50 Cent teased his upcoming Netflix docuseries about his longtime rap rival Sean “Diddy” Combs while appearing on Good Morning America on Monday, December 1.
50 Cent, who served as executive producer, revealed that the four-part project will include never-before-seen footage of Diddy in New York City in the days leading up to the disgraced music mogul’s September 2024 arrest, including a heated phone call with his lawyer and a clip of him asking for hand sanitizer after meeting a group of fans.
“It shows you his character,” 50 Cent, 50, told Robin Roberts. “What [are] the odds that you would do that in front of the camera? That’s one of the moments where he forgot that he was on tape.”
The “Candy Shop” rapper (real name Curtis Jackson) also denied that his long-standing beef with Diddy, 56, was the driving force behind the creation of the doc, saying, “It’s not personal.”
Director Alexandria Stapleton agreed, pointing out that the series is more than just “salacious details” and includes interviews with two jurors from Diddy’s criminal trial, among others. She explained, “The real goal was to story-tell. Not everyone needed to have an allegation to be a part of this project.”
50 Cent first announced in December 2023 that he had been developing a documentary on Diddy after the Bad Boy Records founder was hit with multiple sexual abuse lawsuits.
Nine months later — and just days after Diddy’s arrest on charges related to sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution, to which he pleaded not guilty — Netflix confirmed it had picked up the series.
“I’ve been committed to real storytelling for years through G-Unit Film and Television,” 50 Cent said in a statement last week. “I’m grateful to everyone who came forward and trusted us with their stories and proud to have Alexandria Stapleton as the director on the project to bring this important story to the screen.”
50 Cent and Diddy’s feud dates back to the early 2000s, but the “In Da Club” rapper turned things up a notch after Cassie sued the “I’ll Be Missing You” performer in November 2023 for allegedly raping, trafficking and physically assaulting her throughout their decade-long relationship. (The exes settled for $20 million less than 24 hours later.)
50 Cent defended trolling — and sounding the alarm on — Diddy in a July 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“You’ve got a part of our culture that says, ‘That’s snitching’ or ‘dry snitching’ or s*** like that. It’s not uncomfortable for me to say what I said because I’ve been saying this s*** for four years, five years,” he noted. “I been telling you, ‘I don’t f*** with him. I don’t like the way he moving. This is a little crazy.’ Everybody else is not going to be as comfortable as I am saying it.”
Diddy’s criminal case went to trial in May and saw 34 witnesses testify, including Cassie, who, while nine months pregnant, told the jury about the decade of abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.
The trial ended with a split verdict in July: Diddy was found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
Diddy was sentenced in October to more than four years in prison. He was recently transferred from the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to the low-security Fort Dix facility in New Jersey.
“His goal is to get home to his family as soon as possible,” Diddy’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping last month, “and to make the best of his time there and be the best version of himself.”
Following GMA‘s teaser, Diddy slammed the docuseries in a statement shared with Luxury Handbag Shopping via his spokesperson.
“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 reads. “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 continues, “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.”
Stapleton, for her part, 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.”
Sean Combs: The Reckoning begins streaming Tuesday, December 2, on Netflix.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
