Billy Rosewood has posters in his apartment of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra, both starring Sylvester Stallone. Stallone's then-wife Brigitte Nielsen appears in the film as Karla Fry and Stallone was the original choice to play the lead in the original Beverly Hills Cop. In fact, when Stallone was signed to star in Beverly Hills Cop, he did a polish on the script that focused more on action and took away the comedic element. He changed the main character's name from 'Axel Foley' to 'Axel Cobretti'. When he eventually dropped out of Beverly Hills Cop, he used the character's name and certain elements from his polish of the script for Cobra.
The cement truck that Billy drives has a sticker saying DS/JB Construction Company. DS and JB stand for the film's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.
The name of the villain, Maxwell Dent, is a combination of two names that were used as "house pseudonyms" by Street & Smith Publishing for its 1930s pulp fiction magazines: Maxwell Grant (aka Walter Gibson), author of "The Shadow", and Lester Dent (aka Kenneth Robeson), author of "Doc Savage".
According to the DVD Documentary, Paramount originally wanted to produce a TV series of Beverly Hills Cop after the success of the first film but Eddie Murphy didn't want to go back to TV so a movie was made instead.
In the scene at Billy's apartment where both Axel and Billy sing the theme to "The Dating Game", the singing was improvised by Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold.
Chris Rock makes an appearance as the valet at the Playboy Mansion who complains about Axel bringing in a cement truck. This is his first role on the big screen; Rock was featured in an HBO comedy special (which featured aspiring comedians e.g. Robert Townsend, Marsha Warfield) which was produced by Eddie Murphy and his childhood friend Clint Smith.
Pay attention to Axel as he is leaving his apartment during the opening credits. As he closes the door, you can see the initials "AF" scratched into the door. They're (obviously) the initials for "Axel Foley".
Chief Lutz mistakenly refers to Detective Rosewood by the wrong name, "Roseweed". In Beverly Hills Cop, the Chief also refers to Rosewood by the wrong name, "Rosemont".
In the scene where Taggart and Rosewood enter Axel's "house" in Beverly Hills, Rosewood remarks to Taggart that maybe The Pointer Sisters live in the house. The Pointer Sisters performed the song "Neutron Dance" in the first Beverly Hills Cop film and they also perform "Be There" in the second.
Just before the final gun battle, Rosewood is seen pulling out guns from an arsenal in his trunk. This is a nod to co-producer Don Simpson. According to Judge Reinhold in the 'making of' documentary for the first film, he recalls that the first time he met Simpson, the producer showed off his collection of guns in the trunk of his car.
An early draft written by Bud Shrake and Dan Jenkins involved Axel going undercover as a Beverly Hills rent-a-cop who helps Rosewood, Taggart, and Bogamil stop a corrupt security service operated by a Detroit hoodlum turned businessman. The script also called Chief Hubbard from Cop 1 to return and for Axel to have a 20 something female partner/love interest named "Lucy".
When Axel, Rosewood and Taggart run the map coordinates they got from their late-night snoop at the Beverly Hills Shooting Club into the computer, it displays a map pointing the location of the City Deposit at 9752 Gregory Way. The map that appears is indeed an accurate map and there really is a 9752 Gregory Way, however in real-life there is no City Deposit or similar building. That particular area is an upper-to-high-class residential area and the real 9752 Gregory Way is a mansion.
In the "Making of" featurette, director Tony Scott describes this sequel as a cross between the first movie and 48 Hrs., which also starred Eddie Murphy.
The central plot lines in all of the Beverly Hills Cop movies revolve around Axel Foley visiting Beverly Hills in order to investigate a shooting of a person that Axel is close to. In this movie's case, the plot line involves Axel investigating the shooting of his friend Captain Bogomil. Unlike Mikey Tandino in the original and Inspector Todd in the 3rd movie, Bogomil survives being shot, and in fact is promoted to Chief of the Beverly Hills PD near the end of this film.