This masthead is not suggesting that any of the allegations made against Combs in the documentary are true, only that they have been made.<\/p>\n
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Combs\u2019 legal team, which is preparing to fight another 77 charges, has mounted a legal challenge to the documentary series, directed by Emmy winner Alexandria Stapleton and executive produced by rapper 50 Cent, on the grounds that it makes extensive usage of footage shot in the run-in to his trial in New York, without permission.<\/p>\n
The Combs team insist the footage was \u201cstolen\u201d, and have labelled the series \u201ca shameful hit piece\u201d. Netflix insists the footage was legally obtained.<\/p>\n
That dispute means there\u2019s at least a theoretical risk that the documentary might disappear at any moment.<\/p>\n
So, for the sake of posterity and just in case, here are some of the biggest takeaways from a show packed to the gills with shocking details from some of the people who know him best \u2013 his childhood best friend, his former manager, the co-founder of his business and a number of artists who worked with him and lived to tell the tale.<\/p>\n
Nature or nurture?<\/p>\n
Sean Combs tried to present himself as a respectable businessman, but there was always a darker side.<\/p>\n
His father was a drug dealer, who was shot dead when Sean was two years old. \u201cI never got a chance to know him,\u201d Combs said in a 2006 interview, a clip of which appears in the series. \u201cHe got his brains blown out in Central Park West.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he did get to learn about him. \u201cIt was like a sigh of relief \u2026 because I finally knew that what I was feeling was true. That I was the son of a hustler, of a gangster.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a child, Combs was dressed as a Harlem pimp, in furs and fancy hats, by his mother, Janice. She took him along in her Cadillac while she did drops in the city. She played Blaxploitation movies at home and threw wild parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a stage in the living room, and we used to have to go and dance,\u201d says childhood friend Tim \u201cDawg\u201d Patterson, a key interview subject. \u201cAnd everybody\u2019s calling you \u2018baby\u2019, and everybody\u2019s saying, \u2018Do that dance\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allegations of sexual violence from a young age<\/p>\n
The allegations of sexual violence date back to at least 1991, which is when Joi Dickerson-Neal claims she was drugged and assaulted by Combs.<\/p>\n
She alleges he videotaped the attack, which took place while she was unconscious. He was 22 at the time. Her case is still pending.<\/p>\n
Former business partner Kirk Burrowes, who met Combs when the singer was 19 and co-founded Bad Boy Entertainment with him five years later, claims Combs was aping the behaviour of a Harlem drug dealer called Alpo Martinez, who would screen videos of his sexual conquests at a nightclub, while also paying tribute to his own father.<\/p>\n
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Joi Dickerson-Neal in Sean Combs: The Reckoning.Credit: Netflix<\/p>\n
\u201cAll his life he\u2019s been trying to honour a man he believed was a famous Harlem gangster, and that gave him a certain mythic presence,\u201d Burrowes observes.<\/p>\n
Did Combs\u2019 rising star cause his peers to look the other way?<\/p>\n
People allegedly turned a blind eye to the bad boy behaviour of the young Combs because they could sense he was on the rise.<\/p>\n
Burrowes recounts seeing Combs allegedly assault one of his earliest girlfriends, Misa Hylton. \u201cThey\u2019re fighting in the street, he\u2019s beating her into the car well,\u201d Burrowes says. Two years later, when Hylton gave birth to Combs\u2019 first child, Burrowes became godfather.<\/p>\n
He says he told himself the violence he witnessed was just \u201ca really bad moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Kirk Burrows was one of Combs\u2019 earliest friends. Credit: Netflix<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes that make me part of a Sean Combs cult?\u201d he asks in the documentary. \u201cMaybe so. I may have been the first disciple, believer, and then overall protector.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dickerson-Neal says that when she told people about Combs sexually assaulting her, the responses ranged from \u201c\u2018What do you want me to do about it?\u2019 to, \u2018If I help you I can\u2019t get into his parties\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tupac was the great love-hate affair of his life<\/p>\n
Combs had a love-hate relationship with Tupac Shakur. He admired and wanted to emulate the rapper\u2019s hard-core West Coast style, but he was jealous of Shakur\u2019s relationship with the New York rapper The Notorious B.I.G., the first signing to Bad Boy.<\/p>\n
According to Shakur\u2019s cousin, William Lesane, \u201cPuff was very threatened by \u2019Pac\u201d.<\/p>\n
In November 1994, Shakur was ambushed as he entered a New York studio where he was due to record with Little Shawn. He was shot five times, and in the documentary, several people, including Shakur, identify it as an attempted murder rather than the robbery it was framed as.<\/p>\n
Asked in the aftermath if he thought Combs was involved in the shooting, Shakur answered: \u201cI believe so. I do believe so. I have proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September 1996, another attempt was made on Shakur\u2019s life, and this time it succeeded. Though no one has ever been found guilty of the murder, Greg Kading, a former LAPD detective who was assigned to the cold case investigation in 2006, believes Combs ordered the hit.<\/p>\n
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Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis in court in 2025 on charges over his alleged involvement in Tupac Shakur\u2019s death in 1996. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
In 2008, Kading interviewed drug dealer Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis, a senior member of LA gang The Crips, inside prison. Davis claimed he spoke to Combs numerous times in the year leading up to Shakur\u2019s death, and Combs had allegedly made it clear he wanted to get rid of Shakur and Suge Knight, boss of the rival Death Row Records.<\/p>\n
At a deli in Los Angeles one night, Davis allegedly told Combs, \u201cWe\u2019ll do it for a million\u201d, and Combs agreed.<\/p>\n
As Shakur and Knight pulled up at a traffic light in Las Vegas in September 1996, they were peppered with bullets. Shakur died in hospital.<\/p>\n
But Davis was never paid for the murder, says Kading. Davis\u2019 associate, Zip Martin, reportedly received $500,000, but never forwarded any of it to the shooters. \u201cThe million-dollar solicitation amount, only half of it was fulfilled,\u201d says Kading, \u201cbecause only Tupac and not Suge was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Davis is set to stand trial in 2026 for the murder of Shakur, but has since claimed his evidence was given under duress.<\/p>\n
Combs \u2013 a ruthless boss?<\/p>\n
It is claimed in the documentary that Combs bled his artists dry. He owned the studio in which his artists recorded, and charged them close to $100,000 a day. He inserted himself in their recordings, and in their film clips, and deducted his fees from their royalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Puff records a song with his artist, he pays hisself [sic],\u201d former artist Mark Curry says. \u201cIf he\u2019s in your video, he pays hisself [sic]. As an artist you can go number one \u2026 but you\u2019re not making money off your royalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Combs allegedly \u2018ushered Biggie to his death\u2019<\/p>\n
In March 1997, six months after Shakur\u2019s death, Combs took B.I.G. to LA for promotional events for his new album. Though the rapper feared for his life, Combs cancelled plans to fly to England, insisting they stay in LA longer. In LA, B.I.G. was assassinated in his car, when he ought to have been in the UK.<\/p>\n
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Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G. (left), with Combs.Credit: Netflix<\/p>\n
Combs always insisted it was B.I.G. who had wanted to go to LA. But, says Burrowes, \u201cHe\u2019s lying about that. Sean wanted that trip. He ushered Biggie to his death.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Kading, Combs was no help with the investigation into B.I.G.\u2019s death. \u201cIn fact he was a hindrance in the investigation. Puffy was kind of stonewalling people from talking because he knows if you make inroads on Biggie\u2019s murder, you\u2019re going to make inroads on Tupac\u2019s murder, and that potentially can lead right back to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Combs was allegedly determined to ensure B.I.G.\u2019s death was marked in style. But, says Burrowes, the bill would be settled out of the artist\u2019s royalties. <\/p>\n
Burrowes claims he was ordered by Combs to alter the terms of B.I.G.\u2019s contract posthumously in favour of Bad Boy Entertainment. He refused, and \u201c90 days later, I\u2019m fired\u201d.<\/p>\n
Burrowes sued Combs in 2003, but the case was dismissed because it was filed too late.<\/p>\n
Threats as a management tool<\/p>\n
Combs\u2019 former employee, Capricorn Clark, says that on the day she was hired as his assistant in 1994, she was allegedly taken to Central Park late at night, where Combs revealed he had discovered she knew Suge Knight. She says that if something happened that he deemed a breach of trust, he allegedly told her, it would be bad news for her. \u201cYou will be in a dark park, and there will be no one around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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