When Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson declared his intent to develop a documentary about the sexual abuse, rape and sex trafficking allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, many didn’t believe him. Those who did thought him opportunistic for pursuing what was assumed would be a hit piece about his former rap rival.
“I knew some [people] would have something negative to say about the doc because they would look at it and go, ‘Ugh, kicking the man while [he’s] down,’ ” says Jackson. “These are people that have had relationships [with Combs]. … That’s not what it is. It’s finally saying something about it.”
Despite the dismissals, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, executive produced by Jackson and directed by documentarian Alex Stapleton, premiered in December on Netflix to critical acclaim. The four-part docuseries was praised for its meticulous timeline, its unwillingness to engage with the most sensationalized allegations against Combs and its inclusion of candid footage of the hip-hop mogul in the days leading up to his September 2024 arrest. The duo delivered arguably the most comprehensive examination of what Stapleton calls the “tentacles” of industry-backed power that enabled decades of alleged exploitation and violence.
Six other nonfiction projects about the charges against Combs have been produced since 2024, but none have started at the true genesis of his career. Jackson and Stapleton carefully thread the entrepreneur’s business trajectory with the ascension of hip-hop in New York City, crucial context they believed to be missing from the public’s grasp of Combs’ influence.
“It’s hard to understand, just on a [historical] timeline, how did everything happen?” says Stapleton. “It was the perfect storm in a lot of ways. You don’t have Sean Combs without the beginning of hip-hop stirring, and all these things had to go right for him to do the things that he did.”
Though the collaborators were already developing another project together, they jumped on the phone after news broke of singer Cassie Ventura’s sexual assault lawsuit against Combs in November 2023 and began a series of “intense” conversations about producing a documentary.
Instead of taking a reactionary approach to the most salacious headlines, Stapleton says they opted to “pause” as they “watched other documentaries come” and ultimately go. “It’s not like we were telling a story that went down 30 years ago. It was unfolding every day,” she says. “It was also very important to us and to Netflix that we were not going to put this out until we felt like we were done — and we were definitely not going to put it out before the trial. That just felt like you were shooting yourself in the foot. You weren’t even allowing the process to happen.”
Stapleton relied on Jackson’s own immersion in the New York rap scene to identify sources who’d long had proximity to Combs — and would be willing to cooperate — to craft a comprehensive picture of him in the doc, including former Bad Boy Entertainment co-founder Kirk Burrowes, musical collaborators Aubrey O’Day and Kalenna Harper, Combs’ childhood friend Tim “Dawg” Patterson, and one of Combs’ earliest alleged victims, Joi Dickerson-Neal.
“No one had heard of her. [That’s why] her voice is so powerful,” says Stapleton. “There was a legal and archival process to even vet her story, to be able to show these records,” she adds of the corroborative oral fact-checking and substantiation that took place, noting that many of the interviewees in the docuseries currently have active lawsuits against Combs. “It was really important to us
to not just have people criticizing him.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs and with his Bad Boy label artist Biggie Smalls in footage from Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
Courtesy of Netflix
Stapleton kept the production team small to protect the integrity of the filmmaking process but calls the sourcing and editing for the doc a “Herculean job” — one underscored by three major gets: ostensibly connecting Combs to the murders of Biggie and Tupac Shakur; interviews with Jurors 160 and 75 from Combs’ trial; and obtaining never-before-seen footage of Combs the week of his arrest.
The recordings depict Combs as anxious, controlling and embattled, hyperaware of his legal and PR team’s slippery grasp on his situation. Combs’ team claims the footage was acquired illegally, sending Netflix a cease-and-desist ahead of The Reckoning’s release. Jackson and Stapleton provide no further insight on how the footage was obtained, but Jackson says incorporating the videos into the doc was a “no-brainer.”
“We were already very far down the line before we got it. So it wasn’t like the documentary or a whole team was built around this footage,” says Stapleton. “All the footage really did was back up and reinforce a lot of what the people in interviews were saying about his demeanor, the way he operates. … He was filming himself when a normal person would be under complete duress.”
The raw footage drew strong reactions from audiences and likely contributed to the doc’s voracious viewership. During the first week of its release, The Reckoning took the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s U.S. top 10, outperforming the final season of Stranger Things. Globally, the docuseries sat close behind the Duffer brothers’ series with more than 21 million views.
Stapleton, however, measures the docuseries’ success by how the alleged victims’ stories resonated with the public.
Doc producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and director Alex Stapleton.
Courtesy of G-Unit Film & Television; Getty Images
“It was really important to make something that a Black audience would respect and understand, that would translate, that felt like it was made from us,” she says. “It was important to make sure that it was accessible to as many people as possible. That’s how you give a voice to the voiceless. … I think a lot of people are like, ‘Why are you tearing down a Black man?’ You could look at it that way, or you could look at what Black journalism did. Look at what we were able to do as a team of Black filmmakers.”
Following his July 2025 conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, Combs is serving a 50-month sentence at New Jersey’s FCI Fort Dix and is expected to be released in April 2028. Neither Jackson nor Stapleton are convinced his story is over.
“I do believe that his time will be shortened,” says Jackson. “I believe he’ll be home early. We’ll see who’s at the next parties. [His conviction] doesn’t mean that they’re going to stop. There’s not enough time going by for change. … He got away with a lot of stuff, so you should expect him to think he can get away with more.
This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
