Entertainment

4 revelations from Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning documentary

FILE PHOTO: Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala - Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between - Arrivals - New York City, U.S. - 01/05/17 - Sean "Diddy" Combs. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Netflix dropped the highly anticipated Sean Combs: The Reckoning on Tuesday (December 2) — a four-part documentary unpacking the ‘allegations behind Sean “Diddy” Combs and his Bad Boy empire, spanning decades of his life and career.’ In 2024, the disgraced music mogul was arrested and accused of running a sex-trafficking operation. In October 2025, Combs was found guilty on two counts of transportation for prostitution and sentenced to four years and two months in prison. He was acquitted of three other counts — one of which was a racketeering charge that carried a life sentence. Throughout the federal trial, Combs pleaded not guilty and denied all the charges against him. (Picture: Reuters)
Sean Combs: The Reckoning Diddy. Puff Daddy. Love. The public knows the hip-hop icon by many names ? but who is the real Sean Combs? In a new four-part documentary by Emmy and Grammy Award?winning executive producer Curtis ?50 Cent? Jackson and Emmy Award-winning director Alexandria Stapleton, Sean Combs: The Reckoning is a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend, and convicted offender. Born with an insatiable drive for stardom and a knack for spotting talent, Combs made a quick ascent through the ranks of the music industry with Bad Boy Entertainment and was crucial in bringing hip-hop to the pop masses and launching the careers of dozens of generation-defining artists like The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, and Danity Kane. But along the way, and as detailed by his former associates, childhood friends, artists, and employees, something darker began to color his ambitions. Through explosive, never-before-seen materials, including exclusive interviews with those formerly in his orbit, this documentary tells the story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built ? and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface.
However, alongside these events, the documentary also explores other controversies in Combs’ life. From his relationship with Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., to the City College stampede tragedy, here are four of the biggest revelations from the documentary. (Picture: Netflix)

The murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls

The miniseries looks into the murders of East and West Coast rappers, The Notorious B.I.G./Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, alongside the infamous 1990s feud between the two locations. On September 13, 1996, Tupac died after being shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas six days before. His murder remained a mystery for decades. Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis was charged with the killing in 2023 and awaits trial. The documentary features a 2008 interview with Davis — who was a widely identified member and former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang — and the police. In the footage, Davis claimed that Combs allegedly agreed to pay the Crips gang $1 million to kill Shakur and Death Row Records producer Suge Knight. Combs has always denied this allegation. (Picture: Getty Images)

The murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls

Following Tupac’s murder, LA became a dangerous place for East Coast artists — notably Biggie and Combs. During The Reckoning, Kirk Burrowes, co-founder of Bad Boy Records, claimed that Combs convinced Biggie to go to Los Angeles to promote his new record. ‘Biggie didn’t want to go, but Sean talked him into doing all those things,’ Burrowes said. He added that Combs even cancelled a scheduled London trip so Biggie could spend more time in LA. He said: ‘All of it because Sean wanted to do a party on enemy turf.’ On March 9, 1997, Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting after leaving a Soul Train Awards afterparty in Los Angeles. No one has ever been charged with his murder. (Picture: Getty Images)

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Video records Combs’ days before his arrest

(FILES) Sean Combs 'P. Diddy' arrives for the 2018 Met Gala on May 7, 2018, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sean Combs once had it all: riches, fame and the power to get anything he wanted. But he's sat behind bars for more than a year. And on October 3, a judge told him he'll stay there for several more. For the first time Combs spoke to the court directly, telling the judge who would sentence him to more than four years in prison for prostitution-related crimes that he's been "humbled and broken to my core." (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
The Reckoning opens with never-before-seen footage of Combs in a Manhattan Hotel speaking on the phone with his lawyer. Six days before his arrest, he was going over his legal troubles. Combs said in a clip: ‘It’s really gonna be hard for me to take more hits than I’ve taken, God forbid get in front of a jury and have a chance. And so, I’m having this emergency call because something has to give.’ Later in the documentary, he was also heard on the phone with Dana Tran, the mother of his two-year-old daughter, Love. He told her he was ‘about to deposit $200 million.’ ‘I feel good,’ he added. ‘They’re holding the bank open for me, you feel me?’ (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Combs’ mother, Janice, was accused of ‘physically harming’ her son

Tim ‘Dawg’ Patterson, a childhood friend of Combs,’ and whose family lodged on the first floor of the Combs’ family home, was also a prevalent figure in the documentary. He spoke about growing up with Combs and claimed that he witnessed the Bad Boy boss take ‘beatings’ from his mother, Janice. Patterson told the documentary makers: ‘His beatings made me scared. I got beatings, now. But when he got his beatings it wasn’t no… It wasn’t a joking thing. No.’ Following the admission, an on-screen statement said that Combs’ mother had been contacted about the allegations. She did not respond. (Picture: Getty Images)

Combs allegedly attempted to avoid paying City College Stampede victims

In December 1991, Combs and the late Jamaican-American rapper Heavy D organised a celebrity basketball game at the City College of New York in New York City. Despite the gymnasium’s 2,730 capacity, almost 5,000 people tried to gain access to the game. This led to a fatal stampede, which killed nine people and injured 29 others. No one was ever held criminally responsible for the event. (Picture: Getty Images)

Combs allegedly attempted to avoid paying City College Stampede victims

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
However, when Combs launched Bad Boy Entertainment two years later, he gave Burrowes a 25% share and put his 75% share in his mother’s name, reportedly to avoid paying the victims. Burrowes said in episode one: ‘Sean gave me 25% in stock, and his mother, Janice, had 75%. He did not put the company in his name to protect him from paying families at CCNY. And I saw from that moment on, Sean had shifted in his personality.’ The New York Times later reported that in 1998, Combs paid around $750,000 of a total $3.8 million to settle claims made by relatives of the victims. (Picture: AP)
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