Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs have hit out at a new Netflix documentary produced by rapper 50 Cent, which they say is “a shameful hit piece” that “relied on stolen footage”.
The four-part documentary, titled Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was released on Tuesday and is billed as a “staggering examination” of the hip-hop mogul, who was convicted on prostitution-related charges earlier this year.
It includes what Netflix described as “explosive” footage of Combs filmed in the days before his arrest, including a phone conversation with his lawyers.
The director said she obtained the footage legally, but Combs’ spokesman said it was “fundamentally unfair, and illegal” to use his private footage.
‘Personal vendetta’
He also said it was “staggering” that Netflix had given creative control to 50 Cent, who he described as “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta”.
“Netflix is plainly desperate to sensationalise every minute of Mr Combs’s life, without regard for truth, in order to capitalise on a never-ending media frenzy,” the statement said.
“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 added: “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.”
The documentary opens with footage of Combs in a hotel room six days before arrest in September 2024, talking on the phone to attorney Marc Agnifilo and telling him he wants to “fight for my life”.
Pushing Agnifilo to have a more upfront media strategy to protest his innocence, Combs told him: “We have to find somebody that’ll work with us. It has to be somebody that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirtiest of dirty business of [the] media and propaganda.”
At another point, viewers see Combs talking to his son Justin on the phone five days before his arrest. “God told me to do nothing… [but] other people need to do something ’cause this is ridiculous,” he said in the clip.
Combs’ spokesman said the documentary contained footage that was “never authorised for release”.
“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 has not responded to a request for a response but pointed US media to comments