[dramatic music]
- Whoa, nobody's sh**ting me.
Nobody's sh**ting me.
Nobody's sh**ting me.
There's three shooters to make
sure somebody is sh**ting me.
You got me acting crazy
in front of all these people.
Disney paying a lot
for this m*therf*cking art
I'm going to give them--
f*ck that.
- During those times,
I had to wonder
what was going on in his head.
Like, why is he really angry?
[hip-hop music]
- It was shocking to me.
What's really
going on out here?
[indistinct chatter
over police radio]
- We need to be asking
the question...
not what's wrong with you...
but what happened to you?
[dramatic music]
- Sean and I--
we grew up together as kids.
I know Sean.
And he's made
so many mistakes.
- f*ck that. I'm going to give
them their money's worth.
- I used to work
with Sean Combs.
And I don't want to be here
to talk about another man
unless their business
crosses my business.
[voice breaking]
If you only knew
the sh*t
I f*cking been through.
There was a bounty
that was put on to silence me.
- I'm back, baby.
- It's a lot worse than
what the public knows.
- [crying]
It's been 20 years.
I haven't said anything
for so long.
- Mr. Combs!
[cheering]
- I've gone from Harlem
to Hollywood.
[indistinct chatter]
Diddy finally has the key
to the city!
[cheering]
I'm gonna show y'all
how we have fun
and stay out of jail, too...
- Whoa.
- And make money.
[dog barks]
- Like, just show me
what's around here.
We'll walk with you.
- So, yeah, so...
about 1,100 square feet.
- Uh-huh.
- Small, but it's
kind of spacious.
It works for me.
But I've been here
since around 2019.
We're somewhere
in the woods, way remote,
I guess what they call
these days "off-grid."
- So this is pretty similar
to what it was like
growing up for you?
- Right now?
- Yeah.
- No, no, this is
a little different.
But I grew up weird.
I grew up in the ghetto,
and then I moved over into
the suburbs, where Sean lived.
My reason
for having you guys here
is because I truly believe
that what's going on right now
is bigger than you.
It's bigger than me.
It's bigger than media.
It's bigger than this world.
I just know
that where I am now,
amongst all the noise...
- We begin with breaking news.
- Mr. Combs has been accused
of sexual as*ault.
- Amongst all the headlines...
- Rap star Sean "Puffy" Combs
is out on bail this morning.
- There is
a federal investigation
into sex trafficking.
- Amongst all the chaos...
- Abuse, harassment,
forced drugging.
- Physically assaulting...
- Multiple homes raided
by federal law enforcement.
- He is public enemy
number one right now.
And a lot of things that are
being attached to Sean now...
I can't condone
any of the things
that I've heard or seen.
He's "monsterized" now.
But monsters are made.
You know,
that's my little bro.
You know, I know Sean,
not Diddy, not Daddy Love.
I don't know those people.
I don't know them.
I swear I don't know them.
I've never met those people.
I have to tell people
about what they don't know
about his childhood.
The making of Sean Combs...
Sean is the son
of two Harlem "it" people.
Janice is Sean's mom.
Speaking of Janice,
this is Janice here.
And Melvin is Sean's dad.
And Sean--he grew up
in Mount Vernon.
That's where they built
a house.
Now, here's the context
of it all.
Mount Vernon is
a 4-square-mile city,
maybe 25, 30 minutes
from Manhattan--
New York proper.
And at the north side is
where you would love to live
because it's
the residential side.
It's grass. It's birds.
It's everything
the south side isn't.
The south side,
that's your ghetto.
That's where
I was born and raised
until about five years old.
This is a town you come to
to get away from the hip town,
to kind of integrate yourself
into some type of normalcy.
Melvin--I've never met him,
never knew him.
He passed before I met Sean.
Why he wasn't there was just
a mystery to both of us.
So Sean had to learn
about his dad
through other fellas
that came up during that time.
- Sean Combs' father
was allegedly...
a gangster, a hustler,
and a player
in the streets of New York.
- Melvin was a part
of a group of guys
that was led by Nicky Barnes...
big Harlem kingpin,
if you want to call it.
- His father sold
to an undercover cop.
[siren wailing]
This was a New York City
police officer.
And he gave
the cop information.
His father was k*lled because
he was ratting them out.
- I don't know how he died.
I don't know.
I just know Janet
woke up one day,
and he was not there,
and Sean was.
Janice was left a lot of money.
There was a brand-new house,
and Janet had to pivot.
And her desire was
to occupy that house
with someone that had a son
close to the age of her son.
- My mom knew Janet,
and somehow, someway,
they hooked up,
and we were offered the bottom
floor on her brand-new house
that her and Melvin had built.
And we had a chance now
to move on the north side.
So, when we pulled up
to this house,
I saw a whole new world,
and all I did was look
at these two people,
because what I saw,
I saw Black people like myself,
but they had
a different color Black.
It was golden. It was shiny.
It was healthy.
They had really nice clothes
and jewelry.
So we get up to the house.
We get out the car.
Janice says, well, wait
a minute, let me go get Sean.
And she goes upstairs.
She comes back down
with this little kid.
And I look at him
like, oh, my God,
this guy is different.
He's the one in the hat.
And you can see
he has jewelry on.
He has rings on.
He has bracelets on.
This is a 4-year-old
in a 30-year-old's wardrobe.
- My first interaction
with Sean Combs--
He wasn't Puffy yet--
We were playing baseball
down at Brush Park
in Mount Vernon, New York.
He was on Little League,
had braces.
And he's a shy guy.
You know, he wasn't real loud
and boisterous.
I don't know
if he was goodgood,
to where I would say
he was good in baseball.
He was on the team.
Even with the football,
it was like,
he played football
at Mount Saint Michael.
I'm not going to
say he was good.
I heard he was on the team.
[laughs]
- So I first met Puff
when he came to a cousin
of mine's house party.
He was part
of a dancing fashion crew
called 7-Up Crew.
And those guys would go
throughout New York City,
battle people
in dancing, fashion.
He also was one
of the first kids that I knew
that had, like, a Gucci watch.
- He always had all the best
of everything.
Like, Sean didn't go
to school with us.
Sean went to the Catholic
school, private school.
- Private school.
They always say that--
oh, yeah, he's doing good.
Got him in private school.
- This kid is rich.
He was looked at
as the rich kid.
Sean was the different kid.
Sean was the kid that people
could smell was not tough.
Sean was always bullied.
You know, getting hit
up your head,
on the side of your head
one too many times
or getting called a b*tch
one too many times.
There's one kid in particular.
Name was Jonathan.
He was about 6 feet tall
at 12 years old--
real big, husky dude.
And for some reason,
Jonathan would pick on him.
And he would pick on him
and hit him and make him cry
and take his bike
and just do mean stuff...
to the point where
I couldn't watch that happen.
I had to intervene,
because my interaction
with Sean was a protector.
It was a bigger bro.
When something's done to them,
you step up.
But after I graduated
high school
and I went into military,
Sean didn't have me
around anymore.
- There's been
quite a bit of research done
on a body of work
that we really refer to a lot.
It's called
Adverse Childhood Experiences,
or ACEs.
It can be everything
from witnessing
domestic violence,
physical abuse.
It could be having
a parent who's absent.
Here's a man who lost
his father early in life
under some very violent,
tragic circumstances.
If you've lost a parent,
there's a desire
to belong to something
bigger than yourself,
to not be isolated,
to belong to a group,
to fit in.
- This is one of the pictures
before Puff joined
the Same g*ng.
I started the Same g*ng
in '89.
We were men that came together,
and we went to parties.
You know, we clubbed.
You had some guys
that was hustling.
Puff--man, he want
to be with us.
He want to be with us.
A lot of guys didn't want him
a part of the Same g*ng
because he didn't live
in Harlem.
The dudes
didn't really like him.
All right,
so one day we decided--
they said,
Puff, come over here.
We're going to have
the young'uns tighten him up.
[indistinct shouting]
And we gonna smash him
in the head...
Rough him up,
or stuff like that.
[indistinct shouting]
When Puff came,
we was all out there.
And the young guys grabbed him.
And they start trying
to rough him up.
And he jetted, running.
They brought him back
to rough him up,
smash stuff, hit him
in the head with cakes
and all this other stuff
like that.
After that,
Puff was in the Same g*ng.
This is the picture...
when he crossed over
into the Same g*ng.
He got
the Same g*ng T-shirt on.
[chain saw whirring]
- When I got home
from the military--
and Sean and I hadn't seen
each other in a while,
and, you know, I'm like,
what's up, Sean?
He's like, yeah,
they call me Puff now.
They call me Puff.
I was being
looked at as a punk.
I was being looked at
as a pushover.
I was being looked at
as a sissy,
as a wimp, as a goofy.
I ain't even trying to know
that person again.
And I'm a Puff Daddy now.
- So that insecurity,
the need to fit in...
- I had a great time.
- Yeah?
- I'm glad
they invited me back.
- The need to feel powerful.
[paparazzi shouting]
Some perpetrators
are profoundly damaged
individuals...
[loud cheering]
And feel very powerless.
And a way of being powerful
is controlling
and victimizing other people.
- What's up with your
relationship with Jennifer?
- I am a civil litigator
who has filed several cases
against Sean Combs
for sexual as*ault
in civil court.
I have been sounding the alarm
about Mr. Combs for years.
He is a man who has done
awful things
to hundreds,
maybe thousands of people.
- I'm wilder, I'm crazier.
- I want to speak
about this now
because I witnessed everything.
- [crying] I haven't said
anything for so long,
and it's built up--
it's been 20 years.
- Um...
[crying]
I don't trust anyone...
Because I'm afraid that they
might come get me for speaking.
[soft music]
- Go.
The very first girlfriend
Sean had that I met...
was named Tracy.
She was from Brooklyn.
We were older now,
teenagers and stuff.
So Tracy used to come
to the house.
I'm sure he had college girls,
but I wasn't around.
[dramatic music]
- I know some girls
that he's dated, you know,
that have called him
a perfect gentleman.
But when Sean started getting
more and more popular
and he had one
of the hot girls on campus,
there was a lot of jealousy
that went on.
Maybe his personality
might not have been
the most sensitive.
I'm not sure what Puff
might have been focused on,
but I just know
that he had a love for music.
- Back when I was
going to Howard in '87,
I was trying to get
into the music industry.
Everybody was looking at me
like I was crazy.
- I met Puffy on Howard's
campus for the first time.
I was actually the first person
on Howard's campus
to have a drum machine
at that time.
And I've been
in the music industry
ever since I was probably
15 years old.
So he wanted to get with me
because he knew
that I had connections.
He would tell you that,
I'm going to be the biggest
record producer in the world.
Like, he already knew what
he wanted at Howard University.
- He hung out with a lot
of friends from Mount Vernon.
One of our biggest celebs
from Mount Vernon,
his name is Heavy D.
Heavy D came up to campus.
- Heavy D was part
of Heavy D & the Boyz.
They were actually the first
act signed to Uptown Records.
Diddy spoke to his friend
Heavy D, and he said,
can you get me an internship?
Please get me an internship
at Uptown Records.
- Hey, can you make
this happen?
[loud cheering]
- Uptown Records
was modeled as
a boutique version of Motown,
but we just had
the hip-hop flavor to it.
I had a little bit
of success myself,
being the first number-one
artist on Uptown
and the first platinum
artist on Uptown.
I don't think
that people ever knew
that Al B. Sure! funded Uptown.
I was working with Jodeci,
Mary J. Blige,
Heavy D & the Boyz.
We took a company
like Uptown from zero
and made it into
a billion-dollar corporation
or somewhere close.
[cell phone rings]
- Hello?
- Sean wanted to work
at Uptown.
He actually did some more,
like, suffering
just to, you know, get
that internship.
- So Sean would show up
in the weirdest places--
at Heavy D's doorstep.
He'd show up at Uptown,
he'd show up at parties--
anything to get the attention
of the bigwigs.
- He was really trying to get
Andre Harrell's, the president
of Uptown Records, attention.
From what I heard--
is that he even,
like, slept outside of his car
because he really wanted
to be in this.
- And then Sean
forced his way in
with what he can do for Andre
and became an intern.
- Yeah, I don't remember much.
It's not like we hung out
on a daily basis
and things of that nature.
But what you do know
about Sean,
one of Sean's
best attributes was,
Sean let everybody know
in the camp,
nobody's going to be
bigger than me.
- At first, he was just really
just getting coffee,
getting paper,
making Xerox copies.
There wasn't that much money
in it yet.
So he started
promoting parties.
Now he's starting to make
some money with his parties.
But at the same time,
there was an event.
This is where he was going on
through some hard times.
- That tragic event--
I think the guy
wanted to k*ll himself...
[chuckles]
Be honest with you.
- He was a party promoter.
But at the time, myself and
many other people
did not know who Sean Combs,
"Puff Daddy" was,
until the City College event.
- Puff and Heavy D
decided to throw
a celebrity charity
basketball game.
And the proceeds was supposed
to go to an A*DS foundation.
When you got Mike Tyson,
LL Cool J,
Heavy D himself,
a big celebrity,
the urban community
wanted to see that.
Highly, highly publicized.
It was promoted on WBLS.
- 98.7 Kiss--
they were blasting it.
If you didn't know
about that event,
something was wrong with you,
because it was
all over the place.
- My sister, Sonya Williams--
she met Sean through his
girlfriend at the time.
And he gave her the ticket.
- My brother was excited
about it.
He called everyone up.
Yo, meet me at City College.
Had nothing...
tragic happened,
it would have been
the best event ever.
[serious music]
- December 28, 1991--
wow, that was a day.
[scoffs]
December 28, 1991.
I remember, you know,
my phone was ringing,
and people want tickets.
Do you have tickets?
Can you get me tickets?
- How y'all doing this morning?
- At 22, Sean was a genius
at marketing.
- They promoted it like it was
in a 10,000-seat arena.
- No, I said, WBLS promoted it
as if it was a 10,000 seating.
City College holds 2,700.
[cheering]
- Not only
was it filled inside,
there was probably
just as many people outside
that couldn't get inside.
- There was this girl.
And she was packed
in the glass door.
And everybody was telling her,
yo, just go home.
You can go out the back.
- The crowd started
to get unruly.
- The ticket crew
closed the door.
- I heard, they locked me in.
She locked the door.
- Now they're crushed
against the door,
like, packed, back to back.
- When the crowd
rushed through...
- All the glass and everything
just shattered.
[imitates glass shattering]
And people just
started running in.
- And you got people piling up
on one another and another
and another.
And people are screaming,
just let me in, let me in.
- And there were people who--
My friends said they heard Dirk
smothered, like, mm...
Like, they could hear him being
completely covered
by the crowd.
[screaming]
- I ran around the gym,
opened one door.
People start falling down
right there.
Open up another door--people
start falling down there.
[indistinct shouting]
- I didn't see Diddy at all.
- What I do see is him...
Puffy, running around,
trying to save people.
I saw him trying to give
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
to people.
- I never saw Sean Combs
give anyone CPR.
If anybody tells you that,
they telling a flat-out lie.
- Ain't nobody wanted to give
them mouth-to-mouth,
no people mouth-to-mouth
or none of that.
- I can't even perform CPR
because everybody's trying
to crowd around and look.
- 9 young people
crushed to death,
27 others injured trying to get
into a celebrity
basketball game.
- My brother was pronounced
dead at 7:50.
And he got there,
I think, at 7:00.
- My sister's name
is Sonya Williams.
That's Sonya,
the larger picture.
And this is the stairwell
that she died in.
- Jabaal, Dawn,
Leonard, Sonya, Dirk,
Charise, Darren,
Laytesha, and Yul
from New York City.
[dramatic music]
City College 9.
- And I just pray
for the families.
And I pray for the children
that lost their lives.
- The news is, he oversold
an event, him and Heavy D.
And you know why?
Because their names were on it.
- I was a promoter
of the event.
- This thing,
somehow or another,
made him
the most famous guy around.
- How you doing?
- Come on.
- Puffy became more known.
It almost made him,
in a real weird way.
Yeah.
- I just wish that everyone
would just admit
their mistakes,
live up
to their responsibilities.
- He wasn't criminally charged,
but there were lawsuits
that he had to deal with.
- Those families are asking
a judge to decide fault
and award a penalty.
- When my mother
was in litigation
with the other families,
then the details
start coming out.
You promoted this event.
You didn't hire
enough security.
You oversold the tickets.
Someone took the money,
ran down the stairs,
and shut the door.
We was in litigation
with this for six years.
So now his music
is doing well.
[paparazzi shouting]
Sean John is getting
ready to come out.
- This is Sean John, Sean John.
I'm wearing Sean John.
- So he's doing very well.
He calls me
to the BMG building.
You know, it's just me
and him in the office,
and he seemed very nervous.
He seemed so nervous
that his lips turned white.
And he says, Sonny, I'm going
to offer you $50,000.
So I remember looking
around the office,
and I'm seeing all these
plaques now on the wall--
platinum plaques, gold plaques.
I said, brother,
you got all this going on,
and you offering me $50,000?
- He says, Sonny, man,
listen, man, you know,
that's real generous.
That's a generous donation.
And I lost it.
I said, is Sonya
your f*cking friend?
You offer me $50,000...
and you gave Sonya the ticket
to go to that event?
That was a slap in my face.
I don't want to talk money.
I want you to help me do
something in their memory.
I said, but is Sonya
your friend?
He wouldn't answer me.
So I go out.
I go out the room.
So now I'm conflicted.
Maybe you should take it,
and maybe he'll work with you
and help you
with the foundation.
So I go back in the office.
I said, listen, man,
I don't want you bringing up
money and Sonya
in the same sentence.
I said, $50,000?
He said, Sonny, please,
man, trust me, man.
It's a good donation.
I reluctantly did it.
- All families settled
and were giving
a settlement amount.
We got $40,000
from Sean Combs directly.
[paparazzi shouting]
But he never owned up
to it, never--
never just said, I apologize.
There's a clip of him saying
that it wasn't overbooked.
- You know, we sold tickets,
but we didn't outsell.
The place--it wasn't sold out.
- That's a blatant lie.
[paparazzi shouting,
people screaming]
His image is important
for him.
The lies go back
to City College.
- Everything I do every day,
I try to be a shining example
of hard work
and what you get
if you work hard.
- Had someone
found him accountable,
it may have just slowed down
the process
of all the other things that
happened to other people.
- Here with Al B. Sure!
Mr. Al B., I'm getting a lot
of letters about you, man,
a lot of ladies
out there watching.
And they want to see,
what's behind those glasses?
[laughter]
- Before Sean was an intern,
I met a woman, Kimberly.
One day, I was backstage,
Madison Square Garden.
And the first time I laid eyes
on Kimberly Antwinette...
Porter...
we met.
[softly]
That was it.
[normal voice]
Yo, I swear.
[laughs] I still feel like
a little kid when I remember.
That's crazy.
We had a son, Quincy.
- Al had influence in getting
Kim a job at Uptown,
and Kim became
the receptionist.
- At one point, I was
working on K-Ci & JoJo
on one of the soundtracks.
Sean came by the studio.
I believe
he may have been with...
his significant other
at the time, who was Misa.
And I was in the studio with...
Kimberly.
And we had the baby with us
at that point, I think,
and we were--
I was at the mixing board.
He walked into the studio,
and he looked over,
and he saw
this really beautiful girl.
And she was holding
this really beautiful baby.
And he said, hey, man...
I wish I had a beautiful girl
like that.
I was like, uh, you do.
It's Misa.
- It was love at first sight
with Sean seeing Kim.
It was a "stop you
in your tracks" moment,
a "oh, my God" moment,
"I got to have her" moment.
And...
he gets what he wants.
The whole staff
watched it happen.
Sean had no shame
in his aggression
towards Kim and his approach
to her--no shame.
Just like, this is the girl.
You're going to be my girl.
You might not know it yet,
but...
- Listen, there's an OG rule.
If you my brother
and you and your wife--
if something happens...
she's off-limits.
- Sean! Sean, this way!
[person shouts]
- They dated off and on
for years...
always on in his mind
and never off.
Puff was sick with her.
No matter who he dealt with
or who he had over...
he always ran back to Kim.
- I have a photo of Sean
and Kim Porter
in Paris Fashion Week,
Kim and I on the yacht
in Saint-Tropez.
He would fly glam out
to even, like, vacations,
because we had to make sure
Kim Porter looked perfect.
And he had to look perfect.
Kim was from Georgia.
She wasn't this glam girl
that the world perceived.
We made her glam.
She was his arm candy.
- It seems that Diddy
ended up adopting Quincy
and raising Quincy as his own.
- I'm here as his father to...
you know, to raise him
and give him advice.
- I have to keep in mind
that...
what people were fed
in this propaganda against me
over the years,
about, oh, Puffy did this
and adopted your kid
and adopted this--
there's no adoption, none.
There's no letter to my father
and all that.
All crafted by a publicist.
And if you haven't noticed,
his name is still Brown.
People thought I was absent
and things of that nature.
It was basically instructed
by Kimberly.
I was told that Puffy
wasn't too happy about anyone
who had a relationship
with Kimberly.
I was very much under--listen,
you promise on our son's life,
you know, just stay
out of the way.
Don't do this.
Don't get involved.
Being told, please,
don't do that tough-guy
Mount Vernon sh*t.
You will get k*lled.
- Kimberly said,
don't do this.
Don't get involved.
You will get k*lled.
Even to the point
where I remember...
Oof, I can't.
[dramatic music]
[grunts softly]
Yeah, man,
I can't go into that.
There's legal proceedings
going on right now,
so this will be...
But, yeah, I will share that
at some point,
but, yeah, this--
it's part of evidence.
And...
I'm going to have to refrain
from this part of this--
this segment.
Let's just say,
you got to listen to Kimberly
Because not only
was she trying to save me...
she was putting
her own life in danger.
[indistinct chatter]
- Sean!
- Sean, right here, please.
Sean, right here.
- One time
I was called on the phone
to rush over
to St. Luke's Hospital.
She looked like she was
bruised and stuff like that.
But she wasn't saying
much of nothing.
- I have a victim
who I now represent.
She alleges that she also saw
acts of violence
with regard to Kim Porter.
She was horrified.
It was appalling.
She was threatened
into not reporting it.
[paparazzi shouting]
- Every time I went somewhere
with them,
it'd be, like,
a presidential suite.
But see, if I'm outside
because I got to watch the door
at a certain time,
Kim might come out the room.
And, like, she'll be in her
robe or something like that.
And you could tell that she--
he may have been roughing--
I'd be like, yo, you all right?
He play too much.
- There were whispers maybe
of things that were happening
behind the scenes.
[paparazzi shouting]
- Thanks a lot.
- There was
a little blip of coverage
but nothing beyond that.
- Make some noise.
- By that time, Sean--
probably one
of the hardest-working
up-and-coming executives.
- And I work, like,
20 hours a day.
And I feel
as a young Black man,
anything I put my mind to,
I can do.
- He worked his way from intern
to the director of A&R
in the space of about a year
or a year and a half.
- That was the person
at the label
who was responsible
for signing new artists
to the record label.
- I never knew I would be here,
but, you know, I'm grateful,
and, you know,
I'm definitely honored.
- You had the keys
to the kingdom.
Like, you were able to say
what was hot.
You were able to say,
that's going to be
the next big artist.
And you had that power
really to put somebody on.
And after that,
he launches his own
record label, Bad Boy.
- This is it,
Bad Boy Entertainment.
- Bad Boy Entertainment,
no doubt.
- Totally, totally familiar,
totally.
This is a brand-new start
at a brand-new label,
brand-new money.
So, at Uptown, Sean left,
and the founder of Uptown
gave me Sean's workload,
along with the workload
I already had.
At night, I'm inheriting
his workload.
And he's inheriting
a new label.
It's crazy.
- Diddy looked at hip-hop
in a very different way.
People felt
that it had to be gritty
and very tied to the streets.
But in Diddy's mind...
[cheering, paparazzi shouting]
Why can't hip-hop be you
driving around in a Bentley?
Why can't hip-hop be
having Rolexes,
having mansions, and living
that kind of high life?
[paparazzi shouting]
- It's this shiny-suit era,
this glossy era.
It's all about spending
and making money.
He had just come out
with the Notorious B.I.G.,
Craig Mack.
He had a heavy-hitter roster
in hip-hop.
- That's the beginning
of Sean's ending,
because he was given way more
than your average rapper,
an average inner-city
Black industry person.
- I'm from Harlem, young man
from Harlem, New York.
This is crazy right here.
I'm reaching big.
I'm going for the big-time.
I'm trying to have my name
in lights one day, baby.
- Here's Sean and I.
That's when he was
a brand-new millionaire.
Around that time, he showed me
a check for $60 million,
and I couldn't believe it.
- Puffy was able to negotiate
a $55 million advance,
reportedly, from Clive Davis.
- It was a check,
and it was crumbled up.
And he has that Kool-Aid look
on his mouth.
He licked his lips and said,
yeah, I'm about to turn
this sh*t on--watch.
He was rubbing elbows
with Tommy Hilfiger.
He was on the top 10
of the record charts.
He's known worldwide.
He's probably one
of the most photographed
Black men in history.
And he's not even
25 years old yet.
And this wasn't, like,
his first and last
million-dollar check.
This was the first of many.
But now Sean is the 1%
of the 1% of the 1%
of the 1% in the Black world.
I ain't never met
nobody this rich,
and this is Sean.
What does that do to a person?
I can only imagine.
[line trilling]
[line beeps]
- It's been taking me
f*cking ever
to get back to my exact tone
of not giving a f*ck.
- You got me acting crazy.
- I can show y'all
how we have fun
and stay out of jail, too,
and make money.
- It just don't stop
Sunup to sundown,
my people get it
Distressed jeans,
Timb boots
And a Yankee fitted,
the way the chain hang...
- The one, the only,
Mr. Can't Stop, Won't Stop,
Mr. Combs!
- I was going to do
whatever it took
to be successful
in the industry.
- To Puff,
image was his livelihood.
[indistinct chatter]
- Excuse me,
excuse me, excuse me.
- He felt like that, in order
for him to have this image,
you have to be
larger than life.
And he thought that if people
fear him, they respect him.
- Nobody's sh**ting me.
Nobody's sh**ting me.
Nobody's sh**ting me.
There's three shooters to make
sure somebody is sh**ting me.
You got me acting crazy
in front of all these people.
JJ, you got me acting crazy.
- Disney paying a lot
for this m*therf*cking art
I'm going to give them--
f*ck that.
- Right now.
Nah...
- I worked with Diddy
on MTV's 'Making the Band 2."
When he got angry
with one of my band members,
he said, you make me so mad,
I want to eat your flesh.
And then he said to another one
of my band members--
he said, you rolling
your eyes and everyt--
you know, I could go get
a crackhead and pay them $20
to smack the sh*t out of you.
Who says that?
That's crazy.
[dramatic music]
- We're in the studio.
You know, he had said
some stuff about the band.
And Puff said, they going
to keep f*cking around with me,
and I'm going to drug
they a*s out
and pimp them out to my n*gg*s.
And I said, n*gga, them
is somebody's daughters.
What the f*ck is
you talking about?
I seen him cuss at his mother
at one time.
She gets in the car,
and she was trying
to tell him something.
He said, didn't I tell you
to stay out
my m*therf*cking business?
And I said, m*therf*cker,
you don't talk
to your mother like that.
You apologize to her.
You ain't going to bring
nothing but bad luck--
But, Gene, Gene,
I told her to stay--
You wouldn't have
no m*therf*cking business
if it wasn't for her.
And that's what
our conversation was.
Now, apologize to her.
- Fast forward to actually
making the band,
and he said--
- I want me a piece
of cheesecake.
- When you're watching it,
you're like, yeah,
go get a slice of cheesecake.
Like, you want this.
You got to want it that bad.
- Puffy just told us to go
to the store in Brooklyn
and bring him back
a cheesecake and walk.
- Say what?
- People looked at that like,
yo, this dude is crazy.
- We walked for eight hours
over the Brooklyn Bridge.
We went from Manhattan
to Brooklyn, walking.
And so I'm doing that stuff
because I'm like,
I ain't going to go home.
This is what
I've been working for.
- I was a part of a group
before, you know,
but this is a whole different
level of awesomeness
right here.
But you know what?
It feels good.
I always--like Puff says, it
feels good to work with a team.
I'm better with a team.
And these people make me
better, and I just feel like--
- Dawn Richard was selected
to be in the band Danity Kane.
[indistinct shouting]
Later, she was in a second band
that Sean Combs produced,
called Diddy - Dirty Money.
- It feels good and to be here
and have y'all see
how great we really are
and what we could be.
- What people don't know
is behind the scenes,
she was denied food.
She was denied water.
She was denied sleep.
Dawn Richard is alleging that
Sean Combs threatened her...
That he committed acts
of violence.
- Get the f*ck up, B, for real.
- He would throw things
across the room--
furniture,
studio equipment, laptops.
He had a lot
of angry outbursts.
- Damn.
- Cool.
- He sexually assaulted her
by groping and grabbing
parts of her body.
And she witnessed
other women being groped
and grabbed in front of her.
If this is what the man
does in public,
we can only imagine
what he does in private.
- Honestly, I didn't want to
be around him
unless there was cameras,
because
after that one incident,
which was very inappropriate...
- Well, the incident--
basically, I was by myself.
And I was...
[scoffs]
This is hard to talk about,
like, about this.
[dramatic music]
- Well, the incident--
basically, I was by myself.
And I was...
Well, he touched me in a place
that he shouldn't have.
That was inappropriate.
And I felt...
I felt intimidated.
I felt like, oh, my God, what
the heck happened just now?
[sniffles]
[crying]
I'm trying not to cry.
I'm definitely nervous...
Because like I said, I haven't
said anything for so long.
And it's built up.
It's been 20 years of going
through my mind, like...
this has happened, that's
happened, this was stopped--
mentally, like...
draining.
- For a victim
of sexual as*ault
by a high-profile predator,
everything changes
when they come forward.
They're no longer known
for their own work,
their own accomplishments,
their own hopes and dreams.
They're just known in the media
as the woman
who accuses this guy.
And particularly, I think,
in the music industry,
there's a lot of retribution.
Who thinks
that they can fight somebody
with that kind
of wealth, power?
I think each person
has to make the calculation
in her own mind--
is it worth coming forward?
And everybody said, heck, no,
it's not worth it.
I'm not doing this.
[hip-hop music]
- I met Puffy
on Howard's campus.
I only got back in touch
with him years after,
when he was starting this
production team
called The Hitmen.
It was told to the staff that
Puff was throwing a party
at the Hamptons.
- So I moved
to a new neighborhood,
and they were like, well,
what's this guy doing,
moving here in East Hampton?
And I said, everybody,
come on over.
Come on over to the house
so y'all can get to know me.
Let me invite some
of my friends from Harlem,
from 145th Street.
- I had absolutely no idea
what the Hamptons was about.
[dramatic music]
We finally get out there.
And I get to see Puffy's house
for the first time.
He has a white mansion,
all-white glass from the back.
And I'm like, wow, this is
for rich folks, you know,
rich white folks
who got money.
So that was different.
- Yeah, I'm just trying
to enjoy life.
This is a celebration of life.
This is the legendary
white party.
This is the real white party.
Let's just start to get
our groove on in little bit.
In an hour, we put
the kids away--it's all good.
All right, DJ, let's hit it.
Let's do it.
[hip-hop music]
- Anybody
from the music industry,
film industry,
movie execs or music execs,
who lived out there,
they were invited as well.
I remember meeting
Donald Trump in the party.
[chuckles]
It was crazy.
- I didn't see anything
inappropriate
when I was
at these after-after parties.
- Uh, I--
Oof. I'm not going to say
I saw a lot of it.
It could have been
in another part
of the sections or the rooms.
What I saw was some weed,
you know what I mean?
- Why wouldn't it be?
People smoking weed,
people popping pills.
That's a party.
- I went to a lot
of Puffy parties in the '90s.
These were the parties
everybody wanted to go to.
- These were the parties
that you needed
exclusive access to get into.
But these weren't the parties
that people talk about now.
The after-after party
was something
that I had heard before,
that maybe there were orgies
happening.
[people cheering]
- After party is something--
That's common
in the music industry.
People have after parties...
but here's the thing.
Everybody tend to say,
all of a sudden,
because it's a white party,
it's a freak-off.
Like, come on, now.
I'll be honest with you.
I had no idea
what a freak-off was
until I read the allegations.
- People, when they think
of sex trafficking,
they think of a woman being
dragged across state lines
for sexual purposes
against her will.
But in fact, the TVPA,
the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act,
talks about people being
enticed...
recruited...
or tricked...
into sexual behavior
or attempted sexual behavior
for commercial purposes.
It includes people
in a workplace
being coerced
into sexual behavior
in order to keep getting
their paycheck.
[dramatic music]
[lively chatter]
[crowd singing indistinctly]
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd singing indistinctly]
- I mean, if it's true,
then, you know...
I'd be highly disappointed.
- So I've always been asked
the question, why?
And...
I don't know the answer to why.
But I truly believe it all
goes back to childhood.
So here's the deal.
Because Sean had no dad,
all he had was his mom.
Sean's house, our house,
there was always things
going on.
On the weekend,
you partied in the house,
and we did that a lot.
He was around all type
of alcohol.
He was around reefer smoke.
He was around drug addicts,
around lesbians,
around h*m*.
He was around p*mps
and pushers.
That was just
who was in our house.
People that
attended the parties
were from Harlem
and from the streets.
- I wasn't
at the Janice Combs parties,
but some things I heard.
She had, like,
a little crew of chicks
that would come around,
and, you know,
she made sure...
everybody was comfortable.
[laughs]
- At night, it wouldn't be
a thing
to mistakenly walk
into one of the bedrooms,
and you got a couple in there
butt-naked.
That's what we were privy to.
This is what we were fed.
Was it desensitizing us?
I'm sure it was.
Were we aware of it?
No.
That was just Saturday night.
- If you grow up in a very
sexualized environment,
that's going to shape
their sexual template,
in terms of what
are appropriate boundaries,
what's acceptable.
[camera shutter clicking,
indistinct chatter]
And when you have
a lot of unresolved trauma,
the trauma doesn't go away
just because you have
all that access
to wealth and power
and no guardrails.
The trauma is there,
and it's still unresolved.
And you just have
more resources
to do more damage with.
- I would just like
to have some privacy
because I've become
incredibly reclusive.
[voice breaking] I've just been
in isolation for six years
because I'm afraid that they
might come get me for speaking.
- I am a civil litigator
who has filed several cases
against Sean Combs
for sexual as*ault
in civil court.
I have been sounding the alarm
about Mr. Combs
for years.
- When they think
about my album,
I want them to think
about dancing or making love.
- My most recent client
has alleged
that she was brutally
g*ng-r*ped
by Diddy and his friends.
What's in front of me right now
is the complaint
that I filed in California
federal court
in the Northern District.
We had
several defendants listed.
Of course, we have Diddy,
because he's the mastermind.
He's the orchestrator.
None of this happens
without him.
Then we had
his right-hand woman.
That's Kristina Khorram.
- And then there was
another individual.
His name was Shane Pearce.
We've come to find him to be
like a scouter, if you will.
He scouts potential victims
to bring to Diddy.
This starts out
in February 2018.
Ashley is at a bar,
and they begin to hang out.
And Shane gets Diddy
on the phone.
This is a FaceTime call.
So he's showing everybody
Diddy on a FaceTime.
And as you can imagine,
everybody's pretty excited.
- Yeah.
He contacted me,
and we hung out a few times.
- On March 23rd, my client
was invited by Shane Pearce
to his home.
So she went to the home.
- He went into the kitchen
and got me a glass of water
because I was thirsty.
I had drank a couple sips
of the water,
and I was feeling
kind of weird.
I was feeling...
wobbly, a little confused.
I was kind of just questioning
why my brain
wasn't as sharp as normal.
- Approximately
ten minutes after,
Diddy entered the home
in a grand
'ready to party' manner.
Along with Diddy
was his bodyguard,
a woman identified
as Kristina Khorram,
and another person
who we believe was friends
with Shane.
Shane partially undressed
Ashley,
and then Diddy removed
the remainder of her clothing.
Diddy retrieved
a bottle of liquid
from a large fanny pack.
Ashley soon realized
that the substance
was oil/lubricant.
- Sean Combs had a knife
and had it inside my mouth.
He said he was going
to cut my cheeks
and give me a Glasgow smile.
Kristina Khorram
told him that...
His clientele--they would
prefer it if I looked...
Normal.
At one point, Sean Combs--
he picked up a TV remote
and...
r*ped me vaginally
with that object, violently.
- Then it says,
Diddy is sitting not too far
from the bed,
and she said he has his phone
and his d*ck in his hand
and is recording
and jacking off
at the same time.
This is his kink.
This is the thing
that gets him off.
It's like trophies.
[paparazzi shouting]
- They said they could ship
me off and sell me
to anyone in the world
and that I would never
be seen again
by my parents
or my loved ones.
And they were taking me
that night.
I just uncontrollably
was sobbing.
I was in a catatonic state
once they started raping me,
and I was just trying...
to get through it so
I could get out of there.
That's when they went
outside to smoke.
When I finally was able to get
the strength
to even sit up,
my clothes were missing.
My purse, my keys, my phone--
all gone.
At that point,
I ran to the neighbor's house.
Later, the neighbor told me
he did call the cops.
And that's when a sheriff
showed up at the door.
This sheriff didn't offer me
an ambulance.
He didn't offer me a ride
to the police station.
He just basically told me
to find my own way home.
There's just something very off
about his demeanor.
- And the Contra Costa
Sheriff's Department
released a statement and said,
yeah, she did file
a police report that night.
We can confirm
that a report
was made March 23, 2018,
but that "we take
these matters seriously"
and investigated
and that it was unfounded.
- When I got home, I just...
crawled into bed.
I just was catatonic
for, like, about three days
before I could get up
and feed myself.
[voice breaking] I've become
incredibly reclusive.
I don't trust anyone...
other than, like, my parents.
So I've just been in isolation.
I've barely gone
out of the house.
I've just been living in fear
because it's just
a bunch of powerful people.
- They did this with intent.
I truly believe they intended
on taking her
and her never being seen again.
This is what you do
when your ultimate goal
is to sex-traffic them.
They were trying
to break her in,
which is a term
I'm familiar with
from knowing pimp culture.
When you want to bring in
a new hooker or a prost*tute,
you got to break her in.
Typically, you break her in
by having her have sex
in a g*ng bang,
with multiple men at once.
You've taken everything
from her.
They broke her.
- Unchecked wealth and power
is very dangerous
in our culture.
It allows people to get away
with horrific behavior.
- [shouting indistinctly]
- All throughout his career,
he was known to commit
acts of violence himself...
- What's your plea today?
- To threaten people
with violence.
- Can you stop now?
- Huh?
- He was known
to be very vindictive.
- Fan favorite up in here,
of course.
It's the one and only
Biggie Smalls.
I understand that your album is
going to be dropping in July,
because I was checking
out the Bad Boy team,
and Puff Daddy was letting
everybody know--
- There have been rumors
that Diddy
might have had something to do
with Biggie's death.
- This is a picture of me
the night BIG was m*rder*d.
The week in which BIG
was m*rder*d,
he was just acting
real anxious
and trying to get BIG
at this party.
And it was crazy,
whereas BIG was telling people
he had to be in London.
But Puff was telling people,
he ain't going to London,
that whole week.
I'm sitting up
at the Beverly Hills Hotel,
and I get a phone call.
It's about 9:00.
And they say, Gene, get ready,
we going to the "Vibe" party.
I was like,
we're going to this party?
We don't even have no security.
I say, yo, Puff,
I got some intel, bruh.
He said, what?
I say, yo, man, if we go
to this party tonight,
one of us
is going to get k*lled.
Somebody going to die,
because now we have
East Coast-West Coast beefs.
He said, yo, Gene, I don't
want to hear that sh*t.
I said, you don't want
to hear that sh*t?
So we all jump in the car.
- When Tupac was k*lled,
there was a lot of rumors
that Biggie and Puffy
were behind it.
- I was in a car with Puff.
BIG was in his own car.
And next thing you know,
you heard, pow, pow, pow, pow.
They sh**ting at BIG, bruh!
[siren wailing]
[indistinct chatter
over police radio]
We run up there because
they say they taking BIG
to the hospital.
I told them, whatever y'all do,
do not let him go to sleep.
Talk to him. Keep him up.
Don't let him go to sleep.
Keep him talking.
And Kenny said, BIG, I'm going
to get you to the hospital.
And BIG said, just do it.
That's the last thing
I heard BIG say.
And they said the hospital
was two blocks away,
and that's
the longest two blocks
I ever seen in my life.
[somber music]
So Puff ran out
the hospital door,
and he grabbed my arm.
He said, Gene, we got to pray!
We got to pray! We got to pray!
And I knocked his hands
off of me.
I said, pray for what?
That n*gga's dead, bruh.
He just was stunned.
Like, he had this look
in his eye,
like he couldn't believe it,
that he was dead.
He couldn't believe it.
[dramatic music]
- Feelings can't change facts,
but facts can change feelings.
I think that he placed BIG
in the atmosphere.
So did he directly have
something to do with it?
[dramatic music]
He could have.
[cheers and applause]
For many a-years,
I couldn't fight back
the tears...
knowing that young man
was m*rder*d.
- I stopped working with him
early part of 2005,
because me and his mama got
into it.
- Janice,
right over here, please.
- Hey, Janice.
- Janice, right here.
- Puff mother
tried to degrade me.
She would ask me to do things
for her, like go to her car,
get this, get that.
And I wouldn't do that.
What the hell you
asking me to stop
from watching your son's safety
to go do something for you?
So one day, I was sitting
by Puff's office.
And she said, Gene, I need
for you to go to my car
and get this food out.
I said, I'm not here for that.
And then she start rambling,
start, like,
yo, everybody does
what I ask them to do...
except you.
What makes you so special?
And then Puff just came
out his office.
Why are you always messing
with Gene?
Leave Gene alone.
She just was looking.
And then she said, yo, yo,
I'm tired of this, man.
And I said,
yo, I'm tired of it, too.
And I walked out
and never came back.
- I wanted to show
you something.
This is a restroom-plus.
Can you tell me
what the plus is?
- No.
- The plus.
Ah.
That's the plus.
In the back of my house,
that's where I keep
my trophies.
That's where I keep
my platinum and gold plaques.
I'd probably say
minimum 10, maximum 15.
This was my first-ever
platinum plaque--
Notorious B.I.G.
I co-executive produced
on that album.
I got that when I was
23 years old, I think.
Yeah.
- After seeing
a few friends die,
you wake up one day,
and one got shot in the head.
Then you go, and then you
have another raw talent,
this fat kid
from Brooklyn, you know,
and he gets shot dead...
not even 25 years old.
And in my case,
after having
extortion attempts on me,
having g*ns pulled out,
having to deal
with so much death...
[dog whimpers]
Yeah, it wasn't cool no more.
You talk about fight or flight.
I took flight.
- So there was this thing
we used to do as kids,
and they were called
midnight snacks, right?
And the midnight snacks
was usually Pop-Tarts,
flavored strawberry,
no frosting, extra butter,
coming right out the toaster,
flaming-hot,
with a tall glass of milk
with ice.
So I would send him Pop-Tarts
periodically over the years,
as a birthday gift,
to his office,
wherever it was.
But he would never respond.
When I decided to leave
the industry--
and this was about '99--
that's when
we communicated less,
we saw each other less, because
I took the fork in the road.
And now this is
who he turned out to be.
- My last encounter
with Kimberly--
we were at Quincy's premiere
for his Christmas special,
"Holiday Calendar."
Sean came.
She said to me,
this is probably the best day
in a very long time,
seeing all of us
in the same place.
She was looking amazing.
She was healthy.
She was fantastic.
It was two or three weeks
prior to, um...
Her...
m*rder.
Am I supposed to say
"allegedly"?
November 15th,
a day I'll never forget...
I was on my way to film
the opening packages
for the BET Awards.
Phone rings,
and it's a dear friend of mine.
And...
she says,
did you hear about Kimberly?
And I said,
what about Kimberly?
I just saw her.
She says, I don't know,
but I've heard
that Kimberly has died.
[somber music]
- [voice breaking]
So you're having my baby...
and it means so much to me.
There's nothing more precious
than to raise a family.
If there's any doubt
in your mind,
you can count on me.
And that's just a day
that will never,
never leave my mind...
And just that empty feeling
of, like...
nah...
something is not
right with this.
- Kim Porter
had been found dead at home,
and an autopsy showed
that it was from complications
from pneumonia.
She was young.
She was 47 years old.
- Who is dying from pneumonia?
Seriously, pneumonia,
and to die so quickly?
Like, people get pneumonia
every day and don't die.
That doesn't seem
like a natural cause.
[object squeaks]
[device whirring]
- Kim dying is one
of those "stop you
in your tracks" moments,
especially if you know her.
And the part about it which
is so spaghetti to me is,
I don't think I want to know
at this point
because there's
so many different images
that have been put in my mind.
- This story
has become interesting
in several continents.
For the record, I've received
more than 40 inquiries
from production companies,
networks,
since brother Sean's
incarceration, to participate
in everyone's documentary
or something.
I'm gonna keep it
a buck with you.
I'm even surprised that
I'm sitting here right now
having this conversation.
But I do think at least
I owe it to Kimberly
to share just a small portion
of her truth.
After Sean begins
to see Kimberly,
Kimberly and I remain friends.
She started to confide in me.
What she did say is,
look, something's not right.
His soul has gone
completely dark,
like he's just not there.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
She made me promise
on our son
Quincy Taylor Brown's life
not to ever reveal
because she was
in complete fear of my life.
What I do know and what
I can share at this stage
is that before her death,
she was keeping a diary
and things of that nature.
Someone got the pass code
to her phone and her computer.
And they found out
that she was writing
what was going on
behind closed doors.
The public had no idea.
It was happening right
in front of everybody's eyes.
But there's a lot of people
who turned a blind eye.
- There was a lot of talk,
a lot of rumors
that Diddy might have had
something to do
with Kim's death.
There are people
who have said,
well, she knew
too much about him,
and, she was about
to reveal all.
Absolutely no proof,
no evidence,
nothing of the sort.
You know, there are a lot of
conspiracy theories out there
but no proof.
And the autopsy report showed
that it was from pneumonia.
- Let's just say there's a lot
that goes on in the industry,
which is not my job to uncover,
but it's something that's been
going on in the industry,
and those who speak about it
usually meet their demise.
- Uptown Records started
with five people--
Andre Harrell,
Al B. Sure!, Heavy D,
and Puffy.
And Kim was
the longest-working employee.
Heavy D was found dead,
heart attack.
Andre Harrell, heart attack.
- This person
was telling the story.
This person
was writing a book.
This person's
about to tell the truth.
Why is everybody dead?
Oh, it's a coincidence.
Get the f*ck out of here.
- The only two left
are Puffy and Al,
and Al almost died.
- And you'll really understand
how I ended up in a coma.
- July 12th was
a very interesting day.
That was the day
that I went down.
It's not the first,
second, or third time...
That I've been
in that position,
where I actually went down.
I can't say too much
at this moment.
[dramatic music]
I can say this.
July 12th I was entered into
one of the hospitals here.
I was basically done.
They were sending me
to hospice.
There was nothing else
they can do.
So they're going
to send him to die.
And what transpired
in between--whoa.
From what I found out later,
I was in a coma,
having multisystem
organ failure.
Every organ is working off
a machine except for the liver.
Even in the middle of me
going through
this tsunami
of a medical crisis,
every single person...
I was mindful
enough to remember.
I kept a record
of every single one of you
who were sent to set me up...
to assist in the attempted
m*rder of Al B. Sure!
You're in the file.
- There are people
who speculate,
and there have been
so many conspiracy theories
about Diddy
potentially being involved.
- Three.
Oh, yeah.
- I can't say too much
at this moment
related to legal situations,
but I'll tell you this--
surviving death is not a game.
Being in a coma,
being on a ventilator
for 38 days,
being septic,
60 to 70 blood transfusions,
it's a lot.
It's a lot.
But you know what?
In hindsight, I'm glad
that things transpired
the way they did
because this journey has
prepared me for another level.
I've made a decision
to go hard,
as it relates
to opening the case
on the miraculous death
of Kim Porter...
Because Kimberly is gone
because she was going to be
Cassie Ventura...
[paparazzi shouting]
Which is blowing the lid
off of this entire situation.
- This is Cassie and Rihanna
in one of the music awards
in Europe.
I met Casandra Ventura
in 2004,
as a model, actually.
Cass was always a friend to me.
You know, she wasn't really
a clientclient.
- Sean Combs met Cassie
in 2005.
She was actually signed to
a very, very talented producer
who had a joint venture
with Bad Boy.
- So busy, but I've been
thinking about...
- So this is
Cassie's "Me & U" video.
The song came out in 2006.
She ended up getting
to number three
on the "Billboard" charts
with this song.
- Oh, here, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
- 2007 is when Kim Porter
broke things off
with Diddy completely.
People suspected
that maybe there's more than
a business relationship
going on
between Cassie and Diddy,
because they were spotted out
a lot at different events.
- She didn't tell me
for, like, six months.
I saw pictures
of them two together,
and I was like, what the f*ck
is going on right now?
Like, why are you dating
this man?
- What was it like
the first time you met him?
Were you starstruck?
- I was so nervous, so nervous.
But we sat down
for about two hours,
talked about my career
and the future.
And it was great.
You know,
it turned out amazing,
and he's a great guy,
great guy.
- People were happy for them.
They were a cute couple.
But when I was at "Revolt,"
he was dating Cassie,
and I did get the impression
that he's very controlling
as a boyfriend.
- In 2010, it was
the night of the Grammys.
And he put her up
at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
I fall asleep in the suite.
I had no idea she left
to go to a party.
It was midnight or something,
1:00 a.m. in the morning.
And all I wake up to
is this m*therf*cker,
like, bursting in the room.
And I'm like, what is going on?
And he was mad at the fact
that she went to a party.
They go into the next room,
close the door.
So I pack her bags
and get her to safety.
That was panic mode.
That's when she came out...
knots on her head, busted lip.
Like, she was just beat up.
So what was I to do?
We can't stay
in this hotel room anymore.
We have to go.
I had to take her
into my house.
And she stayed with me.
We were trying to figure out
what we're going to do.
I just wanted to help
my friend out that night,
but she wanted me
to keep it quiet.
We can't play with Sean Combs.
These are things
that we have to keep,
like our dirty little secrets.
Even when we know
it isn't right,
it's still something that we
can't talk about to the media.
- When you look
at the music industry,
it's really--
what we're talking about is
institutional grooming.
It normalizes it,
promotes it, accepts it,
turns a blind eye
when perpetrators do this.
- Cassie Ventura came out
with this bombshell lawsuit
in November of 2023.
She accused him of having
complete control over her life,
physically abusing her,
forcing her to have sex
with male sex workers,
plying her with drugs.
- I remember reading every page
because I think I still was
in disbelief--like, really?
This had been going on?
He had been doing that?
- What was pretty astounding
was that around 24 hours
after Cassie filed
this lawsuit,
Sean Combs settled the lawsuit
for an undisclosed amount
of money.
- The fact that
it settled so fast
is something we can draw
conclusions from,
that he was terrified.
- A few months later,
I remember Diddy
did an interview
on "The Breakfast Club."
- Recently, you said that
you were giving the artists
back their publishing.
- It was more
of me just evolving
as a businessman.
- It gave me pause.
Everyone just knew there was
this reputation that he had
for being
this shrewd businessman.
There's numerous artists
who have fallen out with him
and/or have left the label
over money disputes.
- From my last conversation
with BIG,
he just wanted to be
out of Bad Boy
and out with Puff
because Puff owned
his publishing.
That's a whole lot of money.
- 112, The Lox,
Total, Faith Evans,
even Mase--
everybody who went
to Bad Boy left...
left without their royalties.
And then he tried to come back
and give people back
their publishing.
- And a few months later,
we figured out
why it was strange.
- So, in order for you
to get your publishing,
you couldn't speak on anything
that has happened to you.
And I heard--
honestly, somebody told me--
one of the artists was like,
they only offering you,
like, $300,
and you got to sign the NDA.
- I don't think
he was oblivious
during his interview
on "The Breakfast Club"
that his whole world
was getting ready to collapse.
- Then CNN released
surveillance footage...
[dramatic music]
Of Diddy beating up Cassie
in the hotel.
- Couldn't unsee it.
You couldn't unsee it.
I can't give you
any explanation
on why that was okay.
- I've never seen
Puffy fight anybody.
I've never seen him
hit a woman.
So just--the video was
very disturbing when I saw it.
- I never seen him put his
hands on, you know, no females
that I was around him with.
- And I had to, you know,
just kind of look to see,
you know,
is that really Puff or not?
- You know, it broke
my heart, you know?
And then I have to wonder also,
like, what was going on
in his head?
Like, why is he really angry?
- And maybe he pissed her off
or she pissed him off.
The question is,
what caused that?
- No, it doesn't.
- Everyone was shocked.
But his statement after
made it worse...
- My behavior on that video
is inexcusable.
I take full responsibility.
- Because...
I don't think we heard him
apologize to her.
- I'm not asking
for forgiveness.
- By the end of 2024,
there's been an absolute flood
of lawsuits.
There have been women
who have stepped forward
and accused him
of sexual as*ault...
- We need to talk
about this woman
and what she said about
her experience with Diddy.
- Men who have stepped forward
and accused him
of sexual as*ault.
- The third person has come out
with a lawsuit against Diddy
in the last month.
- She had allegedly discovered
some of the tapes
that he had made
with male pop stars.
- Y'all ready to see hip-hop?
- We're over, I believe,
30 now individuals
who have filed lawsuits.
[people clamoring]
- I wish y'all
the best of luck.
[laughter]
- I have a client.
His name is Courtney Burgess.
Courtney came to me
because he had received
a subpoena
from the federal government
to testify in relation
to the grand jury
that has convened about Diddy.
Courtney has done interviews
where he purported
to own several flash drives
that included sex tapes
with eight
distinct individuals,
including A-list celebrities
and Diddy,
all engaged in sex.
He believes that these people
were intoxicated
and that they
may not have known
that they were being recorded.
And Courtney ultimately
handed over the video.
It's not necessarily
a quid pro quo,
where, oh, I'm going
to blackmail you.
I feel like it was more
to advance his influence
and his power,
because now I have them
on video,
where I can say, I'm going
to take this to your wife.
I'll take this to your husband.
I'll take this to the public.
And I'll ruin you
if you don't do this for me.
- I represented 11 victims
of Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein was one
of the most prolific predators
that we've ever seen.
He had, I believe,
thousands of victims.
He had an operation where up
to three girls a day for years
were being brought to him
by recruiters
who found
attractive young women,
many of them underage,
brought them to him
for a couple hundred dollars.
They were sexually assaulted.
There are a lot of similarities
between the Jeffrey Epstein
case and Sean Combs.
They're both
very, very wealthy men.
And each one of them is
at the top of the pyramid.
And if there comes a time
where he is actually convicted,
we'll see whether it happens
to Combs.
- Back for me one time,
up top, up top.
- If you come
from a background,
say, Dad engaged
in criminal activity,
and was born
with a lot of life challenges,
and then you're
in an environment
around g*ng members,
sure, that can shape you.
But then on the other hand,
you have people who come
from very difficult backgrounds
who get themselves
into positive environments,
and they're fine.
Regardless
of what trauma you have,
we still have to hold
people accountable.
- The story
of Lucifer in the Bible
is that Lucifer was
God's most beautiful angel.
And he was the music angel.
- I'm letting
all y'all n*gg*s know,
if I ain't hot,
y'all n*gg*s ain't hot.
- But Lucifer got
too full of himself.
And God casted him
from heaven.
And then he became
the evil Satan
that we know here
on this Earth.
Like, when we talk
about the serpent...
and when the devil comes
and says,
I'll give you all this
if you just denounce God,
they're all just embodiments
of Lucifer.
And I think where we are now
is we're seeing an embodiment
of Lucifer in Sean Combs.
- Ha!
[chuckles]
- Listen...
I been talking
about this since '97.
So it's not something
I'm just now doing it.
I've been having a target
on my back.
It don't mean anything to me.
This life ain't mine's.
This life is God's.
And I'm going to do
as He say please.
- These are my kids, right?
That's Timmy, Jr.
Timmy was my hero.
Oh, man.
You know, this is us
burying my dad.
And then, you know, like,
maybe three, four years later,
we had to bury Timmy.
Yeah, Timmy, Jr.
He overdosed on fentanyl.
When you have a child
named after you...
[voice breaking] Looks
like you, acts like you...
I lost so much.
[somber music]
[normal voice]
I lost my dad.
And then we buried Timmy.
So now we're here...
talking about Sean.
I lost three...
I lost three of my...
Yeah, gone.
Hoping for one to return.
[dramatic music]
That's my little bro.
Sean's done some bad things.
Sean knows it.
I'm scared for him.
- I wouldn't know what to say,
to be honest with you.
I really wouldn't.
I really wouldn't know
what to say.
[sighs]
- Diddy...
did anybody bring you
any cheesecake in there?
- If you're going to be
who you are,
be that person.
Don't turn around
and try to play
Mr. Good Guy and Mr. Nice Guy
when you a piece of sh*t
all along.
- Whether you innocent
or guilty...
karma has resurfaced.
[indistinct shouting]
- This is a man who's been
on top of the world.
This is someone
who has lived the life
ever since
he's been 20 years old.
And all of a sudden,
all of it
is taken away from him.
He's just stuck
in this one square box.
What do you say to him?
- This is probably
the most powerful person
in the music industry and one
of the most powerful people
in American culture, period.
And so this case is enormous.
- And this could mean
a lot of jail time
if he is found guilty.
- Deep down,
I knew this day would come.
Ain't that crazy?
That I'd be sitting
here with you.
You just say to yourself, wow.
You're going to have
to tell people
this was a good kid
at one time.
He's monsterized now.
But the monster
wasn't born a monster.
Come, come.
[clicks tongue] Come.
Monsters are created
over time.
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Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy (2025)
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