Diddy is gearing up for the Apple Music release of his documentary, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story, and decided to dish on the film’s origins during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “It was my idea,” the native New Yorker said. “I said to myself, because my belief is so crazy and I would just talk to God and he would let me know it was alright when I was coming up, I said to myself somebody needs to get the cameras rolling on me because I think that my life and whatever is going to happen can be inspirational. I started shooting this movie when I was 19.”
The conversation later transitioned to the documented rift known as the “East Coast vs. West Coast” rift of the 90s. Before the opposition that placed Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls against each other could be settled, both pioneering rappers were murdered (Pac in 1996 and Biggie in 1997). The suspects remain a mystery.
“You gotta understand, that was one of the biggest things to happen in our culture. Right now, we’re living in the results of the hip-hop culture. So as crazy as it sounds, there was an East-West war over music, and people were killing and getting killed,” Diddy said. “We deal with that in the movie, and it was something that was just so surreal and so serious, and so unfortunate and so sad, but that’s something that we’ve had to deal with.”
Diddy also shared that despite the tragedies that transpired, lifelong friendships blossomed, which people witnessed when Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre took center stage during the Bad Boy Reunion tour stop in Los Angeles. “We were all scared. Sometimes things in your life could just get out of control, but we never wanted to have problems with each other,” he said. “We were all fans of each other and it was just something in that day and age that spun out of control. We’ve all been friends ever since. Snoop Dogg is one of my best friends. Dre is one of my best friends. It always should have been like that, but sometimes in life, there’s tragedies so people can learn from them. This is God’s world, but the greatest thing is he put us all back together.”
Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story debuts on June 25.