The film deals with the life of Stanley Tookie Williams, the co-founding member of the Crips street gang, principally his life in the streets and his life in prison.[2] It also shows some of the work he did while incarcerated to help decrease gang violence in the world. The film was shot in 2003 while Williams was still imprisoned. On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection in California.

After its debut at The Sundance Film Festival, the film was released in January 2004 via the FX cable network on television and went on to become a successful venture for the network. The film was nominated for 19 different awards and won 11 of them. Among the awards bodies that recognized the film are: the American Cinema Editors, Black Reel Awards, Golden Globes, NAACP Image Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Movie Guide, Satellite Awards, Screen Actors Guild, and Writers Guild of America.

Shot in 38 days during July and August 2003, all of the filming took place in Toronto (except for one full day in South Central Los Angeles and one half-day of exteriors in San Francisco). The Toronto water treatment plant was used as a double for the exterior of San Quentin State Prison. Production was almost shut down when Michael Mann refused to release Jamie Foxx from his rehearsal schedule on Collateral. But Foxx, who had met with Stanley Williams for many hours at San Quentin, convinced Mann to give him a three-week window. Jamie's performance was shot over only three six-day shooting weeks in Toronto. During that period, Toronto suffered a massive citywide blackout, and the production only had power from its backup generators. Jamie Foxx's dialogue coach during the shoot was a former inmate of San Quentin.