[audience cheering]
[man] Make some noise for B.I.G., New York!
[man singing] ♪ Bad Boy ♪
[man] Yeah!
["Flava in Ya Ear" intro playing]
[overlapping chatter]
Is your public image
a true reflection of who you are?
Um…
The way that I see the media portray me, I can say it definitely is not…
not the way that I am.
-How do you feel the media portrays you? -Um…
I've seen the media portray me like
I'm a gangsta,
I'm a…
Or I'm… At times, I'm a cold individual,
or I'm just a shrewd businessman.
Which is just not the case.
[interviewer] Who are you?
My name is Sean Combs.
Um…
I'm a young Black man, and I just had a dream to….
to just be successful in life.
[hip-hop music playing]
[crowd clamoring and cheering]
Please be outside for the beginning of the show, Black people!
-Which way is it… Which way is-- -I got you.
[audience cheering]
[man] Let's do this!
[cheering continues]
You…
[Sean] This ain't no regular night.
Don't be up on the stage like this no fuckin' regular degular. A'ight?
This shit is motherfuckin' history.
[Sean] Last night, we was human.
But tonight, we on a superhuman.
We gon' go fuck that stage up tonight!
[cheering]
-[man] One, two, three… -[all] B.I.G.!
-Four, five, six… -[all] Bad Boy!
[all yelling]
[announcer] Make some…
-[shutter clicks] -[audience cheers]
[announcer] …noise!
[thrilling instrumental music playing]
-[feedback whines] -[music halts]
[male DJ] May 20th, Barclays.
The entire Puff Daddy Bad Boy family will be together.
-Those tickets sold out quick-like. -[Sean] Yeah.
-[female DJ] Super quick. -[male DJ] What we doing now?
-What's the move? -[Sean] We coming back home.
It's 20 years of hits.
We've never all been on the same stage at the same time.
Both shows sold out already.
First show sold out in seven minutes.
God works so crazy.
There's something booked in there.
We're supposed to do one show. We have this problem.
We get a call, they say the people just cancelled.
And it's on Biggie's birthday.
We put the show up, it sells out in two hours.
[whistles in amazement]
[Sean] New York, this is your concert. Brooklyn, we comin' home. Let's go.
[doctor] You want me to treat you like a pro athlete.
So this… What's gonna happen
is kinda the equivalent of a playoff game, right?
Let's look at the shoulder. Come on, go ahead and sit up.
Oh my goodness. It's gotten worse, huh?
Mm-hmm. I reached for something yesterday, and it just felt like it almost tore.
But, I mean, the reason why I have to--
This is like my fourth one. Is it my posture?
Or do I just have bad luck?
I don't know, you know?
[Sean chuckles]
[Sean] My life has been a…
What's Star Wars when they have all the different parts of the movie?
You know, it started as a trilogy, and then it was just Star Wars…
They just started naming it different things.
That's how my life has been. So I've had comedies.
-I've had horror stories. -[gunshots]
[Sean] I've had suspense thrillers, action movies,
gangster films.
[helicopter rotor whirring]
[Sean] And… I'm still in this movie.
[woman 1] One of the most passionate people that I've ever met.
[man 1] Jedi mind tricks, like prophecy, Moses…
-[man 2] Disturbing… -[woman 2] He was a real friend.
-[woman 3] Very intimidating. -[man 3] Puff did everything.
-[man 4] He was a big brother to me. -[Sean squeals]
[woman 3] Puffy is once again a genius.
[man 5] The war that he has going on on the inside of his own legacy.
[Sean] The concept of the tour is a historical retrospective
of the past and the future
from one of the world's most successful hip-hop and R&B labels.
This show is going to take you on an emotional musical journey
from past to future.
All of the things that'll take you out of your zone and insecurities onstage,
we not letting that happen.
We want to celebrate who we are. Somebody is chubby,
we embracing that.
If somebody's 45, we embracing that.
We wanna hit 'em with that pure, uncut, 1,000% who we are.
[dramatic music playing]
[muffled conversation]
I don't want to do that right now.
[muffled conversation continues]
He's thinking the more he does, the better.
And that's always opposite.
-You know my philosophy. Less is more. -[woman] That's every artist, right?
It would be easier for him to do less.
When you're in the moment of it, you think from a different head.
Which is why I generally am the creative director
to creative superstars
because I understand that process.
But I've never been in it with this time constraint. [chuckles]
[Laurieann] Everybody always asks me what it's like to work for Puffy.
I've known him for so long.
What is with this slow pan?!
-What is with this slow pan?! -Give me the camera.
Give me the motherfucking camera.
I was a dancer. I first met him, he was A&R of Uptown Records.
[Laurieann] It's not anything for the faint, lighthearted,
or weak-minded, honey.
Do not sign up for this.
[man 1] We're trying to represent a legacy of music,
and Puff wants the best performance, the best… the best execution.
The very first time I met Puff,
the very first words he said to me I can't remember,
but I do remember his energy always being
that of, "We're gonna… We gonna win."
[man 2] Puff was always kind of spoiled and Dennis the Menace.
Sometimes they pick you on the team to play basketball,
sometimes they don't.
Some kids try to play better,
get picked,
or some kids get resentful and say,
"I'm just gon' be a success and I'mma buy the team."
"And I might not let none of y'all play."
[opening riff to "Hollywood Swinging" plays]
[Andre] I don't think that, uh, Puff had a big circle of friends.
Puff strikes me as the kind of kid who is hanging out with you
and still thinking about the future.
[Sean] I used to have to sit outside my house
and watch, you know,
my… my neighbors across the street swim in they pool.
And they pool was right in front of my step.
And I'd be over there on the side on the stoop, just looking like,
"Please invite me over. I'm hot."
And, um, it started to build this thing in me.
Man, where I was like, "I don't like this feeling."
"Mm-mm."
"I don't like this. I want me a pool too."
["The Boss" by James Brown playing]
♪ Paid the cost to be the boss ♪
♪ I paid the cost to be the boss… ♪
[Sean] Woo! Peace, king!
[Nas] Hey, now, you're not dressed?
This guy just comes in my house and just wants to start a fashion war.
[laughs]
I knew his face before I knew his name. He had like what you call…
He had a little extra juice back then.
Like, you know, like Juice Crew All Stars, or the movie Juice,
like if you got juice, you got juice.
[clamoring]
[Nas] How did he get backstage?
How did he get onstage?
This dude is everywhere.
That slim dude with the hi-top fade.
He's everywhere.
But what does he do?
Oh, he's a party promoter.
[Nas] He knew what was going on,
so, uh, he was showing me what's going on.
I always thought about going on tour with you,
but I was just like, "Yo, the vibe is two different vibes."
-Not anymore. -Yeah.
And now when I hear the shit together, it's the perfect shit.
-[Nas] Uh-huh. -The shit is like… It's Black glamour.
That's the whole… The whole concept, the whole tour is Black excellence.
Right.
Our journey, where we came from, our ups and downs.
-Look how we livin' now. -[Nas] Yeah.
It can happen, you know what I'm sayin'? We got our shit together.
We made it up out of our circumstances,
and it's just like
there's, like, no limitation.
-We doin' it right now. -Right.
Cheers to you, man. Thank you for doing the show.
-Fo' sure. -I'm excited.
Come on, it's too important.
And I'mma know the words to your joints too. I'mma rehearse.
-So I'm there for you. -For the first time ever!
-The first time ever! -[laughs]
[Nas] When the Sugarhill Gang talk about,
"I wish I had a color TV so I could see the Knicks play basketball,"
when hip-hop started, we just wanted a small…
We just wanted crumbs, you know? Just a color TV!
[Sean] I started out delivering newspapers when I was 12.
Cleaning gas station bathrooms.
And then I was a busboy.
Then I was a doorman.
Anything I could do to get on 'cause I wanted my dream, like, so bad,
I was willing to do anything to get to it.
I sold drugs for like a day.
And I got chased by helicopters, doors got kicked down.
Probably like the unluckiest day for a drug dealer.
I just knew that I was gon' be in the music industry,
so I wanna go to the home of the flyness,
I wanna go to Uptown MCA Records, I wanna learn,
and I was gon' be
the greatest at what I do.
What is this new music?
[beat drops]
-[all] ♪ Uptown, Uptown ♪ -[record scratching]
♪ Uptown, Uptown ♪
♪ Get hold of yourself And check this tempo ♪
♪ Remember these lines Heavy D says so… ♪
[Andre] I remember the first time Heavy D introduced me to Puff.
Puff was talking to me about, "I looked at Def Jam,
I looked up at Uptown, and I liked Uptown better."
So I remember saying to myself, "Are you interviewing me,
or am I interviewing you?"
[Andre] I remember one time I gave him a tape to run an errand.
And it was ten blocks away.
I picked up the phone to take a business call,
before I can hang up the phone,
Puff came through the door with his tie flying like this,
saying, "What else can I do?"
-[laughs] -I said, "How did you get there so fast?
[Andre] He said, "I ran there and I ran back."
And I thought to myself, "This is a problem."
Andre Harrell, Puff Daddy.
-My protégé. -Protégé.
-Yes, yes. -Puff…
[Sean] You know, that was the genius of Andre.
He empowered the right people with the right dreams and the right ideas.
[Andre] Uptown was the home of ghetto fabulous,
and nobody loved ghetto fabulous like him.
[Sean] Back in the late '80s, it was rough.
It was rough out there, but it was Blackness
in its full hip-hop, go-go,
in its full splendor and glory.
And, honestly, that was the birth of hip-hop soul,
and so that gave birth to the way I heard music
and the way I saw fashion.
I get this internship,
I get a chance to produce my first record,
Jodeci come and talk to me…
This is their platinum CD, Forever My Lady.
Their single called "Come & Talk to Me." Jodeci.
[Sean] It sells 2 million copies.
We going from that to do Mary J. Blige.
Everybody thought something special happened.
Puff thought something special happened,
the producers thought something special happened.
[Sean] Every girl does not look like Whitney Houston
or wanna wear sequins dress.
Like, the girls that I want as my girlfriend, they wearing Reeboks.
They out here with asymmetric haircuts and bamboo earrings.
They're like tomboy cute fly.
[Mary] The biggest thing I took from Puff
was to not be afraid
or be apologetic for what I was.
You know, if I was great, I was great.
Really, really believe that.
[Sean] It was everything that I was.
It was fly and it was,
"I'm getting out of this ghetto,
and I'mma do it in a fly way."
It was Black rich.
I started getting a chance to have,
you know, my own vision
that was a product of Uptown.
I'm the vice president of Uptown MCA,
A&R and artist development. This my new act.
[Sean] So a lot of people don't know that Biggie was signed to Uptown.
-[male DJ] So it's the Notorious Big then? -Yeah, yeah. B.I.G.
"Business Instead of Game." Tell 'em I told you.
-A'ight now. -[dice rattling]
Fittin' that we all playing games here, being that we all players, you know?
[Jay-Z] Big was in my first video.
We're in Brooklyn. You know, bunch of gangstas around.
Real money on the table, so we's having the best time ever.
He had a show that night at the Apollo.
And I remember Puff pulling up,
and he came and told me, "Yo, we gotta go. Big left."
♪ Everybody put your hands in the air ♪
[cheering]
[Jay-Z] Puff was Big's bigger brother.
Puff was instrumental in pushing him in that direction,
knowing it's cool to be respected on the block,
rap really tough,
and, you know, do 100 pull-ups on the light pole.
But you wanna come out here, you better come see this whole world.
♪ Makin' loot Knockin' boots on the regular ♪
♪ Pass the microphone I'm the perfect competitor ♪
♪ Jewels and all that Your clothes is all that ♪
♪ Chump steppin' to me Is where you took your fall at ♪
♪ B.I.G. has got the burner That's unheard of ♪
♪ I stay close to mine Like Tina or Turner ♪
♪ Quick to smother A punk motherfucker undercover ♪
♪ Word to mother, I'm above ya ♪
[dramatic string music playing]
[Jay-Z] Big and I, we went to the same high school.
But I didn't really know him.
I never heard him rap.
Back then, there was a new rapper popping up all the time.
It was… Rap was new, so everybody was trying to do it.
[man] Nobody knew he wrote rhymes for a very long time.
That was when I was like, "Yo, dawg, like…"
"Word? Like, damn. You get busy like that?"
We all know this B.I.G. hood right here, right?
-Always. -[Lil' Cease] Always, baby.
We all lived on this one block right here.
Lil' Kim lived on St. James.
Big was 226, I was 272.
That window right there.
That was Big's window.
We come upstairs there and smoke
and he put records together, all right here.
Hah!
All right, baby. Junior M.A.F.I.A. clip.
[Lil' Cease] We were just some badass kids.
He wanted to try to save our lives. That was it.
I didn't realize it back then,
but he was trying to get us off the street.
By the grace of God, I'm still here to stay here supporting it
and keep the legacy alive of what we do.
Yeah, he definitely saved my life. I say that every day.
[Biggie] We just looking at the charts. Get the charts.
[Lil' Cease] Boom! Boom! What?
-[Biggie] Number 1. -[Lil' Cease] "Player's Anthem."
♪ Grab your dick if you love hip-hop ♪
♪ Bitches Rub your titties if you love Big Poppa… ♪
-[Sean] Yeah, I'm at the house. -[hip-hop playing]
Yeah, just come by. I'm in work mode, but I'm just laying out what I'm doing.
Know what I'm sayin'?
[Sean] Y'all not-- If you can't see my face, you're in the wrong place.
You have to fix your energy.
It's not-- That's not--
You have to fix your energy, else you have to go.
You have to fix your energy. That's all I'm asking. Out of respect.
-Fix your energy. -I didn't say anything.
So go for a walk, fix your energy. 'Cause I'm not feeling it.
Fix your energy, brother. We got work to do. For real.
[Sean] I was 19, I was a millionaire.
I had a lot of power.
I was the introduction of the young executive.
And I didn't know how to work well with others.
Yo, dawg, what are you talking 'bout? You telling me that I'm on some bullshit?
I ain't on no bullshit wit' you. I don't want no problems! Come on!
[hip-hop playing]
Puff got fired because Puff was crazy.
Puff would walk around the office with his shirt off.
I'mma be so drunk or high by Wednesday, 8:00, I'm not gonna gon' give a fuck.
But I give a fuck.
[Andre] I would have to get him out of trouble.
And one day, I come in and have an argument with the general manager,
and he's like the mid-forties, white man.
[static hissing]
You know, my shirt off, I punch him in the face.
You don't ever disrespect nobody who's down with me, motherfucker!
This the only time I'mma pick the dancers.
Can I choose 'em or are you just telling me that's all I have to choose?
Mm-hmm.
Man, that's not part of the bargain.
That's not even like… That's not… It's not even possible.
[Laurieann] This is just the audition tapes.
Yeah, not even possible. Yeah.
That's not how I want it. Can I see it? Please?
[Sean] I just didn't understand conflict resolution.
I didn't understand the corporate culture.
I just knew that I was fighting for the artists
and the greater good of Black artists worldwide.
-[DJ] You got an album deal popping up? -No doubt, no doubt.
September. Album gon' drop in September.
-Hardcore. -MCA Records?
Yeah, Uptown. Bad Boy Management.
When Puff delivered me the Biggie album to MCA,
the president's assistant heard it,
and she was like, "We can't put that out."
[man] Those that produce these types of records
have a responsibility.
They can't just hide behind free speech,
and I hope in the future that they will exercise better concern
for what these records will do on the street.
I was thinking to myself, "How is this secretary gonna dictate
what the label puts out,
and why are they putting me in the middle of a generation's voice?"
[Sean] It was such a culture shock.
I know that what I'm doing is gon' change the whole game.
I know what I'm doing is helping to change the world.
I was like ready to die for this thing.
[Andre] And Puff gassed me up.
Like, "Why is the white man talking to you like this, Dre?"
[Sean] MCA was a corporation,
and so they forced Andre to make a decision.
[Andre] When Puff got fired,
he was on payroll,
and his artists were on payroll.
He's still recording his artists,
and he was able to go and find the best deal.
So I never fired him to hurt him.
I fired him, and basically made him rich.
["Bad Boys For Life" playing]
Woo!
[man] I didn't know that much about Puffy.
I did take the meeting.
Everybody things that everybody in this business
is, first of all, white.
And it was no question that he had the vision
that a hip hop revolution was coming.
[woman] What would it take to give you the training to be so successful?
Just keepin' it real and listening to all the people and the viewers out there.
[Clive] He needed my expertise
to "conquer," if you will, the Top 40.
I was skeptical.
People like things that are real, so that means the cream rises to the top.
♪ 'Cause it's Bad Boy for life ♪
So I asked Puffy, I said, "You know,
what music do you have?"
Puffy played me "Flava in Ya Ear" by Craig Mack.
That sold me.
♪ Just like Uniblab Robotic kicking flab… ♪
[man] Met Puff at the club out in Manhattan.
He said, "Listen, you have a choice of either flowing with me
or you can stay here with Andre Harrell and with Uptown
'cause this is what I promised you."
I said, "Nah, I'm flowin' wit' you."
♪ …with the eggs and grits between ♪
And he picked out this one joint, this beat.
Um, it was just… [imitates beat]. That "Flava."
So I came back to him in a week with it,
we're in the studio, and it was me and Mo Bee,
and this guy by the name of Harve Pierre.
We started with one phone, one computer, and we slept on the floor.
[Harve] Walking into the Scarsdale house,
6 Kolbert Drive.
A music company at that time,
you probably would find in any basement of any house,
so when it comes to, like, Total, Craig Mack,
112, Faith,
all the early beginnings,
they were really coming to the house and we started making music,
and really that was the start of it.
-This is it. Bad Boy Entertainment. -Bad Boy Entertainment. No doubt.
He took it to an aspirational level that no one had ever seen,
and as a young Black man in America,
when he first got that $40 million check from Clive Davis,
that made say, "Oh, okay."
"We know how it works now."
Living out a dream, know what I'm sayin'?
Young Black man just living out a dream.
[Jay-Z] Even like recording records like "Juicy," you know, that was…
Puff was instrumental in pushing them in that direction.
[Sean] My man, he gon' sit in here, write a hit.
We're writing a song for like 30 motherfuckin' days.
There ain't no excuse for that, but too much ballin',
enjoying yourself, you know.
-I'll never do it, man. -[Sean laughs]
[Jay-Z] Like in rap, it was a whole thing, like…
[laughing]
You know, "No matter what I do, I'm keeping it real."
"I'mma stay on this block."
And our feeling, you know, was like, "Yeah?"
"I'll see you when I get back." [chuckles]
[muffled rap verses]
[Sean] And once we dropped "Juicy,"
Bad Boy became the fastest growing boutique label in history.
Everything was Bad Boy.
[Biggie] ♪ It was all a dream ♪
♪ I used to read Word Up magazine… ♪
It's been a shock. Like, you know, I was a hustler,
and them, boom, I was a rapper.
♪ Condos in Queens, indo for weeks ♪
♪ Sold-out seats To hear Biggie Smalls speak ♪
I only watched him from afar, you know?
I saw he was making music that was making the ground shake.
♪ I love it when they call you Big Poppa ♪
This is Biggie Smalls, nominated for a Grammy.
Brooklyn, whassup in here!
♪ They call you Big Poppa ♪
♪ To the honeys gettin' money… ♪
Always writing the hits.
I had to call him my protégé, but he's selling more records than me.
[Andre] You would be in the clubs, and you would hear 15 records playing
that Puff put his hands on.
[Jimmy] And he had all these different artists,
and making them successful.
It's just the beginning, y'all. Just the beginning.
When you have that kind of consistency, you've got to pay attention to it.
There's a lot that goes into that.
-[Andre] Platinum single with Craig Mack. -$40 million check.
-[Andre] Then he became Ma$e. -It's Ma$e. I'm young and pretty.
Ma$e came and all of it started…
…transforming the idea of being a record company.
-[Jay-Z] Ma$e was great. -[Andre] He had Faith. Double platinum.
Pulling to be the first lady on Puff's label.
-Moved the needle of popular culture. -[overlapping chatter]
[Andre] And then he came with Total,
to becoming like a young adult.
-Puff had a vision. -Vision.
[Andre] 112. Platinum, double platinum single.
I'm just trying to make something of this.
It was too much success, too quick.
[Clive] Kings and queens.
[woman] Bad Boy was a movement.
[cheering]
[Andre] Five platinum records in a row, out the gate.
It was just like… they were making movies.
[Sean] We wanted to go to happy times.
We wanted to get as far away from being gangsta as could be.
Bad Boy is that dream.
And we can dress up in a suit,
and we can have our pants sag all in the same day.
We put on shiny suits.
["Only You" by 112 playing]
[Sean] Ma$e.
Pretty boy from Harlem with a charismatic smile.
He's just returned from his mission from God.
[Ma$e] This is a nice crib.
When I used to live with Puff,
it was in a brownstone on downtown New York.
I signed with Puff probably 20 years ago.
Right after that, we did the "Only You" video.
♪ Hum all you want to *** all you want to ♪
♪ Money I'mma front you Girl I wanna flaunt you… ♪
Everything just took off from the first day I showed up.
[Ma$e] Cruise, Cassius.
-You ready? [laughs] -Yeah, always.
[Ma$e growls playfully]
-Y'all going on a skinny vibe. -Yeah.
I'mma join a skinny club.
[Sean] You perfect just the way you are, no matter what.
[Sean] Before we even get started, I'd like to try to get on the same page.
Know what I'm saying? So we don't have no…
No bullshit. You know what I'm sayin'?
You and I never had any real issues.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Ever.
[Ma$e] I didn't think so.
Puff took me to the first concert,
it was R. Kelly and Bone Thugs,
and Puff was like, "Yo, do what I'm telling you,
and we gonna be as big as this."
And every time I didn't want to do something,
he would remind me of that.
I argued with him for weeks about that shiny suit.
[Ma$e] I was like, "I'm not putting that on."
He's like, "Remember what I told you."
You ain't a lil' bro no more, you a grown-ass man.
Now you got shit to teach me, you got journeys and travels that you've seen.
Places that you've been, that you've been a header,
-so you can give me more knowledge. -[laughs]
I'm just… I'm just arriving out of the darkness.
You know what I'm saying? [laughs]
[Ma$e] Father, we thank you for making us one
in our mind and our spirit,
helping this to be the best performance we ever had.
Thank you for mending relationships,
making us strong,
and making us one,
as Bad Boy, in Jesus' name.
-Amen. -[all] Amen.
[cheering]
["Can't You See" by Total playing]
[Laurieann] We're in Lititz, outside of Philly.
It's an amazing place to rehearse.
You can put your entire stage up, you can rig your lights,
you can try your tricks, your toasters,
your pyro, your band, your dancers.
For me, it's like a creative cocoon.
[Keisha] When I first walked in, I was like, "Holy shit." [laughs]
This is a huge stage.
Does my voice still sound the same, a little?
Yeah, like, pitch… Like, your pitch is different,
but your voice is still the same.
How do you even feel about me doing the show?
I feel good for you.
But you have to at least know one Biggie song.
-I mean, you guys know "Hypnotize," right? -Yeah.
-And then "Juicy." -Yes.
-Wait. -I don't know that song.
♪ And if you don't know Now you know, nigga ♪
["Juicy" playing]
It was my first time seeing Keisha in, like, 16 years.
[women] Them Total bitches.
[overlapping chatter]
You have a daughter?
Jesus! This is gonna be so much fun!
112 has arrived. We're in the building.
How are you, Cass?
[Laurieann] So I got some really sweet stuff for you.
-Just one number I need you to focus on. -They're gonna love it.
-What?! -[repeats] They're gonna love it.
[Lil' Kim] I think it's fucking amazing.
I never knew that this place was this fucking big.
I knew it was big, but I didn't know it was this big. How are you? Mwah!
[man 1] Everybody's a little older now, so they're more mature.
[overlapping chatter]
You know I'm about to see my man!
[horn squeaking]
Lee-gendary artist! Lee-gendary! [laughs]
[both squealing]
Sixteen years, boo. Since I've been onstage.
-[Ma$e] For real? -Yeah.
-For real, for real? -For real, for real.
-Oh my goodness. -I'mma kill it, yo.
-[loud thud] -Uh-oh.
[man 2] That's good.
-See that's that-- -[man 2] Don't worry.
-That's a bounce I don't know about. -[laughs]
[Keisha] If you're going to have a reunion,
this is the way you celebrate…
Woo-hoo!
…so many artists that have given so much and who have been recognized.
When we first started, it was about ego, it was about,
you know, "I'm better than you," "I do it better than you,"
"You know I'm better than you."
This is more like, "You made me better."
"You're the reason we were able to do it this big,
so now we want to do it big for you."
[applauding]
I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
and now we're all officially family.
So let's get this shit going, get this show on the road.
[cheering]
[hip-hop music playing]
[woman] Laurieann and the dancers are there, the band's set up.
He hasn't seen the stage yet.
-So his reaction, his first reaction-- -It's gonna be epic.
I'm just hoping it's set up nice,
'cause if it's not, they have to take it all down.
[engine powering down]
[Sean] Man, y'all really setting up the drum.
This shit better be a motherfucker.
[indistinct chatter]
[man] Drum roll, please.
What the fuck?!
[music halts]
[Sean] Those lights are cheap as fuck.
Those lights, I could go buy those box lights or whatever--
Or at least it looks like 'em.
I wanna be on the record right now,
while there's somebody you can call, that I do not like the rig.
If I had to make a decision right now,
I would change the rig right now.
I like God light.
God ain't gon' come breaking through, and God's light comes through-- Shoo!
It just hits you like it's God's lights.
I don't want the Chrysler that looks like the Phantom.
I want the Phantom.
I swear, I'm gonna take Sean Combs and hide him in this elevator,
and then I'm not gonna push the up button.
He's a idiot. I mean, a lovely idiot, so…
Woo!
Go for Puff. No, actually, don't go for Puff.
[Sean] Give yourselves a round of applause.
Put your hands together one time 'cause it's gonna be gone.
Yeah. Yeah.
The motivation is to celebrate
these 20 years
of ups, downs, trials, tribulations, having a dream.
From Lil' Kim, when you was having your dream,
I was having my dream in Mount Vernon,
Ma$e, you was running up on me,
you know, at Jack the Rapper.
[Sean] This is an epic saga.
-Of Black excellence. -[man in crowd] Yes!
This is our story, our journey.
They're not just records. The words mean something different.
You're hip-hop R&B legends, superstars.
We gon' have to go to this place of freedom
that you're not gonna be able to snap into.
The countdown has begun.
[cheering]
I couldn't sleep at night for years 'cause I would always just dream about…
-[Sean] Yeah. -I knew it wasn't done.
We've all grown up. Life is way too short.
[Kima] Yes.
And, um… And that's the way this whole thing's gon' be.
I want to show y'all this. Put your ears on this.
Okay.
-[man on recording] What's free to you? -[woman] What's free to me?
Same thing it is to you, you tell me.
-[man] No, you tell me. -[both laugh]
[man laughs] Oh, no.
-'Cause I've been talking-- -[woman] It's just a feeling.
It's just a feeling.
It's like, how do you tell somebody how it feels to be in love?
You cannot do it to save your life.
You can describe things, but you can't tell 'em.
But you know it when it happens.
That's what I mean by free.
I've had a couple of times onstage when I really felt free.
And that's something else.
That's really something else!
["Feel So Good" by Ma$e playing]
Uh-huh.
♪ Yo, what you know about goin' out ♪
♪ Head west, red Lex TV's all up in the headrest ♪
♪ Try and live it up Ride true, a bigger truck ♪
♪ Peeps all glittered up Stick up can, they go what? ♪
["Queen Bitch" by Lil' Kim playing]
♪ Kill a nigga for the figure How you figure? ♪
♪ Your cheddar would be better Beretta inside of Beretta ♪
♪ Nobody do it better ♪
♪ Bet I wetcha Like hurricanes and typhoons ♪
♪ Got buffoons eatin' my pussy While I watch cartoons… ♪
♪ You know about life After kicking the kid in ♪
♪ Since me and my mi-dan Can flip seven gridams ♪
♪ Scridam, the flow is forbidden ♪
♪ Either you ridin' or you dyin' 'Cause we swingin' iron ♪
["Summer Rain" by Carl Thomas playing]
♪ I don't mind if it rains forever ♪
♪ If it rains ♪
♪ Let it rain on me… ♪
One, two, move it, and move it, go back.
[yelling instructions]
Two, ha, ha, ha-ha!
Back it up!
♪ If you're sexy and you know it Clap your hands ♪
["Dance With Me" playing]
♪ If you're sexy and you know it Clap your hands… ♪
["Can't You See" plays]
♪ In the middle of the day now, baby ♪
♪ I seem to think of only you ♪
[vocalizing]
-We having fun. -Fun. Fun and freedom.
-Yeah. -Fun and freedom, baby. Fun and freedom.
♪ There's no guy slicker Than this young fly mistah ♪
♪ Nickel-nine nicka Floss, you die quicka ♪
♪ Did fed time, out-of-town pie-flipper ♪
♪ Turn Cristal into a crooked-I-sipper ♪
-["No Other Love" playing] -♪ No other love ♪
♪ I'm thinking of ♪
[Faith] I think, the early days of Bad Boy,
it was very, very much like Bad Boy family.
[Sean] I think family is something that I never really had.
That's honestly how I had looked at Motown,
and I had looked at Def Jam,
and I had looked at Uptown, like their artists were like a family.
[hip-hop music playing]
[muffled audio]
-You can see me, right? -[Sean] I got you.
-I don't look nasty or nothing, right? -Nah.
Just don't come too close. I got it far back.
He's got a message, right?
None of y'all can't see me.
I'm gonna get things that nobody's seen in a show from us.
Everybody's seen a show,
but they haven't seen us together.
It's about giving what they heard,
but also, like, that little extra touch of,
"Yo, this is a special night, a special time, a special tour."
You know, an elevated performance.
[Faith] We met actually at this photoshoot
that Puff was just trying to put together for all of the new artists.
Big was there with, you know, most of Junior M.A.F.I.A.
He asked me, could I give them a ride? Could they ride with me back to Brooklyn?
They were joking the whole way, you know,
trying to crack jokes on me too, and then, you know, I gotta…
You know, I'm quick on the comeback. [laughs]
But, um, when I dropped 'em off, he was like, "Okay, I'mma call you."
["Come Over" playing]
♪ And I ♪ [vocalizing]
♪ Don't want to lose you ♪
♪ Come back ♪
[Faith] We had a few things in common aside from, uh, smoking weed. [laughs]
And being artists on Bad Boy.
No, he was just really cool, and he told me after a couple weeks
that I'm gonna marry you.
And I became Mrs. Faith Evans Wallace.
["No Time" by Lil' Kim playing]
[Sean] ♪ I got no time for fake niggas ♪
♪ Just sip some Cristal With these real niggas… ♪
[Sean] The Faith and Kim… thing
has always been awkward because I know that
they all really loved each other a lot.
You know, I think it's possible to love more than one person.
I think Biggie was in love with more than one person.
♪ Yeah, I momma, Miss Ivana ♪
♪ Usually rock the Prada Sometimes Gabbana ♪
♪ Stick you for your cream And your riches ♪
♪ Zsa Zsa Gabor, Demi Moore Prince Diane and all them rich bitches ♪
♪ Nothin' make a woman feel betta ♪
♪ Than Berettas and Amarettas Butta leathers and mad cheddas ♪
♪ Chillin' in a Benz with my amigos ♪
♪ Tryin' to stick a nigga for his pesos ♪
♪ If you say so's Then I'm the same chick ♪
♪ That you wanna get with Lick up in my twat ♪
♪ Gotta hit the spot, if not ♪
♪ Don't test the poom-poom nanny-nanny Punanny-donny, hey! ♪
[applauding]
[Sean] Move it right up.
-I know I'm heavy. You gotta pick me up. -I got you, baby.
You straight with me? I see you shaking though.
-[laughs] -You like the stage?
[Lil' Kim] Yeah, I love it.
But I'm telling you, I'm not wearing heels.
-Okay. -I'm not doing it. [laughs]
And there's a part in the intro that I want to add.
Biggie says, "I took the hungry members, I took Lil' Kim. She was hungry."
You know, "What, what." Then at the end he goes,
"I don't think no female MC can see Kim." I think that should go in the intro.
-[Sean] We gotta get it. -I got it.
I'll send it to you. It's in my email.
[Lil' Kim] I know what Big meant to me, and I know what I meant to Big.
Nobody's gonna take that from me. I don't care.
Whatever you want to say, you know?
And nobody knew what we talked about when we were in private.
You know, no one knew what we did when we were together by ourselves.
We all grow up, we've all made mistakes, all of us, you know what I'm sayin'?
And there's just one thing that, you know, you really holding on to.
No.
I already know where you're going. Don't do it. Don't do it.
-You won't at least have a conversation? -No.
Why not?
After he passed away,
I did my damned best to make sure I took of every-fucking-body,
and all the motherfuckers turned on me and slapped my face.
And I never even cried about it, bitched about it to nobody.
I just kept moving.
[Kim] Bad Boy is known for the hits,
like everything Puffy touched just went straight to the top of the charts.
And then to have such a…
a tragic moment.
[indistinct chatter]
[Kima] The one party that sticks out for me the most,
and I said, "After this I'm not sitting nowhere near Puff,"
we were with Puff and we were all partying,
we was up in VIP, I just know somebody just started shooting.
[gunshots]
[man on mic] Shut the music off! Shut the music off!
I don't think that we realized how serious that situation was.
I've been waking up paranoid. I've been really scared.
I think somebody's trying to kill me.
[Andre] I was never pro-gangsta rap.
It was a very dangerous time
because a lot happened during that period.
The stars of that music
suffered similar fatalities as the people they were telling stories about.
This hour, the subject is Tupac Shakur.
Shot five times in the lobby of this Manhattan building.
[reporter] Tupac had earlier implicated Bad Boy producer Sean "Puffy" Combs
and star artist The Notorious B.I.G.
[Faith] The first time Tupac was shot in New York,
and later on they were accusing Big and them or whoever of being involved,
he was really hurt about it.
Like, I… He really felt like they were friends.
[Tupac] Have a good summer, biatch!
One man against one man
made a whole West Coast hate a whole East Coast and vice versa.
Hi, I'm Tabitha Soren with MTV News.
Controversial rapper and actor Tupac Shakur
has died in a Las Vegas hospital
of complications from several bullet wounds
sustained Saturday night, September 7th.
He was 25 years old.
Pac was one of our representatives like Malcolm, like Martin.
You know what I'm saying? And now Tupac gone. That was our voice.
[Biggie] When you brought up around that type of lifestyle,
you know, you toting guns all your life,
and then you get a record deal, it's kind of hard to break that habit.
I know some people that just can't leave their gun,
no matter how much money they got.
The more money you make, the more problems you get.
And jealousy and envy is just something that
comes with the territory, man.
A lot of people-- It's just negative energy, like my man Puff say.
It just surrounds you.
[Sean] He was just trying to make good music
and represent for everybody, East, West.
He also had did a tribute record to California called "Going Back to Cali."
♪ I'm going, going Back, back, to Cali… ♪
What's up, Cali?
It's mad hot! [laughs]
It'll kill 'em in that snow right now.
♪ If I got to choose a coast I got to choose the East ♪
♪ I live out there, so don't go there ♪
♪ But that don't mean a nigga Can't rest in the West ♪
♪ See some nice breast in the West… ♪
I'm just getting over, you know, seeing this whole situation
with this East Coast, West Coast thing.
I just came over, you know what I'm saying?
Trying to, like, basically squash it.
[Sean] We really felt like if we went out,
and we could make it through a night out in LA…
that would just really send a tone to LA and to everybody
that everything was all right, 'cause everybody was scared to death.
[woman] Biggie! Biggie!
[indistinct chatter]
[Biggie] It's love for the entertainment.
We had already lost Tupac.
We just wanted everything to be all right.
I'm in the West right now.
If you need me, you want to see me, talk to me,
whatever you want to do, now's the time. Call on up.
["Big Poppa" playing]
[Sean] The Vibe party that Quincy Jones threw.
Biggie was supposed to be on a plane to London.
And he said he wanted to stay and just party with me.
His leg was broke, so he couldn't move around
so I said, "I'mma sit down all night, just gon' rock wit' you."
So that's why you see a picture of me and him sitting down.
I was following Big's lead on, like,
"You know, we gon' do this peace tour."
And…
You know, it didn't work out.
[Sean] We're leaving…
Our car pulled up, Big sat right there, smoked him a cigarette.
Right before he got in, he took some pulls on his cigarette.
He didn't even smoke like that, you know?
He'd just smoke a cigarette every now and then.
Lit a cigarette, smoked like two, three pulls.
Puff's car was in front of us,
his car came out first, and he got in this car,
security got wit' him, we got in our car, and we pulled out.
We made a right at that light,
and chilled for about a second,
and a car just rolled up and they start…
start firing shots in that motherfucker.
[heartbeat pounding]
[gunshots]
[thunderclap]
-[indistinct radio chatter] -[car horns honking]
…real name was Christopher Wallace.
…the star was killed in an early morning drive-by shooting.
[man] Ooh! Puffy! Puff!
[female reporter] …a war between East Coast
and West Coast rap music rivals.
[Sean] As soon as them shots went off,
like, I knew.
Even when, you know, I run to the car and I, um…
you know, I see him, I knew.
[somber string music playing]
I felt a lot of Bad Boy…
Sorry.
I felt a lot of, uh, Bad Boy,
you know, died when Big passed away, so…
[Sean] Everything came crashing down.
Like the whole entire castle, empire, everything.
The most tragic story ever.
You know, I died that night in that car.
With Big.
[melancholy orchestral music playing]
[man on loudspeaker] And that's why we here!
We're here because of Biggie, and we wanna show him respect!
We came through here that day, and brung his body through here,
niggas damn near dyin'
hangin' on the side of they windows hangin' on the roof,
sittin' outside on they fuckin' fire escapes,
sittin' on they rods on the window, bendin' 'em shits,
like really out here
just to get that last glimpse of him coming through his own neighborhood.
[Jay-Z] It was like a royalty moment.
It was like, you know, you see those processions on TV.
You know, like some of the greats, like the greats, the Kennedys,
and, you know, it was that moment,
it was our version of it.
It was like a jubilant celebration, almost like a Second Line in New Orleans.
[car horn honking]
[cheering]
[somber music continues]
I saw Puff in the studio maybe, you know, a few weeks after
the funeral, and, uh,
I remember looking at his face, and I looked into his eyes…
and I didn't really see anybody home. I didn't really see…
I didn't see nothin'.
[Kima] I really feel like the tone of Bad Boy changed
once Biggie passed.
[Sean] Big gets killed,
they tryin' to kill me…
-My whole life, it was just over. -[emotional string music plays]
♪ We was ready to die But we wasn't ready ♪
♪ Why the fuck we went to Cali Niggas wasn't ready ♪
♪ Still see the image of Lil' Kim cryin' ♪
♪ D-Roc falling hard Then it went silent ♪
♪ When we rise, look like a phoenix ♪
♪ Goin' for the pennant ♪
♪ Drivin' down Lenox Our eighth in a Wraith ♪
♪ But the motherfuckin' door's missin' ♪
♪ Too many facts The motherfuckin' floor's missin' ♪
♪ I guess I was blind but now I'm 20/20 ♪
♪ Sun don't shine forever But it's comin' for me ♪
♪ Peace out to RZA, Wolf and the kids ♪
♪ And can't nobody stop me From shoutin' out Big ♪
♪ Bitches love him More valuable than a Basquiat ♪
♪ Some of my spirit even died In the car they shot ♪
[gunshot echoes]
["Victory" by Puff Daddy plays faintly]
[band playing loudly]
[music fades out]
Hey, yo, you don't remember how you used to play that, um, over Biggie?
The tom fills and all? It's not real busy.
You gotta kinda catch the feel with him, you know what I'm sayin'?
You can't play to the beat, you gotta play to how he's saying it.
You gotta-- You gottta find some unique fills,
so I'll give you some time to, like, work on it though.
Let's beat-- Let's go to the next drum.
[drummers playing]
[drummers continue playing]
If it don't sound just like the record,
we just wasting time.
It's never gonna fly.
[cymbal crashes]
[rhythmic hip- hop playing]
-A'ight, stop. -[band stops]
Doesn't sound like the record.
It's never gonna sound like the record without the right drums.
Has to sound exactly like the record.
I want y'all to call me once y'all got it sounding like the record.
Y'all playin' this shit like we a wedding band or somethin'.
I don't know what the fuck is goin' on.
We ain't a wedding band.
This shit's not the jazz festival, none of that shit.
Know what I'm sayin'?
[Sean] I'm going to be perfectly clear, I don't give a fuck at this point.
What has to be done? Who has to be called in?
[Laurieann] I can't do it.
I don't have time with it coming in ten days, but…
What you want, to go back and forth with me tonight?
I wanna tell you I am on the same fucking page.
You're gonna have to tell me, "This what I gotta…"
"This is what you have to have, this is what's only going on."
My life don't work like that.
I can make anything happen.
[dramatic music builds]
[vocalizing]
[Laurieann] Greatness is complicated.
It's like going through the fire and coming out as pure gold.
It's like irons sharpens iron. It's only for the best.
Robert, why you think that edit was wrong?
Let me re-listen to it. It felt off.
[Laurieann] Listen, listen.
That's why I'm pushing everybody.
You know what I'm saying?
Momma's got it, that's why I'm pushing everybody.
So you need to stay in your zone,
because this is for everything else.
So don't worry, we're in, we're in. Stay in the zhuzh. Okay.
As I feel like Cus D'Amato with Mike Tyson, you know?
I know that it's very difficult to be vulnerable.
People have gone and failed and felt pain and love and had loss
'cause I understand exactly the moments of insecurity,
the moments of doubt,
the moments of fear and how to look that in the eye
and use it to your advantage.
[James] When something that big and that crazy happens,
you know, you definitely need God in your life.
Artists have only gone from Bad Boy to God.
There's, like, really no in-between.
[Sean] Craig Mack was just one of those artists that,
you know, we kinda went our separate ways from each other.
And then later on, I heard he had got saved
and he wasn't making secular music anymore.
We're in rehearsal right now and you understand.
Puff is here, Ma$e, Total, Black Rob,
112, Carl Thomas,
everyone is asking for you.
Everyone is saying it's not even right
if you don't perform.
I know I'm laying it on thick because I have to.
-I have to. -[man on speaker speaks indistinctly]
I have to.
I know what you sayin', man, but I just…
"The Mack's like a supe-- The Mack's like a superintendent."
[Craig] Yeah, I know. [garbled audio]
Okay, I got you. [laughs]
[Craig]
First of all, I could never judge what you're feeling.
God loves you, so why would-- why would you think that He would say that…
bring those thoughts into your mind that you're doing something…
doing something wrong?
[Craig] ♪ Now y'all asked the question Where's Craig Mack? ♪
♪ Then you two played me At the Tabernac' ♪
♪ I gave away my cars Turned in all my guns ♪
♪ 'Cause the Mack stayed with beef Like hamburger buns ♪
[clamoring]
♪ When God comes down 'Fore He touch the ground ♪
-♪ You better praise the Lord ♪ -[congregation] Hallelujah!
♪ One God, one Savior, one Lord All aboard ♪
♪ Singin' praise the Lord ♪
[congregation] Praise the Lord!
[scattered applause]
[Sean] We've gone through dramatic, dramatic things.
The only place you gon' end up is God or crazy.
[reporter 1] Prosecutors are setting the stage in the weapons trial
of rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs…
[reporter 2] …witnesses have yet placed a gun in the superstar's hand.
[reporter 3] …clearly saw Combs' protégé rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow
reach down and open fire in the crowded club…
[reporter 4] …grazing his shoulder.
[Andre] Next thing you know, Shyne's in jail for six years.
And he got real religious.
[heartbeat pounding]
[Sean] I always say we're the grooming ground
for future pastors and saved individuals, you know?
[Ma$e] But as you get older, you start realizing,
this is only going to go well if we do it His way.
Our dreams, our plans, and our thoughts
are gonna have to take a back seat to what it is that He wants.
I had all of these stories and all this knowledge of things that
really, you really couldn't share over music,
so I have no choice but to
just point towards God.
[emotional string music playing]
[Sean] Yesterday, everything was just so crazy and things wasn't right.
And, you know, it's me finding myself, like, worrying about it,
and it just has me losing my voice,
my body's breaking down, my knee, my leg, and…
One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is that…
"Cast all your care upon God, for He cares for you."
You are who you are.
And nothing changes that.
[Ma$e] Everything that we been through,
to be able to have everybody back on that stage,
to stand there in unity, that's the victory.
Everything else is gonna take care of itself.
[Faith] No matter how good or bad,
most of the time if you're kinda left standing,
it's something that you have to learn from.
You know, God is really the only one that I knew could help me figure it out.
After Big passed away, I never felt…
I just really… All of those things didn't mean anything to me, you know?
You know, I just went up to her and said hi
like I do to everybody when I come in the room,
and she just happened to be more receptive.
[Lil' Kim] When Faith said the things she said to me,
I felt like she was coming from a sincere place.
It showed there was growth there and sincerity,
and I felt like that was a relationship
that was worth being bonded.
[Faith] I just did what I thought was the right thing.
I truly believe when you're coming from the right place,
you can't go wrong.
[Sean] Our story was the story
of the feeling that everybody has felt.
Everybody has felt like giving up.
I just got up and started to fight.
["I'll Be Missing You" playing]
[audience cheering]
[Andre] I remember Michael Jackson at the Motown 25 special.
MTV, Madonna, "Like a Virgin."
And I remember Puff with Sting and "Missing You."
♪ Every breath you take ♪
[audience cheering]
♪ Every move you make… ♪
[Andre] That was a TV moment in music that's very rare.
It elevates you to such another level of superstardom,
and with the way he did his dance, he was like communicating his pain
through his dance on that record.
He was the only rap star to this day
that had a television performance of that magnitude.
♪ It's kinda hard wit' you not around ♪
♪ Know you in heaven smilin' down ♪
♪ Watchin' us while we pray for you… ♪
I think that Big kinda went and took it over the top
as far as convincing him to be an artist.
He always had a vision to be an artist in his own right.
And you knew he wasn't a rapper, but then you go,
"Well, why can't he rap?"
What a lot of people don't realize,
it was Big that called him P. Diddy. Big gave him that name.
P. Diddy!
♪ Every step I take ♪
[Faith vocalizing]
I didn't feel like I lost an artist, I felt like I lost a friend.
You just love him for the MC he was and the man he was.
I can't sing it without getting emotional.
[Andre] When he made the No Way Out album, the No Way Out tour,
he took that tour on like it was a movement.
It made him rock-star big.
The record itself is really a landmark record.
It's very difficult to shift gears,
and he has shifted gears two or three times already.
It's impossible to do it once.
Things aren't gonna change overnight, so you gotta take your own initiative,
just like you did, and just like I did.
When you want to be President of the United States,
you call your man.
[Jay-Z] His movements and what he was doing in those days
opened up another door for us.
We were kings and queens. We belonged everywhere.
You know, and just changing the course of how people perceived the culture.
Because, you know, art is hip-hop.
[Sean] This is what the new Rolling Stones or Bon Jovi or U2 is.
It's hip-hop now.
[Ma$e] One, two, three!
-[all] Bad Boy! -Four, five, six!
[all] B.I.G.! [cheering]
[Faith vocalizing]
[song fades out]
[Sean] You don't want me to do it?
[man] Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we got it running, let's run it.
Yeah. In and out. You can go in and out. Mm-hmm.
[speaking over mic] Pam, Pam. What's good?
[Laurieann] Dancers onstage, you ready?
[Laurieann] No elevators are working,
no curtains, no screens, nothing.
Right, guys? You're clear on that?
So we gonna run it straight through and we gon' take notes?
Yeah. I got you.
And I need to play a small thing, I wanna play real quick if it's all good.
[Sean] So I made a little record,
and I need to hear my mantra, I need to hear it.
[Nina Simone] I had a couple of times onstage when I really felt free.
And that's something else.
That's really something else!
Like all… all… Like… Like…
I'll tell you what freedom is to me.
No fear!
I mean, really no fear.
["Been Around the World" intro playing]
[Sean vocalizing]
Turn me up a little.
[Ma$e] ♪ I'm on the rise ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
[Sean] Turn me up a little bit more.
[Ma$e] ♪ We like it, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪
♪ Yeah, kid I'm on the rise ♪
[Sean] ♪ This the remix ♪
♪ I been around ♪
♪ You know I been around the world ♪
♪ I been around ♪
-♪ Uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ -♪ I been around ♪
-♪ Where you at? ♪ -♪ I been around the world ♪
-♪ Stop playing, uh-huh ♪ -♪ I been around ♪
♪ I been around the world… ♪
[Matt Lauer] We're all members of the Bad Boy family,
ladies and gentlemen, Puff Daddy!
♪ …in beach houses Cream to the ceiling ♪
♪ I was a gentleman, livin' in tenements ♪
♪ Now I'm swimmin in All the women that be tens ♪
♪ Went from Bad Boy To the Crushed Linen Men ♪
♪ Now my dividends be the new Benjamins ♪
[overlapping chatter]
[Sean] Lincoln Center. Ain't no place like home, baby.
And I'm from New York!
-Diddy runs this city! Welcome to my city! -[man] P. Diddy in the house!
[Sean] This is the city that's played our records the most.
Everybody feels like they're a part of the show.
-What are you here for? -I have a concert tonight.
-A concert? -Yeah. You know who I am?
-Yeah. -What's my name?
-Puff Daddy. -Puff Daddy.
That's my favorite one.
[Sean] Let's go.
I'mma be honest, you know, everybody has been asking me, "Are you nervous?"
What's at stake is…
Honestly, our careers are at stake.
The way we represent Biggie,
and the way we make this a moment of history is at stake.
This is the biggest show of our lives.
[audience applauding]
I just love the music. I just love everything. I love the lyrics.
They played a major role in our life, so we appreciate it.
That's why we're here.
Ay! Two tickets! Come and get 'em right now!
[funk music playing]
[Sean] We gon' work it out. We gon' work it out.
Bad Boy era, it's necessary to even talk about hip-hop history.
[Fabolous] Over 20 years of hits, man, that's incredible.
It's all love, man.
[indistinct chatter]
[cheering]
We gon' work it out. We gon' work it out. Submit.
[exhales]
[audience cheering echoes]
[Sean yells] Oh, yeah!
Oh my God! Oh my God!
I'm like a seven-year-old child!
[man on loudspeaker] Who came out to party with Diddy tonight?
[audience roars]
-[loud drumbeat] -[feedback whining]
-[man] Hey, boss. -[Sean] Just nervous.
I ain't gonna lie. You hear me? I didn't know I was gonna be nervous.
[cheering]
[overlapping chatter]
[audience cheering]
[inaudible]
[cheering]
-Chrissy! -[man] Chrissy?
I'm gonna need my toothpicks.
Need my water and my toothpicks. Toothpicks.
[cheering]
[indistinct chatter]
[audience cheering]
[camera shutters clicking]
[audience roaring]
[tense ambient music playing]
-[vacuum cleaner whirring] -[popping]
[Sean] It was, for me, probably one of the worst shows of my life.
As far as for me.
[inhales sharply, exhales]
Maybe I tried to do too much.
And…
You know, I'm just disappointed in myself.
'Cause I know I could do 70% better, no matter what.
[Sean] I gotta embrace that.
You know, that's the beauty of caring about something
at a deeper level.
And I care about this so much.
[man] The hardest moment
was when Puff was coming up that riser and that fuckin' mic wasn't on!
[inaudible]
[Biggie on backing track] Yeah.
[rapping with muffled audio]
[muffled audio continues]
[overlapping chatter]
Give me one moment.
[overlapping chatter]
I need Ma$e right now!
[muffled audio continues]
[overlapping chatter]
What the fuck is going on?
[overlapping chatter]
Do you think I came this far to drop the ball?
[Laurieann] No.
The people that were part of the show from the beginning
know what went wrong.
Everybody in that arena was happy, was bouncing up and down.
It was such a great response.
[soft piano music playing]
Puff wouldn't be who he is if he didn't want the best, the best, the best,
and he wants this show
to definitely be, uh, an experience
that people will talk about for the next 10 to 20, 30 years.
[Joe] I think he's too hard on himself, he's too much in his head.
Like, I told him today,
like, I think he did amazing, I think he's…
He don't have to beat hisself up so much.
[tense music playing]
[distant police siren wailing]
[Sean] We haven't done this in a long time. It's like, you know…
I mean, that's just the real.
But you can't make time.
You know, we needed two or more extra months.
You can't make time. Everybody's doing the best that they can.
[soft string music playing]
[heartbeat pounding]
-[doctor] Can you face me a little bit so… -[Sean coughs]
-Can I have some tissue, please? -I got it.
[blowing nose]
[Sean] Everybody says I'm buggin' and being hard on myself,
like being a dramatic little bitch,
but, nah, this is-- It's not that.
I care so much about what the people are seeing
and about these records.
Just vocal rest. But you have to--
If you want this to heal up within a week, you have to shut down completely.
[tense string music playing]
[Laurieann] I'm physically tired, yes.
Mentally tired, emotionally tired.
You see at the ninth inning
how it's complicated to just stay the course.
And not give up.
I feel for him.
I know that it's very difficult to be vulnerable.
And strip away everything that people think you are
and become something new in this moment,
and for me, I get to see that vulnerability.
I get to see that… uncertainty.
And I love it. I love when he's there,
because then his true magic comes out,
and he really is a great entertainer.
I… I… I just need-- I just--
I just need some way to connect with the crowd,
and everybody needs to understand that today is his birthday.
You know? And that's important to me.
[string music swelling]
[Sean] I'm gonna rip this shit down, be more comfortable.
I'mma be, you know,
the fuckin' superhero that I am.
[resigned sigh]
I'm about to have one of the best shows of my life.
["The Boss" by James Brown playing in background]
[overlapping chatter]
[Sean] It's not gon' be like that.
Y'all hear it coming straight from Puff if you have a problem,
we can get it into it right now.
Not a problem. Nothing's a fuckin' problem.
-[man] All right, cool. -[Sean] Yeah!
[Sean coughing]
Somebody get me a towel!
Need some towels, baby! I need some towels!
♪ Paid the cost to be the boss ♪
[Sean] Oh! Yes!
♪ Paid the cost to be the boss ♪
-Time to get on dinnertime, baby. -[upbeat funk music playing]
Time to get on dinnertime.
I'm taking control of this.
Uh. Yeah.
That's right, I'll get into this beat. Nothing else matters.
That poppin', nothing else matters.
Once you in the spirit, nothing else matters.
Gotta get into that spirit.
Out of my brain and into my heart.
[horn sting plays]
[phone line ringing]
[pensive string music playing]
[phone line ringing]
-[woman on phone] Hey, kiddo. -What's up, Ma, How are you?
[Voletta]
Ma, I just need you to say an extra special prayer for me tonight, okay?
[Voletta]
All right. I love you, Ma.
[Voletta]
[Sean] Thank you so much. Thank you. I love you.
-[Voletta] Okay, love. -All right, bye.
[Voletta] Okay, sweetie, bye-bye.
[string music continues]
[Sean] I just wanna thank y'all for working so hard.
We crammed two months of work
into, um, two weeks.
This has been the best experience of my life.
[crowd cheering]
The best experience of my life!
Yeah!
[cheering]
When you go on a journey, sometimes you need to be led.
In order to be able to accomplish stuff like this,
you need somebody to keep it in order.
You need a general, you need a strategist.
When you doing something like this, it can just turn into chaos.
The way Laurieann has stepped up and kept us in order…
-[crowd cheering] -…being on time.
I don't even think she's slept in two weeks.
Give it up for our fearless leader, Laurieann.
[cheering]
[Laurieann] When I was a starving dancer in New York,
eating a bagel and meeting Puffy and dancing for Mary,
and now I'm, like, here.
The best part was really feeling that he meant it.
Like, the sincerity was overwhelming.
'Cause I've always been the general. He just has never admitted it.
How 'bout those apples?
We good, baby. It's been a long time.
But we are here by the grace of God, honey.
I'mma be rehearsing, I'mma be in the mirror.
-And I'mma be ready. -I know you gonna be ready.
-It's showtime! -That's the vibration that we bringin'.
-That started-out life. That new life. -That's right. I love you.
[overlapping chatter]
[man] You gotta open up the doors.
[Sean] All right, Laurieann, we in the final hours.
Assalamu alaikum, beloved.
Yes, put DMX onstage.
[playing drum fill]
-Thank you. Thank you for coming. -No doubt.
-Whassup! -[laughs]
The doors are open, bruh.
May the Lord have your way, in the name of Jesus,
we need you to show up and show our Holy Spirit do what you do.
Tonight's gonna be magical.
[audience cheers echoing]
Bad Boy!
[audience chanting] Bad Boy!
Bad Boy! Bad Boy!
Bad Boy!
God help me.
[Sean] We live by faith, not by sight.
We live by faith, not by sight.
This ain't no regular night.
Don't be up on the stage like this no fuckin' regular degular. A'ight?
This shit is motherfuckin' history.
[Sean] Tonight you ain't gon' be fake
being here celebrating Biggie and Brooklyn.
Think of the moment that he meant something to you,
you gon' cry, you gon' feel it,
you gon' have Biggie and the Lord with you every step of the way.
All right? Now let's bow our heads.
God, please and bless us to know
that with you, we can do anything.
And tonight we are great. Bless us
with the fearlessness
to be free.
-[pensive string music playing] -[audience roaring]
[heartbeat pounding]
[music swells]
[man] It's game time!
[scattered applause and laughter]
[cheering]
[Sean] They asked Nina Simone, "What does freedom mean?"
And it really touched me. Her answer was, "No fear."
No fear, and if she could be like that half of her life,
her life would be totally different.
[music builds, halts]
[faint heartbeat pounding]
[cheers echoing]
[faint feedback whining]
[isolated Nina Simone vocals] ♪ Birds flying high, you know how I feel ♪
[pounding continues]
♪ Sun in the sky You know how I feel ♪
[helicopter rotor whirring]
[muffled thunderclap]
♪ Breeze driftin' on by You know how I feel ♪
[Sean] She said that it's times onstage where
she felt that freedom.
[Nina Simone] ♪ It's a new dawn ♪
♪ It's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life for me, yeah ♪
♪ It's a new dawn, it's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life for me… ♪
[Sean] Man, it is something else.
[muffled thunderclap]
Something else.
[Nina Simone vocalizing]
♪ And I'm feeling good ♪
["Feeling Good" instrumentals strike up]
♪ Fish in the sea You know how I feel ♪
♪ River running free You know how I feel ♪
♪ Blossom on the tree You know how I feel ♪
♪ It's a new dawn ♪
♪ It's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life ♪
♪ For me ♪
♪ And I'm feeling good ♪
♪ Dragonfly out in the sun You know what I mean ♪
♪ Don't you know? ♪
♪ Butterflies all havin' fun You know what I mean ♪
♪ Sleep in peace when day is done That's what I mean ♪
♪ And this old world is a new world ♪
♪ And a bold world for me ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
[thunderclap]
♪ Stars when you shine You know how I feel ♪
[thunderclap]
♪ Scent of the pine You know how I feel ♪
♪ Oh, freedom is mine ♪
♪ And I know how I feel ♪
♪ It's a new dawn ♪
♪ It's a new day ♪
♪ It's a new life for me ♪
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing continues]
♪ I'm feeling good ♪
[holding note]
-[booming] -[audience cheering]
[Sean] We love y'all!
Two fingers in the air for B.I.G. tonight!
[audience chanting] Bad Boy!
Bad Boy!
It was… magnificent!
[overlapping chatter]
Biggie was… His energy was there. You felt the energy!
[cheering]
["Juicy" playing]
♪ Birthdays was the worst days ♪
♪ Now we sip champagne When we thirsty… ♪
[static hissing]
[man] What are some of the things that you've had to overcome?
What I had to overcome?
I don't know. Poverty?
[laughter in crowd]
Police.
[overlapping chatter]
A little bit of everything, right? Know what I'm sayin'?
I'm just a nigga from the hood. I got a little bit of rap skills, man.
You know what I'm sayin'?
But my shit is straight now. No need to talk about the past.
[overlapping chatter]
[Sean] Life starts to just fly pass you so fast.
'Cause we all started out as kids.
The kid that was labelled bad
never stayed in a straight line.
Bad Boy is that dream,
that we could be the first Black billionaires.
And that we could become world-famous.
And not lose our minds.
Thank you, thank you.
Thank you. Keep your dream going, baby.
God bless. God bless.
-Dreams come true. Yes. -Can I shake your hand?
Love you, baby. Love.
[Sean] When I was first starting out, I didn't have no mercy.
If you live life like that too much,
I think your intentions can get misinterpreted.
My intentions was just to make everybody the best.
Which is for everybody to eat,
to make history,
and to inspire the world,
and I think I did that in a…
And I still plan on doing that in a bigger way,
but I don't want to wake up,
you know, old and have any regrets that I didn't develop as a man.
And I just started getting better at just, like, maybe, uh,
six weeks ago, so I don't want y'all to…
[chuckles] So this is brand new.
[Sean] I'm still in this movie,
and I just plan on…
I just know the ending,
and that it's gonna end happily ever after.
["Victory 2004" instrumental intro playing]
[Sean] Ten years.
Yo, the sun don't shine forever.
But as long as it's here, then we might as well shine together.
Better now than never, business before pleasure.
P. Diddy and the Fam, who you know do it better?
[horns and drums playing]
[cheering]
♪ I'm the definition of Half man, half drugs ♪
♪ Ask the clubs Bad Boy, that's whassup ♪
♪ After bucks, crush cruise after us ♪
♪ No gaze, we ain't laughin' much… ♪
♪ What you know about goin' out ♪
♪ Head west, red Lex TV's all up in the headrest ♪
♪ Try and live it up Ride true, a bigger truck ♪
♪ Peeps all glittered up Stick up can, they go what? ♪
["Queen Bitch" playing]
♪ If Peter Piper pecked 'em I betcha Biggie bust 'em ♪
♪ He probably tried to fuck him I told him not to trust him ♪
♪ Lyrically I dust 'em Off like Pledge ♪
♪ Hit hard like sledge-hammers Bitch with that platinum grammar ♪
["Love No Limit" intro playing]
[male announcer] Put your hands together and make some noise
for Mary J. motherfuckin' Blige!
♪ Good love down to the last drop ♪
♪ And I'm not gonna stop ♪
♪ No, no No, no ♪
[vocalizing]
-["I Remember" playing] -♪ I remember ♪
♪ The days ♪
♪ You used to love me ♪
[Faith] This for you, boo!
♪ You don't appreciate the time ♪
♪ I put into this love affair ♪
♪ Of ours, baby ♪
-["No One Else" playing] -♪ I don't need no one else but you ♪
♪ Tell me what you want me to do ♪
["Hate Me Now" intro playing]
[man] Put your hands together! C'mon!
[Nas] Do it now!
♪ People hate me now ♪
♪ But I won't stop now ♪
♪ 'Cause I can't stop now ♪
♪ People hate me now ♪
Brooklyn, what up!
-[loud drumbeat] -[twinkling]
["I'll Be Missing You" playing]
[Sean] Hey!
[indistinct chatter]
[Sean] Check this out, yo.
This is not a sad song.
This is not a sad song, it's a love song.
♪ Every breath I take ♪
[Sean] A song for B.I.G.! I miss you!
♪ Every move I make ♪
If you ever lost a loved one, sing!
-♪ Every single day ♪ -I want him to hear you!
♪ Every time I pray I'll be missing you… ♪
[emotional string music playing]
[music halts]
["Been Around the World" intro playing]
[Ma$e] Yo, yo, this Ma$e. You know what I'm sayin'?
You got niggas that don't like me for whatever reason.
You got niggas that don't wanna see me rich.
You got niggas that's mad 'cause I'm always with they bitch.
Then you got niggas that just don't like me.
You know, those PhD niggas.
But you know I pop a lot of shit. But I back it up though.
See, there's a difference, a lot of niggas pop shit.
But a lot of niggas don't make hits.
But it's like this whole Bad Boy shit.
We come to bring it to y'all niggas, me, B.I., Puff, Lox, whoever, Black Rob.
If you wanna dance, we dance.
♪ Now trick what? Lace who? That ain't what Ma$e do ♪
♪ Got a lot of girls That'd love to replace you ♪
♪ Tell you to your face, boo Not behind your back ♪
♪ Niggas talk shit, we never mind that ♪
♪ Funny, never find that Puff a dime stack ♪
♪ Write hot shit and make a nigga say "Rewind that" ♪
♪ Niggas know We go against the Harlem gigolo ♪
♪ Getcha hoe, lick her low Make the bitch hit the do' ♪
♪ I represent honies with money Fly guys with gems ♪
♪ Drive with the tints That be thirty-five percent ♪
♪ Hoes hope I lay So I look both ways… ♪
♪ Cop says Okay, my tint smoke gray, no way ♪
♪ Nigga leave without handin' me my shit ♪
♪ Got plans to get my land and my six ♪
♪ Niggas outta pen Will understand this shit ♪
♪ Pop champagne Like I won a championship ♪
♪ Been around the world and I, I, I ♪
♪ And we been player hated ♪
♪ I don't know and I don't know why ♪
♪ Why they want us faded ♪
♪ I don't know why they hate us ♪
♪ Is it our ladies? ♪
♪ Or our drop Mercedes ♪
♪ Bay-bee bay-bee! ♪
♪ I was in one bedroom Dreamin' of a million ♪
♪ Now I'm in beach houses Cream to the ceiling ♪
♪ I was a gentleman, livin' in tenements ♪
♪ Now I'm swimmin in All the women that be tens ♪
♪ Went from Bad Boys To the Crushed Linen Men ♪
♪ Now my dividends Be the new Benjamins ♪
♪ Hoes of all complexions I like cinnamon ♪
♪ Ma$e you got some hoes Well, nigga, send 'em in ♪
♪ What you waitin' for Let the freak show begin ♪
-♪ How they came in a truck? ♪ -♪ Nah, Puff, that's a Benz ♪
♪ Mercedes Come here, baby ♪
♪ You don't like the way It's hot and hazy ♪
♪ Never shady, you must be crazy ♪
♪ It's ridiculous How you put your lips on this… ♪