The P. Diddy Case — The Reckoning: Key Highlights and Song Disses
The Reckoning is a four-part docuseries detailing Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy/Puff Daddy) and his alleged crimes, revealing crucial and never-before-seen footage of the controversial rap mogul. Produced by 50 Cent and Alexandria Stapleton, this series arrives in the wake of Diddy’s already tarnished reputation, which drew significant attention following the 2023 lawsuit by Cassie Ventura, his ex-girlfriend of approximately 11 years.
What differentiates this documentary is its focus on character. Rather than relying solely on court documents or media reports, The Reckoning interrogates who Sean Combs has consistently shown himself to be: a figure driven by ego, control, and jealousy, protected for decades by money, fear, and industry silence. Crucially, it also demands a reexamination of something many fans overlooked for years: how often artists tried to tell us who Diddy really is. How many signs have we missed? How long have artists been trying to expose Diddy for his crimes?
Here are some highlights I found most shocking upon watching, followed by lyrics that, in light of this new footage, now seem especially telling.
The City College Stampede
In December 1991, Combs and the rapper Heavy D organized a celebrity charity basketball game at the City College of New York (CCNY). The event was heavily oversold, drawing around 5,000 people to a gymnasium with a capacity of just over 2,700. A crowd surge and stampede occurred when the doors were shut, resulting in the deaths of nine people and injuries to 29 others.
The documentary illustrates that Diddy’s foundation of negligence and shift in character began to show in the handling of the 1991 City College Stampede tragedy. It alleges that Diddy oversold the event for profit and failed to provide adequate security.
While no one was held criminally responsible, Kirk Burrowes (co-founder of Bad Boy Entertainment) alleges in The Reckoning that Diddy attempted to avoid paying the victims of the tragedy by intentionally keeping his name off Bad Boys paperwork: “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."
Diddy is speculated to be behind both Tupac's and Biggie's deaths
Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., two of hip-hop's most renowned artists, were killed in drive-by shootings in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Their deaths remain unresolved.
Diddy allegedly offered a million-dollar bounty on Tupac and Suge Knight
The documentary includes audio from a 2008 police interview with Duan “Keefe D” Davis, a member of the Crips who was charged with the murder of Tupac in the 1996 drive-by shooting. In the interview, Davis claims that Diddy offered to pay the South Crips gang $1 million to kill Tupac and Death Row Records producer Suge Knight amid the escalating East Coast-West Coast feud and the release of Tupac’s diss track ‘Hit Em Up’. Additionally, Burrowes states, “I think that Sean now, in my mature mind, had a lot to do with the death of Tupac.”
Diddy allegedly “ushered Biggie to his death.”
The documentary further alleges that Combs knowingly placed Biggie in danger. Following Tupac Shakur's murder, Los Angeles became a dangerous place for East Coast artists.
Many on the West Coast believed Bad Boy Records was involved in Tupac's death. This belief came from the public feud between Tupac's label (Death Row, West Coast) and Biggie's label (Bad Boy, East Coast). This conflict began when 1994 when Tupac Shakur was shot and robbed in the lobby of a New York recording studio. Tupac believed that Sean "Puffy" Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, and Biggie Smalls, its biggest star, had prior knowledge of the attack or were involved. From that point on, Tupac, who later signed with Death Row Records on the West Coast, made direct and public accusations against Combs and Biggie in interviews and, most famously, in his song "Hit 'Em Up”, a violent diss track explicitly targeting Biggie, Bad Boy Records, and Diddy:
“We bust on Bad Boys, n****s fuck for life / Plus, Puffy tryin’ to see me weak ...Who shot me? But you punks didn't finish / Now you're about to feel the wrath of a menace.”
This music rivalry was also connected to actual LA gang conflicts. Death Row was linked to the Bloods gang. Members of the Crips gang were implicated in Tupac's murder. This put any high-profile East Coast figure in LA at direct risk in an active gang conflict.
When Tupac was killed, the situation changed. For Tupac's allies, it was now a real-life conflict, not just a music rivalry. Biggie, as Bad Boy's biggest star and Tupac's main rival, became the most likely target for revenge.
Accompanied by never-before-seen footage of Biggie’s murder, Burrowes claims that Diddy canceled Biggie’s trip to London and extended his stay in Los Angeles to promote his new album despite being aware of the hostile environment. "Biggie didn't want to go," Burrowes states, "but Sean talked him into doing all those things."
Further complicating matters, the documentary also alleges that after Biggie’s death, Diddy attempted to charge the funeral costs to the late rapper’s estate. According to Burrowes, Diddy said: "‘We’re gonna do the biggest funeral, but Biggie’s gonna have to pay for this funeral.'”
Lyrical Warnings
What makes these allegations particularly disturbing is how often artists have alluded to their narratives over the years. Eminem is among them, and his lyrics now seem to read like a coded testimony:
‘Fuel’ (2024): explicit reference to Diddy's alleged involvement
“R.I.P., rest in peace, Biggie / And Pac, both of y'all should be living (yep) / But I ain't tryna beef with him (nope) / 'Cause he might put a hit on me like, "Keefe D, get him."
‘Fuel’ Shady Edition (2024): elaborates on Biggie's death
"Notorious B.I.G.'s death was the domino effect of Tupac's murder Like facial tissue, whose card should I clean next? / Puff’s?
"Kill Shot" (2018): Eminem directly implicates Diddy
"But, Kells, the day you put out a hit’s the day Diddy admits / That he put the hit out that got Pac killed."
50 Cent also weighs in on the matter years prior in his track “Hip Hop” (2006), connecting Diddy to Biggie’s death:
‘Who shot Biggie Smalls? We don’t get ‘em, they gon’ kill us all / Man, Puffy knows who hit that n***a, man, that n***a soft.”
Perpetual Violence: The Case of Aubrey O’Day
The documentary also builds on allegations of sexual abuse first brought into the public eye by Cassie Ventura, a singer and model who dated Combs for over a decade. Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit detailed years of physical violence, coercion, and sexual assault, marking a turning point in how the public viewed Combs’s behavior. The Reckoning features firsthand testimonies from several individuals.
Aubrey O’Day, a former member of Danity Kane, shares her disturbing encounters with Diddy. The singer, who competed on the series Making the Band 3, revealed that she received an affidavit from another alleged victim of the producer. This woman claimed to have witnessed Diddy and another man allegedly assaulting O'Day at Bad Boy studios, stating that O'Day appeared "out of it" and partially clothed during the incident.
In one of the documentary's most harrowing moments, O'Day processes this information in real-time: "Does this mean I was raped?" the former Danity Kane member asked in the docuseries. "Is that what this means? I don’t even know if I was raped, and I don’t want to know."
O'Day also shared sexually explicit emails that Diddy supposedly sent her while she was a member of Danity Kane, asserting that she was dismissed from the group "for not participating sexually."
It seems that once again, Eminem has been warning us about Diddy’s corrupt nature in his track ‘Fuel’, using a double entendre to highlight the industry’s open secret:
“I'm like a R-A-P-E-R (yeah) / Got so many S-As (S-As), S-As (huh) / Wait, he didn't just spell the word, "Rapper" and leave out a P, did he? (Yep)”
Sean Combs is currently sentenced to 50 months in prison, convicted in July 2025 on two counts of transportation for prostitution, but acquitted on more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
