Recommendations of the Editorial team
Sean “Diddy” Combs takes action against Netflix and 50 Cent. The music mogul accuses them of using never-released footage from the days leading up to his arrest in September 2024 in their upcoming documentary. The material was “stolen” and “never authorized for publication.”
In a trailer released on the eve of the premiere of Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Tuesday, December 2, Combs is seen in a Manhattan hotel room. He consults with his lawyers via telephone conference. “We have to find someone to work with us,” says a visibly nervous Combs, bouncing his knee. “Someone who knows the dirtiest deals. We’re losing!”
The recordings were taken on September 10, 2024 – just six days before plainclothes officers arrested Combs in the lobby of this same hotel. The charges: human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, conspiracy to commit organized crime and transport for the purpose of prostitution. Combs was acquitted of the more serious charges in July after an eight-week trial. He is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Netflix deal failed due to creative control
At the time, Combs was considering producing his own documentary, according to the New York Times. He even had discussions with Netflix about the project, but the parties couldn’t agree on how much creative control Combs would have.
Combs’ team is outraged that this very material now appears in the documentary. His spokesman Juda Engelmayer describes the project as a “shameful piece of work”. Netflix shows “little respect for Mr. Combs’ legal rights and artistic integrity,” Engelmayer tells Rolling Stone. These were “private moments, including conversations with his lawyers, that were clearly not intended for the public.”
“Mr. Combs has been collecting footage for decades, since he was 19 years old, to tell his own story in his own way,” adds Engelmayer. “It is fundamentally unfair, not to mention illegal, for Netflix to appropriate this work. Netflix is clearly desperate to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’ life, with no regard for the truth, just to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy.”
50 Cent as executive producer causes additional trouble
Engelmayer also criticizes the involvement of 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, as executive producer of the four-part documentary. The two men have long been rivals. Jackson has openly mocked Combs’ decline on social media. Engelmayer accuses Jackson of having “a personal vendetta against Mr. Combs” and of having “built his career on slandering and defaming him.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning features interviews with several men and women close to Combs during the bad boy founder’s rise to fame. They include former artists Aubrey O’Day, Mark Curry and Kalenna Harper, early sexual assault accuser Joi Dickerson-Neal, former employee Capricorn Clark and two jurors who acquitted Combs of human trafficking charges.
“It’s not just about Sean Combs’ story or Cassie’s story or any victim’s story or the allegations against him or the trial,” explains director Alexandria Stapleton in a press release. “Ultimately, this story is a mirror that reflects us as a public and what we say when we put our celebrities on such a high pedestal. I hope this documentary is a wake-up call for how we idolize people and a reminder that everyone is human.”