Jody listens to the song "Hail Mary" by Tupac Shakur and has a mural of him in his room. Tupac Shakur was originally supposed to play the role of Jody, but was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in 1996.
Ving Rhames who plays "Melvin" has said that a lot was cut out of the script and that he thought it had a lot more depth & was a lot more poignant than the actual film which he felt took a more commercial route.
The film is the last feature film written by John Singleton as he did not write any of his later feature-length directorial projects.
A.J. Johnson lived in South Central for 2 weeks to prepare for her role as Juanita, she rode the bus, hung out at the mall, John Singleton helped her connect with some friends and she also got her nose pierced.