Diddy Rips Netflix & 50 Cent Over ‘Reckoning’ Docuseries: “Shameful Hit Piece”

Sean “Diddy” Combs insists that Netflix should have never got into business with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and the streamer should  definitely not used “stolen” footage of the currently incarcerated All About the Benjamins’ performer for the docuseries launching December 2.

Calling out Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and, in a low blow, the exec’s now deceased father-in-law and influential Black Godfather Clarence Avant by name, Diddy today said that “Netflix’s so-called ‘documentary’ is a shameful hit piece.”

Read Sean Combs‘ full response to Netflix December 2 debuting 50 Cent produced Sean Combs: The Reckoning below.

Blasting the streamer for giving “creative control to Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson – a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta who has spent too much time slandering Mr. Combs,” the response by the Bad Boy Records founder follows a Good Morning America segment Monday AM on the much hyped four-part Sean Combs: The Reckoning. “Today’s GMA teaser confirms that Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release,” Combs’ statement says of the Alexandria Stapleton directed series sneak peek.

“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 did not respond to Deadline’s request fMonday or comment on Combs’ attack on the streamer and The Reckoning.

 After a grueling and “freak off” details filled two month long trial this summer on charges of sex trafficking and RICO violation, Combs was sentenced on October 2 to four years in prison on the two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution he was actually found guilty of. Still facing dozens and dozens of civil suits alleging sexual assault and more, the 55-year-old Diddy escaped a possible life sentence with the July 2 verdict in no small part to overreach and other fumbles by the Maurene Comey-led prosecution by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern Division of New York.

At one point in the Reckoning teaser trailer dropped today Combs can be seen and heard on the phone telling one ohis lawyers “We’re losing.” He adds: “We have to find someone that’ll work with us that has dealt in the dirtiest of dirty business.”

While never threatening legal action (at least not yet) the remarks today from the much accused Combs via his newish PR chief Juda Engelmayer (of Harvey Weinstein fame) certainly hints at more to come. In no small part due to a very public campaign by Power franchise EP 50 Cent, more to come is more than can be said of the apparently DOA POTUS pardon that Combs had been angling for from old pal Donald Trump.

With time served since his September 2024 arrest, Combs is scheduled to be released in mid-2028, though his sentence was recently extended another month by Bureau of Prisons officials. Now up against a sexual battery probe by the LA County Sheriff’s department and prosecutors out on the West Coast, Diddy on a fast track appeal process for his East Coast conviction.

After over a year in Brooklyn’s harsh Metropolitan Detention Center, the frequently bail denied Combs’ request for transfer to cushier surroundings was granted. On October 30 he was moved o the relatively low-security Fort Dix FCI in New Jersey.

Sean Combs: The Reckoning is produced by House of Nonfiction, G-Unit Film & Television, and Texas Crew Productions, with director Stapleton as an EP alongside Jackson, Stacy Scripter, David Karabinas, Ariel Brozell, and Brad Bernstein.

Read Combs’ full statement on Sean Combs: The Reckoning here:

“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. 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’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. No rights in that material were ever transferred to Netflix or any third party.

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.