01x01 - Pain vs Love

[bunniefuu]

[Sean Combs] Things are happening,
and it's like,

I want to fight for my life.

I don't want to fight for--
just for not guilty.

I want to have a life, to be able to live.

It's really gonna be hard for me
to take more hits than I've taken,

God forbid, get in front of a jury
and have a chance.

So I'm having this emergency call
because something has to give.

[Marc Agnifilo] We need
the core theme to be,

you didn't do anything wrong.

You didn't do anything wrong on any front.

And you've come to New York
to face things head on.

If anyone was ever paying any attention
to what you've actually been doing,

you've handled this with complete honor.

I don't… I don't think it's working.

I've listened.

I've been a superb client, as you said.

I jumped on a plane,
I'm coming to New York, but I'm just like…

I'm just running around
waiting for… for a shoe to drop.

[Agnifilo] But we're losing sight
of the big picture, man.

It's the middle of September
and there's still no indictment.

That, that--

No, bro,
then you have to have a spokesman.

You have to have some sort of comms
to constantly be pushing that, Marc.

'Cause you may just be a person
that just does-- You just may watch CNN.

You know? And there's like,
nine billion people in the world.

And seven billion of them is on Instagram.

And TikTok.

And so you have…

Y'all at the wrong place looking to see
what the possible jurors are thinking.

We have to find somebody
that'll work with us,

whether they're from this country
or from another country.

It could be somebody that has dealt
in the dirtiest of dirtiest dirty business

of media and propaganda.

[tense music playing]

I've seen the media portray me
like I'm a gangster.

I'm a…

Or I'm-- At times, I'm a cold individual.

Or I'm just a shrewd businessman,
which is just not the case.

[crowd] ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[Combs] I'm a dreamer.

I love closing my eyes
and dreaming. I don't…

I don't really deal with reality.

I think you're a great guy,
a great role model.

Diddy, P., Papa. Papa Diddy Pop?

Sorry. I don't know
what you call yourself now.

American dream come true.

-Thank you, America.
-Support this guy!

[Combs] It's like, we have a movie
and you're speaking this language,

and, I'm saying, we need subtitles.

And we're not providing the audience
with subtitles.

I invited you to this movie
and you in this thing,

and you don't know what's going on.
You just see…

You just see images, you know, quickly.

[unsettling music playing]

Now it has a whole life of its own.

[woman 1 on TV]
The Department of Homeland Security

conducting a raid at a house connected to…

[woman 2] Another woman is accusing
Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexual as*ault…

[man 1] Trafficking,
forced labor, kidnapping.

-[man 2] Fourth lawsuit…
-[woman 3] Fifth lawsuit…

-[woman 4] The seventh lawsuit…
-[woman 5] Now more than a dozen…

[man 3] …criminal conduct
that does indeed span two decades.

[Combs] I'm taking eight nuclear bombs,

you know what I'm saying,
straight to the head.

And I'm tired of going back and forth
with y'all, with the lawyers…

[Agnifilo] That's not true.

-Okay, so, so, so--
-And let me… let me…

No, no, no. Let me tell you something.
Let me… let me say this.

I'm not… I'm not a referee.

I'm gonna get off the phone right now.
Listen to me.

I'm gonna get off the phone right now.

And I am going to let you professionals
look at the situation

and come back to me with a solution.

No matter what nobody said. Let's just--

Here and there, y'all are not working
together the right way. We're losing.

[music intensifies]

[crowd cheering indistinctly]

[people speaking indistinctly]

[ominous music playing]

[Combs exhales]

[Combs] Just get little cutaways of them,
looking from the…

Know what I'm saying? That's why too.

[pensive music playing]

[Kalenna Harper] All of us
got to go to the Maker,

and we will be held accountable
for the things we did and we didn't do.

Sean Combs is a as*h*le.

He is the m*therf*cker
you're not gonna like

and you won't get the f*ck along with
if he doesn't get his way.

Don't ever disrespect nobody
that's down with me, motherfuck--

He quickly became my hero.

Whatever I want, I'm going to get!
Whatever I want, I have to get!

[Harper] If y'all had a f*cking chance
to meet this guy…

Yes!

…you'd be like,
this n*gga's energy is everything.

I got to get up and go.

I got to get up and do it.

What's next? What's next? I got to get it.
I'm not gonna stay f*cking down.

[crowd cheering and screaming]

[Harper] He was presenting this freedom
that Black people hadn't had.

Like, we hadn't experienced a Black man
being able to say, "I don't want that."

I don't want no problems. Come on!
Yo, Dawg, what are you talking 'bout?

Telling me I'm on some bullshit?
I ain't on no bullshit with you.

So when I first met him, he quickly became

the guy I wanted to be like.

[Aubrey O'Day] When you're a leader
in that way,

it's admirable until you get to the point

where you want to control
everyone around you.

He got to that point.

♪ What y'all wanna do? ♪

♪ You want to be ballers?
Shot-callers? Brawlers? ♪

[Erick Sermon] It's like Scarface,
the movie.

"I want the world and everything in it."

-[Combs] This is Diddy's stop right here.
-But you got everything.

Hey, yo, New York, we f*cking did it!

Harlem, we did it!
Mount Vernon, we did it!

[Al B. Sure!] It was a mantra
that Sean had.

"Nobody's gonna be bigger than me."

[Tim "Dawg" Patterson] Sean is the 1%
of the 1% of the 1%.

We'll never see a Sean
in my lifetime again. Ever!

[tense pensive music playing]

[Roger Bonds] It was like
the more money he got,

the more power he got.

The more power he got,
the more money he got.

And he always felt like money
can get him out of everything.

[Juror 160] I do feel it's important
that we let the public know,

from the juror's standpoint,
just kind of how we reached the verdict.

It's not everything
that the media has put it out to be.

You want to put stuff
in my fanny pack, King?

[Capricorn Clark] He's creating
a narrative always.

He is the best storyteller in hip-hop.

He thinks he's Black Superman.
"I can do what I want."

[Mark Curry] You can't go on
for long in life

doing the things that he was doing
before something eventually happens.

You can't continue to keep hurting people
and nothing ever happens.

[music turns dramatic]

It's just a matter of time.

[music fades]

["Children's Story" playing]

[man] Is it good to be back in New York?

It's always good to be back in New York.

♪ Once upon a time not long ago ♪

♪ When people wore pajamas
And lived life slow ♪

♪ When laws were stern and justice stood ♪

♪ And people were behavin'
Like they ought to good ♪

How do you change
the gears on here? [laughs]

[car horn honking]

♪ There lived a little boy
Who was misled ♪

♪ By another little boy
And this is what he said ♪

♪ "Me and you,
Tonight we're gonna make some cash" ♪

♪ "Robbin' old folks
And makin' the dash" ♪

[song fades]

[Kirk Burrowes] I was there
from the very beginning

with the invention of Sean Combs.

-I co-founded Bad Boy with Sean.
-[pensive music playing]

I was dazzled by his ideas
and his unique talent.

But he was a very different Sean Combs
back then.

[man 1] Yo, Puff, man.

You wanna-- I'm gonna take it…

[Burrowes] Sean was 19
when he dropped out of Howard University.

He wanted to be
in the flashy, swaggy music industry.

-♪ It seems to me, you need my love ♪
-♪ Oh, yes! You need, yes, you need… ♪

[Burrowes] He started off dancing,
wanting to be in videos.

♪ I'm not the man I used to be ♪

[Burrowes] Wanting to be
a pop culture mover and shaker

at a time where things were changing.

♪ Ice and I'm a soldier at w*r… ♪

[Burrowes] Hip-hop was evolving.

Like it or not, rap is here to stay.
It has become part of mainstream commerce.

♪ You know what that time is… ♪

[Sermon] It was just expl*sive.

Run-D.M.C.

KRS-One.

Public Enemy.

Rakim.

♪ …you should keep quiet… ♪

[Sermon] The late '80s,

it was fantastic.

[Burrowes] There were a lot
of independent labels

that gave birth to hip-hop
in the way that we know it today…

What is this new music?

["Uptown Is Kickin' It" playing]

Yo, check this out!

[Burrowes] …like Uptown Records.

♪ Grab a hold of yourself
And check this tempo ♪

-♪ Remember these rhymes ♪
-♪ Why? ♪

♪ Heavy D said so!
The overweight… ♪

[Burrowes] Heavy D was the biggest rapper
signed to Uptown.

-Excuse me.
-We got Heavy D in the house today.

Thanks for coming.

[Sure!] With the hardest cats in the hood,
you could rock Heavy D.

You're with your grandmother in the car,
you ain't got to turn off the radio.

We called him the official mayor
of "Moneyearnin' Mount Vernon."

[pensive music playing]

♪ Moneyearnin' Mount Vernon!
Vernon! Vernon! ♪

[Burrowes] Mount Vernon
is in Westchester County.

[pensive music continues]

The first city outside of the Bronx.

Heavy D put that area on the map.

Heavy D and The Boyz!

[Burrowes] And his influence reached
all the young people in the neighborhood.

Including the young Sean Combs,

who was at Mount St. Michael High School.

A Catholic private school.

He would knock on Heavy D's door every day

to see if Heavy would take him
to meet Andre Harrell.

♪ Uptown, uptown! ♪

Andre was the champagne of rap.

And he took the streets to Wall Street.

[Patterson] The only entrance
into hip-hop at that point

was Andre Harrell and Russell Simmons.

Into the corporate hip-hop world,
into the money.

[Burrowes] Sean had impressed Andre enough
to give him an internship.

And that was the beginning.

[pensive music playing]

[Patterson] I worked with Sean
as an intern at Uptown.

I'ma lay it out for you.

When you thought of Uptown Records,
you thought of Heavy D and Al B. Sure!

♪ I can tell you how I feel about you
Nite and day ♪

I was the first number one artist
on the Billboard charts on Uptown.

And the first platinum artist
on the Uptown label.

-[suave music playing]
-[Patterson] He was a GQ n*gga.

You know,
he was a real penny loafers type.

[girls screaming]

[Patterson] He was one of them fly,
light-skinned n*gg*s. Girls loved him.

He's ours. All ours.

[giggling]

[Patterson] Al was dating Kim.

Kim Porter.

Kim is at the receptionist desk at Uptown.

You get out the elevator,
first person you see is Kim.

And it was a beautiful sight.

Everybody said that. You know what I mean?
But when Sean saw Kim…

It was different.

And now Sean's always
at the receptionist desk

begging Kim for something.

A date, a kiss.

He put it all on the table for Kim.

It was weird. It was weird in the air
because everyone knew this was Al's girl.

Al is hot as fish grease right now.

Hi, this is Al B. Sure!
Here's my exclusive number.

[man] Two dollars for the first minute,


And Sean was not really, like, the catch.

[Burrowes] He didn't drink alcohol.

He forbade marijuana.
He did not like drugs.

He had the Gumby,
and he looked like a scholastic dweeb.

[Patterson] But Sean was so determined.

"Yo, I bet you I can get Kim."

n*gg*s like, "Nah, hey. [scoffs] No way.
Your weight ain't even up enough yet."

But when Sean wants something,
he's gonna get it.

It might be a couple of years from now,

but sooner or later, he's gonna get it.

[pensive music playing]

[Combs] Andre Harrell,
Heavy D, Al B. Sure!,

they had all the money and the power.

I was like, I don't know what they did,
but that's what I wanna do.

[Burrowes] I got to Uptown
a few months after Sean did.

And I saw him being built into cool.

He had to go through
the Uptown flavor camp.

[Combs] I learned a lot quickly.

Being in front of Willie Burgers
on 145th and 8th or being at The Rooftop.

Let's get it going, Rooftop!

[Combs] The fashion, the walk, the talk,

the attitude, the drive,
the determination.

I was ready to do whatever it took to win.

[Burrowes] The young Sean Combs
during that time, he was so tenacious.

You would ask him to turn
Wednesday into Tuesday,

he would set about doing it.

[pensive music playing]

[Harrell] First task we had given him
was just go get a tape ten blocks away.

He came back in two minutes
or something crazy.

I was on the phone, I looked up
when he came back, I was like,

"How'd you get there so fast?"
He said, "I ran, there and back."

Right then and there I said, "Oh, okay."

I should have known then
that that was never gonna stop.

The run there and run back.

[Burrowes] He ingratiated himself to Andre
and made himself very valuable.

Something that you don't want
to do without.

Like, "Who's gonna get my clothes?
Who'll Armor All my tire?"

"This is so convenient."

Then they lived together.

[Harrell] I bought
the first million-dollar house.

Funny that that weekend,

just before I moved in, he had
a mysterious fight with his mother.

And he said, "I can't go home.
I got to stay here with you."

Puff moved in before I did.

[Patterson] Meanwhile,
Andre's taking him under like a son.

Andre is the very first patriarch
he connected with.

Sean grew up with the illusion
of what masculinity looks like.

[ominous music playing]

My first encounter with Sean,
I remember it like yesterday.

My family, we rented the first floor
of Sean's house.

I was my mom and dad's only child.
Now Sean has somebody to brother up with.

We experienced a lot of firsts together.

I taught him how to ride a bike.

It was the best thing to let go
of the bike and him start riding.

We fit so well.

Sean was another misfit, just like me.

But the difference in my household,
my dad taught me right from wrong.

-No, Sean didn't have that.
-[music fades]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like
to introduce my mother, Janice Combs.

-[audience cheering]
-[Combs laughs]

What were the primary jobs that you did
to support your family?

I did so many jobs at one time.

I worked at the United Cerebral Palsy.

I worked at, uh, the Board of Ed.
in Westchester County.

I drive the school bus.

I worked in a baby's boutique shop.

And he never knew this,
I worked in a after-hours spot too.

-[laughing]
-[audience laughs]

I have to come clean.

-I needed to come clean.
-Okay.

Okay. Man.

[audience laughing and applauding]

Okay.

I made more money because
the men thought I was very glamorous.

I used to pour liquor.
And they'd give me big tips.

[pensive music playing]

[Patterson] In Sean's house,
there was Janice and there was Sean.

[somber music playing]

[Combs] My father's name is Melvin Combs.

I didn't get a chance to get to know him.
I was too young.

My father got his brains blown out,
like, on Central Park West.

I did the research.

They said my mother had brought me to the

funeral in a full-length chinchilla.

It was like a sigh of relief, you know?

'Cause I finally knew
that what I was feeling was true.

That I was the son of a hustler
or a gangster.

[Patterson] Melvin's presence was there.
His money was there.

And I understood that
Melvin made a lot of things possible.

But Sean's mom was his everything.

[Burrowes] If you look at
some of the early pictures

that Janice has of Sean,

she was always making him into something.

[pensive music playing]

The hats.

Fur coats.

I think she tried to overcompensate
for the father being gone

by making him into this dandy.

[Patterson] Everything associated
with Sean was Harlem.

Whoever was fly in Harlem,
that's what he was as a child.

Janice, she'd always be in Harlem.

And there were times where she'd bring us.

Here we are in this brand-new Cadillac,
because that's all Janice drove.

She's making stops. Here and there.
And oh, we knew the rule, the drill.

"Y'all sit there, I'll be right back."

She ain't turn the car off.
Nobody took the car.

Mm-mm. No.

So you knew there was a different vibe
going on with this family.

In his household,
the groove was a little different.

♪ I feel love, I feel love… ♪

[Patterson] A lot of Donna Summer playing.

Then we had these movies we'd watch.

[announcer] He's got to be number one.

[Patterson] This genre of films
called Black exploitation.

[announcer] Super Dude.

[Patterson] You had Super Fly.

[announcer] Super Fly.

[Patterson] You had The Mack.

[announcer 2] When you got nothing,
and you want everything,

you gotta get to be the mack.

["The Mack" theme music playing]

Their parts were hustler parts.

In Sean's household, you'd start to see
all the stuff that you saw in the movies.

[music turns ominous]

Janice knew how to throw a party.

And the parties were packed.

You got ladies that looked like
they're straight out of Jet Magazine.

Some brothers up there.

If you want to call them p*mps, you can.
You want to call them hustlers, you can.

You got a member of the New York Knicks.

Or two.

[ominous music continues]

There was a stage in her living room.
Literally a stage.

And that's where we used to
have to go and dance.

And everybody's calling you "baby."
And everybody's saying, "Do that dance."

[ominous music continues]

And all of this stuff he's taking in.

[music fades]

So from the movie screen
to the home screen,

these are the makings of Sean Combs.

Now, mind you, as a child, Sean was goofy.

Kids would pick on him a lot
around the block.

-[poignant music playing]
-And he didn't know how to defend himself.

Sean was a prince.

And Janice, she didn't want no princess.

She held back nothing.

[Lipton] You've said,
"I would be 12 years old."

"And sometimes I'd be out
until 3:00, 4:00 in the morning."

James, we don't have to
get into that right now.

-[audience laughing]
-[laughs]

Ma'am?

He got a lot of beatings too.

His beatings made me scared.

Right?

I got beatings, now.

But when he got his beatings,
it wasn't no…

It wasn't a joking thing.

No.

Damn, I hate thinking about that, man.

[Combs] My mother was, I guess,
raising me for the real world.

She was always telling me if somebody
hit me, make sure I hit them back harder.

Make sure they never hit me again.

Make sure I f*cked them up.

You know how you hear
your mom's voice in your ear?

"Boy…"

"You better…"

"Boy?"

[ominous music playing]

Sean started fighting.
He started stepping up.

But Sean don't fight like this.

Sean's gonna bite you.
He's gonna eat your ear off.

He's gonna cut your neck open
with his mouth.

He's not losing.

[Burrowes] I know people shaped by pain.

As well as by love.

And if it was more pain than love,
watch out.

It's gonna be pain
that you're gonna give others.

'Cause you're responding to that pain
you just can't seem to cut out of you.

[ominous music continues]

[Joi Dickerson-Neal] I didn't
know much about him.

I know that he had a big ego.

[ominous music continues]

I met him around '89, '90.

My job was to promote music videos.

And Puffy, he was always doing
the party promotions.

So he's always, like,
handing out the flyers.

[Combs] I was working with Andre Harrell.
He wasn't paying enough.

I had to promote parties on the side.
Which was all good.

Daddy's House.

[Burrowes] He was savvy enough
to promote parties.

The most successful parties at that time.

But they were all about promoting himself.

One of the brothers that put
the party together. My man, Puff Daddy.

It was no problem. My Black brothers
and sisters came together.

Like my man Doug E. Fresh.

All the beautiful women out here.
We came together to have a good time.

[Dickerson-Neal] I went to a party
for a good friend.

It was getting very late.

Puffy's like,
"Oh, you know, I'm having an after-party

at, uh, Andre Harrell's house."

[thunder rumbles]

Andre Harrell wasn't there,
he was out of town.

People were tracking mud
through the house.

And I remember at the end of the night,
I was helping clean up the mud.

Puffy's like, very polite.
You know, thanking me for helping him.

And he asked me,

"Oh wow, I just got this call.
This girl backed out of this music video."

"Can you do it?"

And I was like,

"I don't do music videos."

But this party was in New Jersey.

And I needed a ride back to Manhattan.

So I went along.

[ominous music continues]

And I'll never forget,
I had the same clothes on

that I had from the night before.

The music video was called
Straight from the Soul.

By Finesse & Synquis.

The whole premise
was for me to jump out the car

and go with these girls
and get away from the pimp guy.

♪ Nice clothes in a car
Doesn't make you a star ♪

♪ You can't talk positive
And do the opposite ♪

♪ 'Cause then you're labeled as a phony
Yeah, a hypocrite ♪

♪ You can't be righteous
Throw a party then flip ♪

♪ Snorting, drinking, driving
Have your sister strip ♪

♪ What that looks to your people?
A big disgrace! ♪

♪ Dying sisters don't want to look you
In your face! ♪

♪ Wanting to be a pimp, brother?
Your heart ain't that cold ♪

♪ And this is straight from the soul ♪

-♪ Straight from the soul ♪
-♪ I'm coming ♪

[song fades]

[woman] Was there ever a time
that Sean Combs sexually assaulted you?

Yes.

Someone called me up
and told me that, um, he said,

"You know he has you on video."

[sniffles]

And I was like, what?

And that's when he, um, described it
and explained it.

[poignant music playing]

I just want to say this.

This thing was incredibly devastating
to my family.

My mother.

She's a social worker.
We don't have money.

The thing… [sniffles]

…that we had

was our pride.

We carried ourselves well.

We were pretty. We were intelligent.

This is the basis of what I had.

Self-respect. [sniffles]

My mother wrote a letter
to Combs's parents.

I just found this recently. [sniffles]

-Can I read it?
-[woman] Yes.

[music fades]

[Dickerson-Neal]
"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Combs,"

"I'm writing you to inform you

of something that your son
did to my daughter."

"One weekend while visiting my daughter,

I awoke to her screaming
in the middle of the night."

"She told me
that she was dreaming about Puffy."

"I asked her why she was screaming
and who is this Puffy person

that he would cause her
to have nightmares." [sniffles]

"I was shocked and mortified
to hear her story."

"She told me that several people
have come to her to inform her

that your son has made
an obscene videotape of her."

"…without her knowledge, he videotaped him
doing something sexual to her."

"Apparently, your son shows these tapes
at parties on large screen televisions."

[sniffles]

"I realize that this may be hard
for you to believe,

but if I hadn't heard this story
from my daughter's own mouth

and looked into her eyes,

I would have scarcely believed
that any individual

would compromise
another person's dignity in this manner."

-[sniffles then sighs]
-[poignant music playing]

I approached a lot of people for help.

I got things like,
"What do you want me to do about it?"

To…

"If I help you,
I can't get into his parties."

We got Puff Daddy from Puff Daddy's house.

What's up?

And who revolutionized
the hip-hop club scene this year.

[Burrowes] Why would you want to do that?

Drug and r*pe a girl.

Tape it and then put it up on the screen.

Here's my theory.

[MC] Yo! Do you know what time it is?

[Burrowes] Alpo Martinez.

Drug lord, famous,
Harlem, street, tough guy,

hung out at The Rooftop.

Welcome you and yours to The Rooftop.

[Bonds] Alpo had a lot of girls,

and he would tape girls
that he was having sex with.

On a Saturday night, he might
bring his camera and put it on the wall.

And everyone knows
that's so-and-so's girl.

[Martinez] That's that h*!

[unsettling music playing]

[Burrowes] What Sean saw was,

"I want to be looked upon in that way,
as someone that has that type of stature."

All his life,
he's been trying to honor a man

he believed was a famous Harlem gangster.

And that gave his father
a mythic presence.

People like Alpo, he looked at those guys
with a certain amount of jealousy or envy.

A certain amount of respect.

And there's a certain amount of desire.

That thing was in him from there.

[unsettling music continues]

[woman] Did you ever
confront Sean about it?

I did.

I avoided him for a very long time.

I ran into him one day.

He came to me.

He got on his knees

and swore he did not do this thing to me.

And denied it.

And that was the very last time
I talked to him.

We f*cking did it! Let's go!
The key to the city. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

[Dickerson-Neal] When I think back
in terms of his rise…

Yo, come and give me this love.

[Dickerson-Neal] …it is
the most helpless feeling.

I was always nauseous
when I saw his image.

[unsettling music continues]

The one image in Times Square
where he's holding his fist up.

When I saw it, I vomited.
Right there on the street.

You are really
raising your hand in victory

and I'm living in trauma and defeat.

[unsettling music continues]

[Combs] Woop-woop!

Woop!

-[woman 1] New legal trouble for Combs.
-[woman 2] Another new lawsuit.

[woman 3] Accused of sexual as*ault,

sex trafficking,
and drugging underage girls.

[man 1] Federal prosecutors interviewed
numerous women who allege wrongdoings.

[man 2] This is at least
the tenth civil lawsuit

filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs
alleging sex trafficking…

Just take the blood, man.
What the f*ck else y'all want?

I don't know.

[music fades]

-It's a bunch of silly bullshit.
-Just silly bullshit, noise.

-[man 1] Just all haters and noise.
-[Lew] No sense.

But it's the legal system doing it now.
Because, like, legally…

-[Lew] You gotta go through it.
-It's-- Yeah.

Now I gotta spend money
to go and get rid of this bullshit.

-[man 1] Oh, yeah.
-[Lew] They ain't got nothing left.

Got nothing left going on.

-They ain't breaking me, though.
-Say less.

[man 2] How are you, boss?
If you don't mind, one picture, please.

I'm not good with the camera,
so I'm gonna try.

-[man 3] Take a few photos?
-[man 4] Yeah.

-For you?
-Nice to meet you.

-[man 5] Group or individual?
-[Combs] Aight. Y'all hop in as a group.

[ominous music playing]

Sean was destined to be famous.

-[man 6] Appreciate it.
-Okay.

-[man 7] One more. Wait, what's up?
-Yeah.

[Patterson] I didn't see infamy coming.

I swear I didn't see that coming.

[ominous music continues]

[Combs] I'm 19 and I always liked
seeing people entertained.

And I thought over the holidays,

I just wanted to throw
a celebrity basketball game in Harlem.

[Sermon] I was at the game. On the floor.

All of us was there.
Every rapper in New York, right?

Yo! MTV Raps came.

[MC] I'm at City College

in the heart of New York City
for the Puff Daddy, Heavy D

first all-time celebrity all-star classic.

[Sermon] That was one of
the biggest basketball games.

If that had turned out correctly,
it would've went down in history.

[Burrowes] There were lines and lines
around the campus to get in.

There's no more room,
but everyone still wants to come.

[ominous music continues]

[Combs] We open up the doors,
everybody starts flowing through.

But then thousands more come.

[man over PA]
Please don't run over each other.

[crowd clamoring]

[man over PA] Everybody.
Don't panic. Take your time, please.

Everybody, keep calm…

[Combs] There was this thing in hip-hop
called bum-rushing the door.

People don't have a ticket,
they hear it's sold out,

they say, "f*ck it, we gotta get in,
we'll bum-rush the door."

When they got to the bottom of the stairs,
the doors didn't go out that way.

They only came in.

So people were stuck.

They was crushing people
down at the bottom of the stairs.

[Sermon] We were on the court,
warming up to play.

Doug E. Fresh grabbed the mic
and said there's people that are dead.

-[dramatic music playing]
-[crowd clamoring]

[Harrell over PA] Y'all could be
the biggest star

or whether you're
the most regular person in here,

you need to leave.

It is over.

[Burrowes] Sean over-promoted, over-hyped.

And that led to a crowd.

[Combs] It was just like, "Oh sh*t,
how'd it just happen so quick?"

How are people gonna explain it?

[medic 1] We need a lot of help here.

There's a lot of people hurt
and aren't breathing.

[dispatch] Not breathing?

[medic 1] Yes, I mean we have
a f****** emergency over here.

[dramatic music continues]

[medic 2] We got a lot of people here
dead in the gymnasium, please!

[dispatch] They're dead?

The death toll from last week's stampede
at a New York charity basketball game

has risen to nine.

[man] They was getting trampled!

All for money, $12, man.

-[woman] What do you mean $12?
-It cost $12 for a ticket.

[sirens wailing]

[man on TV] One of the
unanswered questions remains

who's to blame for the stampede
that k*lled nine people?

[Burrowes] Throughout
the newspaper headlines,

throughout the confusion,
the finger-pointing, who was responsible,

Sean, young, in real time,

carried the weight of all of that.

My dream for this evening was to bring
a positive program to my people,

to people of my age,
and to people in my community.

Whatever must be done,
must be done to ensure

that this never, ever, ever happens again.

[Sermon] It was the biggest news ever.

That's how he got super famous…

was that game and those deaths.

That's the beginning of Puff Daddy.

[ominous music playing]

[Combs] That's really how I started
to become famous,

was through a tragedy.

[Burrowes] He was holed up in a hotel
on the East Side, him and his mother.

He didn't know what was going to happen.

And I saw Janice question Sean.

He's going into this music business thing.

He just left school,
and now this extreme tragedy has occurred.

She's like,
did he make the right decision?

[ominous music continues]

And I saw him put his hands on her.

Called her a b*tch and slapped her.

He's not looking back.

[ominous music continues]

[music fades]

[man on TV] Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs
and sponsors claim no responsibility

in the tragic chain of events
that claimed nine lives and injured…

[Burrowes] The brass that afforded Uptown
its distribution money wanted Sean out.

I saw Andre fight and fight
to keep Sean in.

And he did.

Andre Harrell, Puff Daddy,
he's passing on to, I guess, his son.

-Protégé.
-Protégé.

-Yes, yes.
-Puffy.

Tell me a little bit about this man
and why you like working with him.

'Cause he's not intimidated by youth.
You know what I'm saying?

He knows the importance
of leaving a legacy behind.

Because we need more adults out there

that's gonna teach the young,
such as myself.

I took Andre Harrell out to lunch,
and I said,

"Can I get a chance to maybe do A&R?"

The A&R is Artists and Repertoire.

The guy that works with the record company
that puts the records together

and works with the artists.

I said, "Give me a chance.
You're making music for young people."

"I'm young, and who better
to make the music than me?"

[tense pensive music playing]

[Patterson] We had a group
back in the day.

They drove up to New York,
unannounced, to meet Andre Harrell.

[harmonizing] ♪ When we make love ♪

[Patterson] Jodeci.

♪ It's like a dream… ♪

[Patterson] They sing for Andre.
Andre loves it.

Immediately that becomes
Puff's first responsibility.

n*gga, go make Jodeci.

What's in the future of Jodeci?

Hopefully to make hits, hits, hits.

[Patterson] Andre put his trust with Sean
as opposed to the artist.

-[whoops]
-[men laughing]

[Patterson] He told us,

"I don't care who the artist is,
you're more important than them."

"The artists don't work without you."

What'd be the ideal musical setting
for y'all?

I guess performing
in front of millions of people.

[Patterson] You have to be able
to control everything.

I basically style
and come up with the images

and design most of the clothing
for all the artists.

[Burrowes] It was him
that put Jodeci in the pants,

baggy, sagging at the bottom,

the boots, not lacing it up.

He is able to sponge from the community
and the culture and package it.

[dramatic music playing]

And in the studio, he did the same thing.

Sean wasn't a producer
where he can tell you,

you need a C here,
a C note, or this is an F.

But he did have a good ear
for what could be a hit.

I'll give you an example.

Let's get it going, Rooftop!

[Burrowes] At The Rooftop in Harlem,

the DJ Brucie B
would mix a cappellas from R&B songs

with hard hip-hop beats.

-[heavy rap beat playing]
-[men harmonizing]

[Burrowes] And it drove the kids crazy
at the clubs.

That's what Sean did with Jodeci
on those remixes.

It was very minimal. It was very hard beat
and snare, no melody.

-♪ Talk to me baby ♪
-♪ Come and talk to me ♪

-♪ My baby ♪
-♪ I really wanna meet you ♪

[Patterson] Jodeci's record
started climbing the charts.

♪ Here we go!
Go, Jodeci, go! ♪

[Burrowes] Sean turned that
into the blueprint

for his special brand of A&R.

Then the next artist to benefit from that
was Mary J. Blige.

Yo, Mary, it's Puff.
Pick up the phone, n*gga.

Hey, Mary, it's Puff.

[Burrowes] Mary's What's The 411?
was out the box.

[Combs] Then tomorrow
you gotta do this video sh**t.

[Burrowes] The hat pulled down,
the mysteriousness.

It had a little bit of a darkness
and moodiness to it as well.

["Real Love" playing]

All of that was groundbreaking.

♪ Real love ♪

[Burrowes] He launched a female artist
in a male-dominated hip-hop era…

What's up, Apollo?

[Burrowes] …who became an instant success.

And that created hip-hop soul.

-Mary became the owner of that sound.
-Sing!

♪ Doo-doo-doo ♪

♪ Mary J ♪

[Burrowes] Sean was making the hits happen
and the visuals happen.

In 1992, Sean is promoted
to VP of A&R and Artist Development.

What's up? My name's Puff Daddy,

Vice President of A&R
and Artist Development

for Uptown Records,

which brought you
the hits of Jodeci, Mary J. Blige,

Heavy D and the Boyz, Father MC,
and, you know, on and on and on.

[Sermon] Puffy had Jodeci
and Mary J. Blige.

But Puffy's a big, huge EPMD fan.

♪ My background sing
My background sing, for the crossover ♪

[Sermon] He was at
my "Crossover" video sh**t.

♪ Crossover ♪

And he asked me to do
the Mary J. Blige intro for the 411 album.

[Sermon] Yo, Mary Blige, what's up?
It's Erick Sermon, MC Grand for you.

I did that for him and then
all of a sudden we became friends.

[ominous music playing]

I thought it was a genuine friendship.

Until I see that this game
is being played.

You got an agenda.

Misa.

He was trying to court her
after we broke up.

Sean wants her
because Erick was that dude.

♪ Fly high like Mike and just do it… ♪

[Burrowes] It was about,
"I got her, I won her over from him."

[Patterson] He had to have the girl.

And Sean has a way about,
when he gets you, he got you.

He got you.

And now you become property.

[ominous music continues]

[Sermon] Me and Misa was just friends.

But he wanted to make sure

that there was no calling
and me being friends with that girl.

Sean's jealousy, it got to the point
where he would put his hands on her.

Right outside of Uptown Records,
they're fighting in the street

and he's beating her into the car well.

She's on the ground.

[scoffs] And people are pulling him
off of her and separating her.

A year or two later,

they're still together,
and Justin is born.

[church bells tolling]

When he invited me
to be the godfather of his first son,

I was able to push that
in the back of my mind and say,

"That was a really bad moment,
but he was weak and…"

It was a bad moment.

Does that make me
part of a Sean Combs cult?

Maybe so.

I may have been
the first disciple, believer…

and then overall protector
against all odds.

♪ Uptown
Everybody say Up, Uptown ♪

-♪ Uh! ♪
-♪ Up, Uptown! ♪

[Patterson] I want to invite
one more brother on stage.

-Responsible for Jodeci, Mary J. Blige.
-♪ Puff Daddy, Puff Daddy ♪

-Puff Daddy, come to the stage, baby!
-♪ Puff Daddy, Puff Daddy ♪

♪ Pick it up, pick it up there, boys
Pick it up, pick it up, oh ♪

[Patterson] At that point,
Sean is on top of the world.

His trajectory was only up.

[ominous pensive music playing]

[Combs] I was just a wonder kid.
I was something they never saw before.

To be young and…

to be Puff Daddy.

It's just, it's just like…

I felt like my dream had came true.

[Patterson] Everybody now
is looking for this kid.

Because they all have artists that
they have to get to the top of the chart.

What does that do to a person?

Do you think I'm still gonna be

like, "Yes ma'am, no ma'am,
thank you very much"?

He became too big for Uptown Records.

[Combs] I'll be so drunk and high
by 8 o'clock,

I'm not gonna give a f*ck.

But I give a f*ck.

[Patterson] There started to be
some dissension between Andre and Puff.

Andre was the king of the Uptown Castle,
of the empire he created.

And the intern

was taking his place.

[Patterson] I remember it like yesterday.

Andre called me into his office.

He tells me just like this.

He says, "Dawg, I just fired Puff."

I said, "Word?"

It was a sad day.

Andre was like a surrogate dad for Sean.

Sean was really sick when Andre fired him.

I'm talking about sick.
Couldn't believe it.

And then Sean called me.

And he said,
"Yo, I'm about to do my thing, Dawg."

[music fades]

[rap music playing over speakers]

[Biggie] ♪ I'm the perfect competitor ♪

♪ Jewels and all that
And clothes is all that ♪

♪ Chump stepping to me
That's where you take the fall at… ♪

Puff was like,
"I'm looking for some hardcore artists."

He said he's tired of doing
the Mary sh*t, Jodeci sh*t.

He wanted to do hard sh*t, street sh*t.

♪ Straight outta Compton
Crazy m*therf*cker named Ice Cube ♪

♪ From the g*ng called
n*gg*s With Attitude ♪

♪ So I guess I gots to handle mine… ♪

[Burrowes] The West Coast had the hits
that we wanted.

[pensive music playing]

♪ Yeah, hard core sick sh*t, injection
What you want, n*gga? ♪

[Burrowes] Sean signed Biggie in 1992.

People didn't know we had to produce
Biggie's album for Uptown.

He was an Uptown artist.

-[man] It's the Notorious B.I.G., then?
-Yeah.

B-I-G. Business Instead of Game. Right?
Tell them I told you.

[Patterson] But when Andre fired Puff,
he fired him with a caveat.

"I'm letting you go,

but I'ma let you take Biggie with you."

♪ …my cheddar, feel my Beretta
Buck what… ♪

Andre decided to sell us the Biggie album.

♪ c*ck it, extra clips… ♪

[Burrowes] But now,
we had to find a way to pay for it.

[Biggie] ♪ I f*ck around
And get hardcore ♪

[Burrowes] We were
living on borrowed time.

I went about setting up the meetings.

We met with Epic, Sony, Columbia.

And we met with Clive Davis at Arista.

[woman on TV] Everybody knows him
on a first name basis.

Clive runs a 100-million-dollar
record company called Arista.

♪ He's all I got ♪

[woman on TV] He has discovered
Whitney Houston,

Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin,

and a long list of other pop stars
who thrive in the world,

according to Clive.

[tense pensive music playing]

[Burrowes] So we went to Clive,

and we played a few tracks
from B.I.G.'s album.

I remember one of the first ones
that we played was "Gimme the Loot."

[Biggie] ♪ Yes, love
Love your f*cking attitude ♪

♪ Because the n*gga play p*ssy… ♪

And Clive's eyes went like this.

[Biggie] ♪ I'm slamming n*gg*s
Like Shaquille ♪

♪ sh*t is real… ♪

And I said, "Wow, you got the goods."
And I bought into his vision.

[Biggie] ♪ Gimme the loot!
Gimme the loot! ♪

-♪ Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot! ♪
-♪ I'm a bad, bad boy ♪

[Combs] I named it Bad Boy

'cause I wanted to go against the grain.

I didn't want to just make records.
I didn't want to just make money.

I wanted to make history.

Word up! Bad boy, representing.
Puff Daddy.

[ominous music playing]

[Burrowes] I was at Bad Boy

starting from the day
that we put the LLC together.

And Sean gave me 25% in stock,
and his mother Janice

had 75%.

He did not put the company in his name

to protect him
from paying families at CCNY.

And I saw from that moment on,

Sean had shifted in his personality.

I didn't see any more
of the Mount St. Michael teen Sean.

And he had become
more like the person I see today.

We did a deal
for approximately $10 million.

$1.5 went as an advance
into Sean's pocket.

Another $1.5
is supposed to be our overhead.

Sean said, "That's yours.
You can do whatever you want with it."

"But you better make sure
my company's running."

[ominous music continues]

From day zero,
I wrote everything down, every day,

so I could keep track
of everything I needed to do.

I ran all the money,
all the budgets for the company,

as well as a lot for his personal life
and all that came with it.

I don't like the way you're treating me
on me getting my second half.

This sh*t is bullshit.
Yo, yo, bust your asses and ask me…

[Burrowes] I think that he had this thing
with strongmen.

And he had a thing with wanting to be one,
but not positioned to be one street-wise,

but positioned to be one industry-wise.

And they call that a paper gangster.

…sh*t over. I'm not paying,
nor am I involved in any of that sh*t.

And so as he's paper-gangstering,

he's also trying to street gangster too,

at the same time.

Savage! I'm a savage!

[Burrowes] He's not from the street.

His mother did the very best
to give him the best.

What's next? Give me something else.
What can't you do? I can do it.

But now,
he's been getting beefier and beefier

with the power from the music.

That's a good way
to get your head filled up

to think that you're just as gangster
as they are now,

without even having
to pop your g*n off yourself.

♪ You wanna step
You must be freebasing… ♪

Now after all this time,
me and Misa is still cool.

We was just friends.

[music fades]

But one time, she just happened
to be in my driver's seat of my truck.

And all of a sudden,
I heard somebody go… and it's him.

[ominous music playing]

He's steaming.

He swings on me.

So I'm laughing, 'cause I'm like,

"You swung on me?"

You're putting yourself in jeopardy,
knowing you can't whoop none of us.

So now, I'm like,
"Yo, let's go around the corner."

Because I'm respectful enough.

So he actually gets in the car,
and we drive around the corner.

So I'm about to give him the business.

sh*t could have got really ugly.

He just said, "Sit down,
I want you to hear something real quick."

And that's when he played me
the Biggie Smalls album.

["Juicy" playing]

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ This album is dedicated
to all the teachers that told me ♪

♪ I'd never amount to nothing… ♪

The "Juicy" single, dropped summer of '94.

♪ It was all a dream
I used to read Word Up! Magazine ♪

[Burrowes] But Biggie's trajectory
was not zero straight to the top.

Biggie had a slow start.
Very nervous at first.

[tense pensive music playing]

At the time,
that West Coast thing is happening.

So we began to look
at what they were doing.

And Tupac was like a shining star.

There's a song called
"I Get Around" by Tupac.

♪ I get around
Still down with the underground clowns ♪

♪ Round and round and round they go
I get around ♪

[Burrowes] That song,
if you're in a science lab,

and you're looking at something
with a microscope,

and you're trying to figure out
what it is, and what it's made of,

that's what we did with that song,
"I Get Around." [laughs]

Sean was just mesmerized
by that particular song.

The structure of it,
the video and the visuals.

It showed the culture.

It's like, let me dissect this.
Let me understand it. Let me do it my way.

The next single was "Big Poppa."

And that dropped,
and it took us over the edge with Biggie.

-♪ I like this ♪
-♪ Yeah ♪

[Burrowes] He was out of here
from that moment on.

♪ I love it when you call me Big Poppa ♪

♪ Throw your hands in the air
If you's a true playa ♪

[William Lesane] We had Ready To Die
before it came out.

B.I.G. had sent Tupac a demo.

We played that tape to death, man.
We played that tape till it was destroyed.

[tense music playing]

And then Pac got the phone call that
Big was having an album-release party.

He said to us,
"Man, we all going to that."

He was very excited for him.

The Notorious B.I.G. album-release party.
It was so phat and hip. Everybody's here…

[Lesane] I've never seen someone
more excited for someone else's success

as Pac was for B.I.G.'s success.

-[Biggie] Ready, n*gga?
-[man] Yeah.

Ready for that raw dog sh*t, n*gga?

-[man] Only on Underground.
-Okay. All right.

Let me see how I'ma hit you with it.

[Lesane] He thought Big was dope.

He wasn't doper than him
as far as he was concerned.

♪ Tupacolypse don't sleep
I keep a motherfuckin' GL*CK in my car… ♪

[Lesane] But he was
the next thing smoking.

♪ I'm a high guy, from Bed-Stuy
Putting the swelling on your eye ♪

♪ Your nose even
When I choke you, you stop breathing ♪

♪ When police come, I'm leaving ♪

Peace and love.

-You saw that?
-[man] Yeah.

[ominous music playing]

[Lesane] Pac would take B.I.G.
with him on tours

and let him open up for him.

♪ …three Becks as I wreck sh*t
What the f*ck you expected? ♪

♪ A fly guy? Well, f*ck it
I'm the high guy from… ♪

[Lesane] Pac was developing Thug Life,

this ideology of taking back
our communities.

B.I.G. was with that.
He felt it. He resonated with it.

So they had a connection.

Sean was insanely jealous
of Biggie and Pac's friendship.

[ominous music continues]

[Combs] When I was around B.I.G.,
I felt like he really loved me.

I felt like if I left the room,
he wasn't gonna say nothing bad.

Or, if somebody said something bad
about me, he'd defend that.

He's probably one of the only people
I really trusted, like, for a long time.

-We going to the writing room right now.
-Gonna turn the AC on in here?

There's a yearning for him to have
that complete, total control.

"You're my artist. You're my best friend."

We were writing this song
for like 30 m*therf*cking days.

♪ Extra clips in my pocket… ♪

[Burrowes] "I pay you. You work for me."

[laughing]

[Burrowes] "I make hits with you."

♪ I needed money of my own
So I started slinging… ♪

[Burrowes] "And who is this guy?"

[ominous music playing]

"Why do we need him in the picture?"

Guess who gonna win?

[Burrowes] Tupac was
a very likable person.

All the women loved him.

Being a rapper, being a movie star.

For Sean, being a marketer,
you're a manipulator.

-Please welcome Tupac Shakur.
-[audience cheering and screaming]

[Burrowes] And there's envy for people
who have success, fame,

with no manipulation.

Puff is, to me, very threatened by Pac.

When I reflect on
how this all came into play,

it's a trail.

[ominous music continues]

City College.

Innocent lives got taken.

Then it became the ability
to get away with anything.

Then you circle in the fact
that he has legit money.

Then you have the antagonist,
Tupac Shakur.

[music intensifies]

All those ingredients
created the chain of events

that started in New York

and ended in Vegas.

[police sirens wailing faintly]

[officer over radio]
I'm out on one right now.

I got a couple guys shot.
Need medical ASAP.

[music turns dramatic]

[man] Do you know who was responsible
for the k*lling of Tupac Shakur?

No, I don't.

[ominous music playing]

[Burrowes] I think that Sean,
now in my mature mind,

had a lot to do with the death of Tupac.

[dramatic music playing]

[unsettling music playing]

[music turns dramatic]