Diddy Wanted 2Pac’s Role In ‘Juice,’ Says Ralph McDaniels

    Diddy believed that he was a better fit than 2Pac to play Bishop in Juice.

    Ralph McDaniels, the creator of the iconic Video Music Box, confirmed that Puff wanted to replace 2Pac in the iconic film during an Instagram Live conversation with Fat Joe.

    McDaniels noted that Juice was the first film project that he ever worked on and Diddy was working on a film with Andre Harrell before he was fired from Uptown Records. As expected, the future Bad Boy mogul didn’t let an obstacle stop his ambitions.

    “When we shot Juice… Andre Harrell was shooting [a movie that] Puff was working on,” McDaniels recalled “Puff got fired from that movie, and he said, ‘Ralph, you working on Juice, I want to be Bishop. I saw the script. Bishop, that’s me!’

    “And I was like, ‘But we got somebody to be Bishop already, the only one that’s cast is Tupac.’ [Diddy] was like, ‘Nah, I’m from Harlem, Ralph, just think about it. Think about it. The script, that’s me.’ And I was like ‘That’s [going to be] hard. That’s [going to be] difficult.”

    Released on January 17, 1992, Juice is a coming-of-age film that chronicles the lives of Roland Bishop (Tupac Shakur), Quincy “Q” Powell (Omar Epps), Raheem Porter (Khalil Kain), and Eric “Steel” Thurman (Jermaine ‘Huggy’ Hopkins) as they grow up in Harlem.

    Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson, the film went on to gross over $20 million at the box office, becoming a cult classic. Accompanied by one of the best soundtracks of the ’90s, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Naughty By Nature, EPMD, and more are all featured.

    “This is not just a me No. 1. It was Bryson Tiller’s record first,” he explained. “I was doing this R&B album and I’m a big Bryson Tiller fan and I had called him and I was like, ‘Man I heard this record that you did. Is there a way you would consider letting me use it on my album and dropping it as my first single?’”

    “Whenever I do a vulnerable record like that, you know, I usually have the best success,” Diddy added. “But it couldn’t happen without Bryson Tiller. He’s an amazing artist.”

    13 thoughts on “Diddy Wanted 2Pac’s Role In ‘Juice,’ Says Ralph McDaniels

      1. Puff wanted to “BE” Pac. Straight Up… Wait… nothing is straight with him… period. (No Homo)

    1. No, just no. Maybe now he is considered a mogul, legend, and an actual rapper. But in the 90s Diddy was just the dancing fool in Biggie and Mase videos. Nobody wanted to see or hear this guy and wished he would just handle the business end.

    2. Although Pac acted his ass off as Bishop, Bishop the character turned on all his homies… so in retrospect I believe Puff here: “I saw the script. Bishop, that’s me!”

    3. If Puff had been Bishop we would not be talking about Juice 30 years after the fact. Just seen Puff try to act hard on Halloween and even that shit was unconvincing. He even had some of the best rappers writing his shit in the 90’s l, still couldn’t act like a good rapper. Only Puff can make lyrics by Jadakiss and BIG sound whack.

    4. Puffy is driven, I really appreciate he wanted better for his life! I wan to be president too. Black haters who cant achieve nada would be complaining alleging he butt-hoe, he buttt-hoe

    5. Funny people talking shit when Puff has always been the one that can make you disappear while Pac was just a loud dumbass pretending that did shit to appear hard.

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