A spokesperson for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs slammed rapper 50 Cent’s upcoming Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning as a “shameful hit piece” ahead of its 2 December premiere. The statement from Combs’s representative also accused Netflix of having “stolen footage that was never authorised for release”, according to media reports.
However, Netflix and the makers of the series have denied all such allegations.
“It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” docuseries director Alexandria Stapleton told US-based entertainment news portal Variety.
“One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs’ legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back,” Stapleton added.
Combs’s representative released the statement on Monday shortly after Netflix released a new teaser for the docuseries.
“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. Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalize every minute of Mr. Combs’s 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,” reads the statement from Combs’s representative, as per Variety.
In the new teaser, Combs is seen on a phone call six days before his 2024 arrest, which eventually led him to be convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution. “We need to find someone who will work with us who has worked in the dirtiest of dirty businesses. We are losing,” Combs says in the footage.
Combs’s representative stated that the rapper-recorder producer “has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way,” but that Netflix distorted the context of his words.
The statement also added that Combs had “long respected” Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and that he had been expecting “fairness from people he respected.” Besides, the statement claimed that 50 Cent is “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs” and that it is “staggering that Netflix handed creative control” to him.
As per the official synopsis, the upcoming series, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, “is a staggering examination of the media mogul, music legend and convicted offender. Born with an insatiable drive for stardom and a knack for spotting talent, Combs made a quick ascent through the ranks of the music industry with Bad Boy Entertainment and was crucial in bringing hip-hop to the pop masses and launching the careers of dozens of generation-defining artists like The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Jodeci and Danity Kane.”
The synopsis added, “But along the way, and as detailed by his former associates, childhood friends, artists and employees, something darker began to colour his ambitions. Through explosive, never-before-seen materials, including exclusive interviews with those formerly in his orbit, this documentary tells the story of a powerful, enterprising man and the gilded empire he built -- and the underworld that lay just beneath its surface.”
