Biggest Revelations From 50 Cent’s Diddy Docuseries ‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’

The latest documentary to wade into the spectacular fall from grace of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs may seem to be arriving late to the pile on — the larger-than-life rapper-producer has already received the multi-part documentary treatment twice since his 2024 arrest on federal racketeering and sex-trafficking charges. But this expansive, comprehensive four-part Netflix series has piqued interest ever since it was announced by its top producer — Combs’ rap-world rival, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — and it may be arriving at the right moment to provide a clear-eyed look at the whys and hows of the music industry icon’s meteoric three-decade rise and inevitable downfall. The series also reveals new information that clarifies and expands upon previous elements of the rapper’s story not linked to his current imprisonment.

Sean Combs: The Reckoning landed on Netflix this week, about two months after the rap power player was sentenced to 50 months in prison following a confounding federal trial over the summer. Jackson made a sport of roundly mocking Combs on social media on a near-daily basis as the eight-week trial unfolded, amid allegations that he coerced two women into allegedly nonconsensual, days-long, drug-fueled sexual trysts, which prosecutors argued were run through his many companies and businesses. In 2024, the government alleged in a five-count indictment that Combs used his business empire as a means of controlling his romantic partners into participating in his sexual fantasia — a theory the jury ultimately rejected.

While recently released documentaries on Combs fixated primarily on this narrative and the other crimes he has been accused of perpetrating against collaborators, loyal staff and others pulled into his orbit, Jackson and director Alex Stapleton go much further back in Combs’ life. They deftly show how this man — a monster to some and a self-made success to others — was formed, and how the extreme and rare power he amassed led him into behavior that ultimately landed him in a notorious Brooklyn lock-up and, as of last month, a New Jersey prison. Meanwhile, the floodgates of alleged crimes and misconduct continue to open via civil lawsuits, all of which he denies and maintains have no merit.

In a somewhat surprising twist, this in-depth portrait coming from Combs’ most tenacious gadfly may be the one that offers his most comprehensive, nuanced and evenhanded treatment to date. Interviewed here are his accusers, longtime collaborators, a childhood best friend and — for the first time — two of the jurors who helped acquit him of the federal charges that could have sent him to prison for life.

“There was a lot of care and craft that went into making these four hours of story,” Stapleton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “By allowing people to share perspectives that have been silenced for a very long time, we left the film in a place where it’s up to the audience to decide what they want to believe.”

As the docuseries climbs Netflix’s most watched charts this week — “It’s going to No. 1,” Jackson insisted to Stapleton in the joint interview below with THR — viewers’ minds may already be made up about the truth of the former mogul’s life, for better or worse. After all, this winding Diddy-vision trip through 30 years of hip-hop history reveals plenty of new information about the enigmatic Sean Combs — also known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy and Love.

Combs has consistently denied all allegations against him, and this week his attorneys sent a cease and desist letter to Netflix, attempting to have the series removed from the platform. 

New, Controversial Footage Shows How Combs Ran His Legal Team

Jackson and Stapleton were mum to THR on how the Diddy footage in the docuseries was obtained, but the filmmakers acquired new video that Combs shot of himself while sequestered primarily in a Manhattan hotel room as his arrest loomed. At times nervous, angry, and always magnetic, Combs appears close to cracking. These intermittent moments sharply contrast with the cool, all-powerful mogul who emerged from Mount Vernon and commanded a vast swath of the music industry.

It is here that the control he exerted over his large legal team — before and after his arrest and throughout his federal trial — is on display. At one point, the master marketer bluntly levels with his attorneys about his PR battle.

“Listen to me,” Combs is seen saying by phone inside a hotel room. “I’m going to let you professionals look at the situation and come back to me with a solution. … Y’all are not working together the right way. We’re losing.”

The Combs-shot footage is now a legal battle in its own right, with his attorneys this week sending a takedown notice to Netflix and calling the series “a shameful hit piece,” an “unfair,” “illegal,” and “unnecessary and deeply personal affront.”

The Biggie Bombshell

Episode two delves into the story surrounding the Notorious B.I.G. and West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur, both murdered in 1997 after what the series argues was a manufactured rivalry that spiraled into gangland territory. The Crips aligned with Bad Boy Records, while the Bloods sided with Death Row Records and its notorious owner, Suge Knight. According to the docuseries, Combs was deeply involved in inflaming the gang animosity as it entered the cultural mainstream.

The series features drug boss Duane “Keffe D” Davis recounting how he and his nephew allgedly murdered Shakur, claiming Combs had agreed to pay him for allegedly killing both Shakur and Knight — but never followed through.

In the aftermath, Combs allegedly encouraged rising rap star Notorious B.I.G. to promote his album in Los Angeles, despite knowing how dangerous it was — even apparently ordering him to skip a planned London trip to remain on the West Coast.

After Biggie was gunned down in L.A. in 1997, Combs staged a massive New York funeral for the Brooklyn-bred rapper. Yet the series claims Combs charged the costs to the artist’s estate, even as he publicly appeared as the grieving best friend and soon catapulted into pop superstardom with his Police-sampling tribute “Missing You,” featuring Biggie’s widow, Faith Evans.

“I think Sean had envy for his own artists; he was jealous of their talent,” former partner Kirk Burrowes says in the series.

The Trial Jury Did Not Believe Capricorn Clark

During Combs’ federal trial, former staffer Capricorn Clark delivered sobbing testimony that grabbed headlines for its emotional and at times performative quality. She testified that Combs kidnapped her after learning that his then on-again, off-again girlfriend Cassie Ventura had begun seeing rapper Kid Cudi.

Two jurors explain in the documentary that Clark’s testimony was difficult for the panel to believe — including her claim that, in 2011, she was forced at gunpoint to drive to Cudi’s Hollywood Hills home.

One juror said they were “confused” by the situation, noting that despite the violence, Clark continued to travel, dine, and remain socially connected to Combs.

“It’s hard to reconcile,” she said. Jurors also recalled moments when Combs nodded at them during testimony, as if reacting to what was being said.

Jurors Did Not Buy the “Freak-Off” Narrative

In the fourth episode, the jurors acknowledge that Cassie Ventura’s testimony — spanning years of alleged coercion, drug-fueled “freak-offs” and purported blackmail videos — was deeply disturbing. The 2016 InterContinental Hotel surveillance footage showing Combs assaulting Ventura was “unforgivable,” Juror 160 said.

Despite this, jurors explained they struggled to convict on the sex-trafficking and racketeering charges because the legal elements did not, in their view, perfectly align with what they heard in court. “Domestic violence wasn’t one of the charges,” another juror said. Cassie’s ordeal was portrayed as horrifying in principle but difficult to prosecute under the specific statutes presented.

Juror 75, who said he had no prior knowledge of Combs’ career, described the relationship as “very, very complicated,” saying Ventura “wanted to be with him,” which complicated the jury’s ability to view the relationship as wholly non-consensual.

Aubrey O’Day on Her Alleged Rape

In the docuseries, former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day tearfully revisits a disturbing episode alleged to have occurred in 2005, recalled through an affidavit read aloud on camera. According to the affidavit, a witness claims to have seen O’Day unconscious and partially unclothed on a leather couch while allegedly being sexually assaulted by Combs and another man.

Speaking to the filmmakers, O’Day says she has no memory of the incident. She adds that she “doesn’t want to know” whether it actually happened and firmly denies being heavily intoxicated at the time, stating she “didn’t drink like that at all.”

O’Day also recalls being pushed out of hit girl group Danity Kane after refusing what she describes as Combs’ sexual advances, including explicit emails. She frames her 2008 ousting as punishment for declining to “participate sexually.”

Closing her segment, O’Day reflects on the consequences of speaking out against powerful figures, warning fellow artists and survivors to trust their instincts and protect themselves.