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.
The film is the last feature film written by John Singleton as he did not write any of his later feature-length directorial projects.
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.