Rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s four-part documentary on embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was released Tuesday on Netflix.
“Sean Combs: The Reckoning” chronicles his rise to become one of the most powerful men in hip-hop to his downfall amid a wave of accusations involving sexual assault and abuse.
Jackson, who executive-produced the project, told NBC News in a recent interview that he had worked on the documentary for over a year with director Alexandria Stapleton.
Below are some of the key moments from the series.
The murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls
The documentary dives into the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. (real name Christopher Wallace), a catalyst of the East Coast and West Coast feud in the 1990s.
Shakur died on Sept. 13, 1996, six days after he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down in a drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997, after leaving a Soul Train Awards afterparty in Los Angeles with Combs.
Combs discovered the rapper and had signed him to his label Bad Boy Entertainment.
Stapleton told NBC News that the documentary includes “a lot of new information” about the murders and that “no one had ever really put it together like that before.”
“Biggie is a foundational piece of Bad Boy and that relationship. I mean, you don’t have Puff Daddy without Biggie Smalls, right? … We had sources and were able to procure more intel and information, and I think that it was the first time that you could really tell this story,” she said.
Singer Aubrey O’Day reveals Combs may have assaulted her
Aubrey O’Day, a member of the former girl group Danity Kane, revealed in the documentary that she may have been sexually assaulted by Combs.
She said a lawyer representing an alleged victim reached out to her about an affidavit the lawyer had received.
“I was told it was an assault,” O’Day said. She said she has no recollection of the alleged assault.
In the series, O’Day read from the affidavit, which said that the alleged victim was at Bay Boy studios when she walked into a room. The woman, according to the affidavit, said she saw Combs and another man assaulting O’Day.
The woman said that O’Day seemed to be “out of it” and was not fully clothed, according to the affidavit. It was unclear from the documentary if the affidavit was ever filed in court.
“Does this mean I was raped? Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped, and I don’t want to know,” O’Day said in the documentary.
Stapleton told NBC News that they spent hours on the phone with O’Day to make sure she was comfortable sharing her story.
“I think what you see in the film is her struggling to digest, ‘Did this happen to me or not?’ And I think it’s a very real moment,” Stapleton said. “I think matters of sexual assault, allegations like this, are very complex and very complicated. And I think that she’s a very real person who is walking you through why this feels so complicated.”
O’Day, who appeared on Combs’ “Making the Band 3,” also shared sexually explicit emails she said Combs sent to her while she was a member of Danity Kane.
“This is your boss at your work sending you that email,” she said. “What happens in real life to anyone else? Your boss gets fired. Six months later, I was fired.”
O’Day said she “absolutely felt that I was fired for not participating sexually.”
When asked for comment on O’Day’s remarks in the documentary, representatives for Combs said in a statement to NBC News, “We’re not going to comment on individual claims being repeated in the documentary. Many of the people featured have longstanding personal grievances, financial motives, or credibility issues that have been documented for years.”
“Sean Combs will continue to address legitimate matters through the legal process, not through a biased Netflix production,” the statement said.
Representatives for O’Day did not immediately respond to requests for comment on her appearance in the documentary.
Secret video shows Combs days before arrest
The documentary includes never-before-seen footage of Combs discussing his legal troubles days before his arrest at a New York City hotel in September 2024. Jackson declined to say how he got the video.
He was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation for purposes of prostitution. He was acquitted in July of racketeering and sex trafficking, but was convicted on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
In October, he was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
Combs’ publicist said that the video was never authorized for release and that it includes private moments and “conversations involving legal strategy” from an unfinished project.
“The footage was created for an entirely different purpose, under an arrangement that was never completed, and no rights were ever transferred to Netflix,” Juda Engelmayer said in a statement. “A payment dispute between outside parties does not create permission for Netflix to use unlicensed, private material. None of this footage came from Mr. Combs or his team, and its inclusion raises serious questions about how it was obtained and why Netflix chose to use it.”
Combs’ legal team sent Netflix a cease and desist letter Monday.
Netflix said it obtained the video legally and has the necessary rights for it.
Netflix spokesperson: “The project has no ties to any past conversations between Sean Combs and Netflix,” a Netflix spokesperson said Tuesday. “The footage of Combs leading up to his indictment and arrest were legally obtained. This is not a hit piece or an act of retribution. Curtis Jackson is an executive producer but does not have creative control. No one was paid to participate.”
Jurors from sex trafficking trial speak out
Two of the jurors spoke out in the documentary about the trial and verdict.
Juror 75 recalled being “confused” by Combs’ relationship with Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2023, accusing him of repeated physical abuse, rape and forcing her to have sex with male sex workers. The suit was settled privately one day after it was filed, with Combs denying any wrongdoing.
“If you don’t like something, you completely get out. You can’t have it both ways. Have the luxury and then complain about it. I don’t think so,” Juror 75 said.
He said he “100%” thinks justice was served in the end.
“We saw both sides of it, and we came to our conclusion,” he said.
Juror 160 recounted how Combs would often nod.
“That’s pretty much all it was. It wasn’t anything crazy, or like, it wasn’t like he was trying to sway us,” she said.
When asked about the verdict, she said: “When we were in the deliberation room, and we’ve come to an agreement, and we’re only saying that he’s guilty for these two counts, my words exactly were, ‘Oh, s—.’”
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