Can't Stop, Won't Stop is a new film about the genesis and legacy of famed hip-hop boutique label Bad Boy that follows Sean "Diddy" Combs a.k.a. Puff Daddy as he and former Bad Boy artists prepared for this past summer's two-week label reunion tour. At the film's premiere at last week's TriBeCa Film Festival, a crowd packed tightly into New York's Beacon Theater, getting a first look at golden footage from the label's early stages when a young Diddy's fervor made it seem possible that young black people could turn their passions into millions. One of the film's treats is that it shows Diddy reuniting with some of the label's most iconic artists in real time, lovingly embracing the likes of Ma$e, Lil Kim, Carl Thomas, Faith Evans, and more, people who haven't seemed to spent much time together in recent memory. Artists like Jay-Z were interviewed for the film, confessing that without Combs' maniacal drive, he and other would-be moguls may have not had the imagination and confidence to attempt duplicating the Bad Boy model.Can't Stop, Won't Stop is directed by Daniel Kaufman, who, before this project, had no feature-length film experience. He started working on documentaries as a kid with his father, who made human rights films, moving their family between the U.S. and Haiti while shooting. But thanks to a well-connected mentor, he ended up in a meeting about making a Bad Boy concert film and was on the job the next day. While Can't Stop, Won't Stop is very much focused on the urgency of nailing each date of the Bad Boy reunion tour in honor of The Notorious B.I.G.'s legacy, it does a superb job of weaving in and out of each of the label's phases: Diddy's beginnings as a party promoter, earning Biggie's trust to help mold him into one of the genre's biggest superstars ever, rerouting after Big's death, and continuously churning out hits for close to 30 years. To cap off the premiere, Diddy, Ma$e, Kim, Carl Thomas, and Faith Evans came out to perform their hits, seemingly missing no steps. On the day following the premiere, Kaufman stopped by VICE headquarters to discuss the responsibility of telling one of hip-hop's greatest stories ever.Continue reading on Noisey.
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