what I'm saying?
02:01Like we got to go home with Younique.
02:03We got to see the challenges that he faces.
02:06We got to see who he does it for, why he does it.
02:10And I think that was able to humanize him
02:14in a certain type of way that made people resonate
02:17with who he was, even though he was the opp, per se.
02:23Now, at the end of season three,
02:26we saw that Kanan was the one
02:27that killed Younique's brother, Ronnie.
02:30In what ways do you think
02:31that will motivate Younique this season?
02:33I'm not sure.
02:34You know what I'm saying?
02:35Just based on the first two episodes,
02:41I think for Younique, it's more about,
02:45man, y'all all had something to do with it.
02:48Y'all all conspired against me, you know?
02:51So I don't care who pulled the trigger.
02:54Y'all all worked together to get at me,
02:57to get me out the way.
02:58And I think that is his main concern.
03:00That is his main focus.
03:02And he is motivated by that the most.
03:07So, and kind of adding to that,
03:09because I'm actually glad you said that, my brother.
03:11Do you think in this season,
03:13with all the eyes stacked against Younique,
03:16do you think there's any hope for redemption behind that?
03:20Oh yeah, absolutely.
03:21I mean, I think aside from the revenge,
03:25there is a redemptive arc that he's on.
03:28And it's not the first time we've seen him redeem himself,
03:32him go through a path of redemption, you know?
03:36So he's no stranger to having to pull back and shake back.
03:40But this time, it just comes with a lot of blood.
03:44And if you can answer this question too, man,
03:46when you first were brought onto the show,
03:49what was your vision for Younique
03:51and how did that vision turn out so far?
03:54My vision for him was exactly who he seemed to be.
03:58You know what I mean?
04:01My vision was that people would take a liking to him, right?
04:07Because he had this charisma, he had this charm,
04:11even though he was on the other side.
04:14And I think it played out well.
04:16And I think once I wore the character,
04:20it gave the writers some type of inspiration
04:24to take his character development in a certain way
04:29because they saw what I was able to do with him.
04:33And, you know,
04:34because originally Younique was supposed to be an older cat.
04:37He was supposed to be much older.
04:38He was supposed to be played by somebody who was older.
04:41But, you know, when I went in for the audition,
04:44Sasha, he rolled the dice on me.
04:46He was like, yeah, nah,
04:48I like what this kid is doing with it.
04:50And with each episode that we shot,
04:53it just allowed me to kind of get more comfortable
04:55and comfortable to do things like trust my instincts,
04:59which is, for me, a strength, right?
05:03You know, because even the love bond
05:07between Younique and Rock,
05:10I don't think the writers initially had that in mind.
05:14But if you remember, or if you go back to season one,
05:18when Younique and Rock meet up in the park
05:21for the first time and after their exchange,
05:25I literally did an ad-lib of a line.
05:28And like, I kind of flirted with her character.
05:32I told her something about like,
05:33oh, you need to come to the shop.
05:34Let me work on that jacket for you.
05:37And I think that was the first time
05:39that the writers saw like, oh, snap,
05:43like this could go somewhere.
05:45You know what I mean?
05:46So I definitely thank the whole production team
05:49for allowing me the freedom
05:52to be able to even do things like that,
05:54because I was definitely able to contribute
05:58to the path that this character was on.
06:01Now, this season is about revenge and survival.
06:04Without spoiling too much,
06:06what are you most excited for fans to see this season?
06:10Most excited for fans to see this season.
06:15I'm just most excited to see,
06:17I'm most excited for them to see
06:20this new version of Younique, right?
06:22Because this is a character that a lot of people love,
06:26but this is him in a whole new way.
06:28He's unhinged, he's impulsive,
06:30he's unpredictable, he's in full crash out mode.
06:33We're used to seeing him be calculated
06:36and self-controlled, self-contained,
06:39and this is not that.
06:42You know what I mean?
06:43So I think that it's gonna be a surprise
06:47for a lot of people and be very interesting to watch.
06:52Well, Joey, thank you so much, my brother.
06:54I appreciate your time, man.
06:55Good luck on everything, man.
06:56No problem, peace.
07:00Peace.