In some interviews you've encouraged people to be individuals. What do you mean by that, and how would you encourage people to do so?

I just want people to love themselves. And I want people to seek out love. That's all. To be an individual. I can't tell people -- that's just going against it, like, "People need to be this." That's not what I'm here to do. All I'm saying is that we all have to live in the world together. Consider your brother and your sister, consider your neighbor, consider everybody's feelings. That's all. It's not just your world.

"Just like how I had it with Biggie, I'm gon' have the understanding with you and you'll have your own freedom to make your decisions. And that's what you told me to get and that's what I went and got. Swagg Team."

After just 5 years in the game the little shop from the other windy city have already conquered collaborations with New Balance and Reebok, and now they have their sights set on their own Colab frame with an homage to the Notorious B.I.G. Drawing from the Coogi sweater, Versace shade era that Brooklyn’s Finest brought to the spotlight, The Biggie is a throwback to the unlikely union between the street urchins and high fashion houses that made the 90′s such a memorable time for hip-hop and fashion in general. One for the dice shakers and investment bankers alike.

How did you first hook up with Sean "Diddy" Combs? And what can you tell us about the new mystery album you collaborated on?

Well, he just called me one day and said that he loved my music and sampled one of my tracks for the intro of his album, and asked me to come to New York and hang out in the studio. At this point, he didn't know what he wanted. But I was just working out some beats and some musical landscapes and he was totally into it, even though the music was really deep and weird. Then he said, why don't I make a whole remix version of his album Last Train to Paris, some kind of a more underground interpretation. And I decided to take the opportunity to make something really different. I have to say that Puff really inspired me and pushed me to the limit. And I just took some time off touring and started making music that I'd never done before, and he was really supporting whatever I was doing. I think that is just great that he could have this vision about the whole project.

"Every Memorial Day for the last, maybe, eight years, I’ve gone to Miami. I’ve been to Cancun a couple times, but usually Miami—the energy is great there. My recipe for Memorial Day is you have to get an apartment, preferably a bachelor pad with balcony. Or a house with a backyard. You need some cool friends that won’t come empty handed. Probably a Red Cafe CD [laughs]. And then you want chicken and shrimp kebabs. I get on the grill, cause you have to make sure the food tastes good.

Kalenna and Dawn called upon Flaunt magazine to provide an insightful feature on the late fashion designer, Alexander McQueen (whose work is currently the subject of a major exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art), a Tank Girl comic (Dawn's pick) and a feature on Marilyn Manson (chosen by Kalenna) adorn the pages of Diddy's MYMAG.

Other content includes Vibe magazine's first-ever magazine feature on Diddy, as well as tributes to Biggie Smalls, Mary J. Blige and Hype Williams. One of the UK's top music magazines, NME provides content for one of Diddy's idols, music innovator and icon, David Bowie. Rare Frank Sinatra and Rat Pack photographs are also featured in the magazine, the late Hollywood legend inspires Diddy's style and is another one of his all-time idols.

Esteemed photographer Jean-Paul Goude lends his celebrated Grace Jones imagery; shots emblematic of a style trend that courses through Diddy Dirty Money.

We’d been running around all day like lunatics and back at the hotel, no one showed up for a midnight run to the radio station, except Big. So I went from miserable to HOLY S*** very quickly. It was pouring outside, so I ran to pull the car around and pick Big up in front—not that he requested it, but he had a way of making you want to do right by him. Because it was just us, we talked about a lot of things: our families, our moms, friends, girls, the business, Puff. He was curious about my life growing up in Long Island—how I’d gotten into hip-hop and proud to hear that I was born in Brooklyn and impressed that my dad went to Erasmus High School and still owned a trucking company in Brooklyn. He talked about recording his new album in the Caribbean, away from everyone. Things were getting complicated with way too many distractions. And he made a point to say, “I can’t front: Puff made Ready To Die great, and he’s gotta be there with me.” I asked how and he said Puff was the one who told him to paint the picture and tell stories. He’d designed tracks to fit Big’s style. It was pretty amazing to hear and to be let in on what felt like a secret.

You’ve both worked with Diddy before. What’s the most important thing you learned from him?
A: Have like seven phones.
R: Just be ready. Be well rested. There’s gonna be so much shit. Songs and the remix—he gets all his s*** out the way right then.
A: Diddy is running an empire while he’s in your skit.
R: And having Ciroc in the studio.

Did you share Ciroc with Diddy?
A: No, we didn’t touch Ciroc together. [Laughter.] But I wouldn’t rule it out as something that could happen in the future.

What had you heard about Biggie before you met him? He was in The Source’s Unsigned Hype. They said he was ill, but I don’t think they really understood how ill he was. But also at the same time, it wasn’t like everybody out there had labels. It wasn’t no competition. It wasn’t like another label wanted to sign him, because he didn’t have that look. And also, his style. He wasn’t trying to spit no radio R&B-friendly records.

XXLMag.com: What’s your favorite song by your dad?

Wallace: “Machine Gun Funk” is probably one of my favorites. I remember the first time I heard it I was in the car driving in L.A. and it gave me the best feeling ever.

XXLMag.com: How involved is Diddy in your life?

Wallace: I’m around him all the time. I go over his house and hang out with Christian, Justin and Quincy.

I’ve always been impressed with hip hop lyrics, in just how many there are per line, and the creativity involved. Do you feel the same way?

Honestly, hip-hop and old country music is really not all that different. They’re storytellers just talking about a different story. But, hip-hop is important. I’ve done some things in the hip-hop world, written a couple things for a couple people, and I remember talking to Notorious B.I.G., before he died, and him going, “You know, I learned the art of story telling from my mother listening to Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard.” His mother is from Jamaica, and in Jamaica they only have a reggae station and a country station. His mom liked that stuff, so she only had those records. He goes, “I would listen to these dudes: Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, and they told stories.”

You take some of the guys, lyrically, like Tupac, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Eminem and those dudes are un-freaking-believable. Listen to the words they are putting together, lyrically and sonically what they’re doing. It’s phenomenal. I’ve sat there and watched Jay-Z sit down and write 16 bar verses and never write anything down. He’ll have it all in his head, then go into the studio and lay it down. That’s bada**. I don’t care who you are. You write songs, and you don’t appreciate that, then you don’t know shit. [laughs] You don’t know anything about writing a song if you can’t appreciate what that’s like while looking at the lyrical content. For me, I’m doing five, six, seven words for their singing one. A lot of my artist friends are like, “How do you remember all that stuff?” I say, “Sometimes I don’t.” That’s what makes real music and live music fun! Sometimes you mess up. That’s okay. That’s music.

Lloyd excitedly shared a coincidental fact about an inspiring moment. "My very first concert was a Diddy show in Atlanta," he said, smiling. "Puff came out and he just rocked it, man. I had never experienced anything like that."

Now Lloyd performs on the same stage as the star he admired so much as a kid. "Diddy's one of the first people to take hip-hop to a popular music standpoint," Lloyd noted. "He's the godfather of hip-hop!"

I was supposed to sing “You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)” on [The Notorious B.I.G.’s] Life After Death album, and I don’t know what happened with that not happening ...

DX: You mentioned Biggie, did he reach out to you personally?

D.V. Alias Khryst: No, my attorney … had called me around the time of that project being worked on and told me that someone that he had spoke to – don’t remember their name – had inquired about me doing that record. I was very excited when I heard about that, because [I had] known Biggie for some time …. I was around Big and [Lil] Cease and them - and Smoothe was around these dudes - smoking blunts on the stoop with these dudes before a lot of this stuff transpired and went the direction that it went. So, to see his career go the way it went, and for me to had gotten an [invitation] to do a record with him on the [strength] of how our paths [had] always crossed – even from the “Dead Presidents” video shoot with Jay-Z, and showing Smoothe and everybody that was at the round table – I [thought it] would be a wonderful opportunity. But, when it didn’t happen I was a little funked about it because I felt like that could have been a great opportunity for the world to hear me and to give me the platform to really show people what I’m made of, [as] opposed to the box that I’ve been placed in.

“When they came to my accountant’s [home] to come get me, I ended up calling my lawyer and I told him what was going on,” continued Quik regarding his ordeal as murder suspect. “So he called the Parker Center and arranged for me to go up there and talk to ‘em, instead of them gafflin’ me up and making a scene. So I went down there and told ‘em everything I knew, everything I saw, the whole s***. And after I did that the burden was off. ‘Cause it was rumors in the street that I did that s***. How am I gonna kill Biggie Smalls when I like him? Who does that?!”