50 Cent has explained why he decided to make the new Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs documentary.
The rapper serves as executive producer on the Netflix series examining the downfall of Combs, who is currently serving a four-year sentence after being convicted on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
The four-part documentary, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, directed by Alexandria Stapleton, was released on Tuesday.
In a new interview with GQ, 50, real name Curtis Jackson, explained what motivated him to make the documentary as Combs’ case was unfolding.
“To be honest, just the culture itself,” he said. “If someone’s not saying something, then you would assume that everybody in hip-hop is okay with what’s going on because (other rappers) will say, ‘I ain’t going to say nothing. I’m going to mind my business,’ because of a position that (Combs) held in culture for so long, you understand? So (that) would leave me.”
The In Da Club rapper added, “Without me saying that I will do it, there’s nobody there.”
Stapleton told GQ that she “immediately” began work on the project after Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit accusing him of rape, repeated physical abuse, sex trafficking and coercion in November 2023.
The lawsuit was settled the following day, with Ventura later testifying that she received a $20 million (£15 million) settlement.
“50 was (already) putting something together,” the documentarian shared. “I was trying to figure out if there was a way that I could secure an interview with her. But everything just happened so quickly. It was such a wild 24 hours, with her dropping her lawsuit and then settling.”
She added that soon after the case was settled, she began discussing the documentary with Jackson.
“I think for both of us, even though we’re two very different people, we both understand that… it’s not black or white,” she explained. “It’s all of the things that actually make for a great story, and I think that we both knew that we wanted to make something to preserve our culture, preserve hip-hop, while still telling the journey of this man, but while also allowing people that have been silenced for so long, to have a platform to share their truths, and I think that then we were off to the races.”
Jackson and Stapleton’s comments come after Combs dismissed the documentary as a “shameless hit piece” by “a longtime adversary with a personal vendetta” against him.
Combs, who has always maintained his innocence, was found guilty of transportation for prostitution but acquitted of the more serious charges, racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, in July.
