There have already been numerous documentaries about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal issues, but a new Netflix project has something the others don’t: footage of the disgraced mogul filmed days before his arrest.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which premiered Tuesday, December 2, includes footage of the rapper, 56, shot in New York City in September 2024 shortly before he was arrested on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. (He pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations against him.)
A title card explains that Diddy had hired a videographer to follow him, noting that the filmmakers “obtained this footage after Sean Combs was arrested.”
The footage shows Diddy reacting in real time to some of the events of September 2024, including the lawsuit filed against him by Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard. “So fictitious and crazy,” he says of Richard’s claims. “I’m like, ‘What the f***?’” (Richard’s lawsuit is still pending.)
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Following a trial that began in May, Diddy was found guilty on two counts of transportation but acquitted of the other charges. In October, he was sentenced to 50 months in prison and five years of supervised release.
Diddy slammed the docuseries in a statement shared with Us Weekly via his spokesperson on Monday, December 1.
“Netflix’s so-called ‘documentary’ is a shameful hit piece. Today’s GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release,” the statement read. “As Netflix and CEO Ted Sarandos know, Mr. Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work. Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’ life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy. If Netflix cared about truth or about Mr. Combs’s legal rights, it would not be ripping private footage out of context — including conversations with his lawyers that were never intended for public viewing. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.”
The statement continued, “It is equally staggering that Netflix handed creative control to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson — a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs. Beyond the legal issues, this is a personal breach of trust. Mr. Combs has long respected Ted Sarandos and admired the legacy of Clarence Avant. For Netflix to give his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for decades feels like an unnecessary and deeply personal affront. At minimum, he expected fairness from people he respected.”
Director Alexandria Stapleton previously said she had acquired the footage legally.
“It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” she claimed to Netflix’s Tudum last month. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades.”
Keep reading for the biggest revelations from the pre-arrest footage included in Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
Diddy’s Frustration With His Legal Team
Multiple scenes in the docuseries show Diddy on the phone with his legal team, expressing displeasure with their strategy. The first episode begins with Diddy speaking on the phone to his lawyer Marc Agnifilo on September 10, 2024. (Diddy was arrested on September 16.)
“I don’t think it’s working. I’ve listened. I’ve been a superb client, as you’ve said. I jumped on a plane, I’m coming to New York but I’m just like — I’m just running around waiting for a shoe to drop,” Diddy tells Agnifilo. “I’m taking a nuclear bomb straight to the head. And I’m tired of going back and forth with y’all, with the lawyers. … Y’all are not working together the right way. We’re losing!”
He also suggests that his attorneys search harder for allies, saying, “We have to find somebody that’ll work with us, whether they’re from this country or from another country. It could be somebody that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirtiest dirty business of media and propaganda.”
Later, in episode 4, Diddy talks on the phone as his sons Justin, 31, and Christian, 27, are in the room and still seems frustrated with his legal advisors.
“God told me to do nothing, but you understand you’re doing something. Other people need to do something, because this is ridiculous,” he says before sharing an idea of his own. “That’s what we gotta drop, I think you got the atomic bomb. I think you got the atomic bomb.”
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Slamming the Allegations
The docuseries shows Diddy reacting to Richard’s lawsuit in real time and calling his former Dirty Money collaborator Kalenna Harper to ask for a statement in his defense.
“Just silly bulls***, noise,” Diddy says at one point, though it’s not clear which allegations he’s discussing. “Now I gotta spend money to go and get rid of this bulls***. … They ain’t breaking me, though.”
In episode 3, after Richard, 42, files her lawsuit, Diddy again slams her claims as false. “I don’t know what level of brokenness, disease is going on,” he says. “God told me to do nothing, so I gotta do what God told me to do.”
His Reaction to Demolition of the Bad Boy Building
Two months before Diddy’s arrest, the midtown Manhattan building that formerly housed his record label, Bad Boy, was demolished. Episode 2 shows Diddy briefly discussing the building’s demolition, which he says he interpreted as proof that he needed to move on to the next thing.
“I saw they knocked the Bad Boy building down,” he says in footage filmed on September 10, six days before his arrest. “That s*** was crazy to me that that s*** wasn’t there, which is a sign to me like, ‘N****, time to go to the future.’”
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Making Financial Preparations
The third episode of Sean Combs: The Reckoning shows Diddy on the phone with then-girlfriend Dana Tran, with whom he shares daughter Love, 3. He is seemingly telling her about what he’s doing with his money in advance of his indictment, which was the reason he was in NYC.
“I’m about to deposit 200 million right now,” Diddy told Tran before sharing his surprisingly positive outlook on the situation. “I feel good. They’re holding the bank open for me, you feel me?”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is now streaming on Netflix.
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