The awaited end of Sean Combs

Los Angeles, CA (News4usonline) – Alexandria Stapleton’s daring docuseries, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, was an inevitable surprise I didn’t think would come into fruition in the year of 2025. Released on Netflix on December 2nd, the docuseries has helped create a resurgence of interest in the life of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs; the musician, the mogul, the legend.

 However, it could be subjectively safe to say that the legend itself has morphed into a grim cautionary tale of how a man’s skeletons were bound to be released from the closet. 

As people may or may not know, Combs was charged with federal sex trafficking, transportation to engage with prostitution, and racketeering (RICO). Amongst this, there also was a flood of lawsuits brought against him pertaining to sexual misconduct, one of which he settled to pay a $20 million dollar settlement to his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura.

 Ventura, who was only one of his many alleged victims, did not appear in the docuseries, though her story and countless others would serve as the foundation to what actually happened in the inner world of Sean John Combs. 

At first I avoided having to sit down and bring myself to watch the docuseries. It took a lot of self convincing to visually be made aware of the actual terrors this man reigned above others. 

Stapleton did not hold back to lift the veil, and the industry that we know Hollywood to be is a master of concealing its true underbelly of secrets. Her creative direction forces the audience to bear witness to it all, and momentarily carry the discomforts of another man’s sins. 

The docuseries, which consisted of four episodes total, also includes actual footage of Combs before his impending trial. Stapleton’s decision in utilizing this footage is intentional. We as the audience get a front row seat in how Comb’s is reacting to the destruction he brought onto himself. 

The footage also offers a raw glimpse of a man who appears seemingly ignorant to the weight of his own mistakes. Or maybe his disillusionment by the situation at hand. 

The central theme of the first episode, fittingly titled “Pain vs. Love”, shows us the background Combs was born into, and the cultural complexities he inherited. In the first few minutes of this episode, we hear Combs declare, “I wanna fight for my life.” 

This very line echoes a dark foreshadow from the future that is redirected to the origins of his past. With the early death of his allegedly criminal father Melvin Combs, Combs was raised by his widowed mother, Janice Combs in the harsh landscape of the 1970s. 

Being a young Black boy being raised by a single Black mother after his father was murdered, the docuseries paints a picture of innocence that did not stand a chance of healthy survival given Comb’s actual home life. Surrounded by hustlers of all trades, his childhood home was allegedly acquainted with pimps, prostitutes, to even other possible criminals, all who were associates of his mother. 

Growing up in the 1970s in New York was a grim reality which, in Combs’ case, added layers of unprotected awareness; from the people he was around (and who had access to him) and the mature media he consumed, such as Blaxploitation films. 

You could imagine what it would be like for a child to not have the understanding of their environment, but Comb’s early exposure to these things planted roots that would become embedded in his early development. The adultification of black boys is a discussion very few in the community conduct with honesty, and in the case of this docuseries, it plays a pivotal role in how Comb’s exposure to adult behaviors as well as the lifestyle his mother paraded around him during his formative years. 

With his mom dressing him up in a mature “dandy” fashion, despite his very young age, the lasting impacts of this was bound to leave a permanent impression on Comb’s pre-adolescent psyche, that would later manifest into questionable behaviors and actions in his adulthood. 

The focus on Combs’s childhood quickly shifts into his late teens and early adulthood. Having dropped out of Howard in his second semester, Combs knew – somehow, some way – he wanted an entry into the music industry. Initially a dancer and becoming a party promoter, he subsequently networked with many popular disc jockeys and emerging artists during the early 1990s, and became a local staple in his area. 

It was written in the stars that he’d eventually cross paths with Andre Harrell, the founder of the music label, Uptown Records. From being starting off as an unpaid intern for the label, Combs allowed for his work ethic to speak for itself, soon graduating to become hired as Harrell’s A&R. 

Comb’s revelled in his new position, strategically laying down the pre-work of his next move; branching out into the creation of his own label. Co-founding Bad Boy Records with his longtime friend, Kirk Burrowes, Combs ambitiously sought to chart his own lane in the uprising genre of Hip Hop. 

Combs automatically envisioned a unique angle that would set himself apart for his peers. Though having a brief history as a dancer, Combs was never musically inclined. However, he was a man with a keen sense of style and vision. Helping launch the career of the R&B boy band Jodeci, Combs only continued to elevate beyond that point, working with promising artists such as the R&B songstress Mary J. Blige. 

Combs had a specific penchant for sound, being one of the pioneers to merge Hip Hop and R&B melodies and beats which created a new sonic trend that would be a highlight of his productive artistry. But this only scratched the surface of the true beginning. Combs’s violent tendencies seeped through as we followed his journey at the start of his label’s early development.

 Raised in a household where he allegedly was no stranger to harsh physical discipline, this is believed to be what could have been the basis of his behaviors. Specifically towards women. Joe Dickerson-Neal, a hopeful singer, became a victim of Combs’ first hand when he allegedly sexually assaulted her in 1991, not long after a celebrity basketball event Combs co-hosted became unfortunately into a fatal massacre. 

This trial marked the first chapter of Combs’ recorded violence, a reputation that would bleed into the relationship with his peers in the industry. From friends, associates, rivals turned foes. When Combs met rapper Christopher Wallace, aka “Biggie Smalls”, he foresaw the prime opportunity. 

With a distinct history of cheating and derailing the careers of his artists, it was lucrative that Combs placed the right people in his controlled orbit. The second episode, “What Goes Down Must Come Up”, the narrative trails Combs many wrongdoings, many of which came to calculated – yet inevitable ends. 

Thrusting himself between the mutual allyship of Wallace and the culturally rising Lesane Crooks, aka “Tupac Shakur”, Combs allegedly puppeteered a power play that would cause a lasting rift that would inadvertently revere them as incomparable figures in Hip Hop. The theme of the second episode is power, a weapon Combs wields with sly command. 

With his eyes on his targets, each person who comes into the sphere of Combs becomes a piece within his game. With an alleged altercation with the notorious west coast record executive and cofounder of Death Row Records, Marion “Suge” Knight. What allegedly unfolded between Combs and Knight was unveiled, and the action following their encounter (which cost the life of one of Knight’s friends) would seal the fate of two men who were merely pawns. 

Wallace was Combs’ artist, which Combs had helped produce some of his many great hits, and when Combs came into contact with Shakur, he saw a man whom he saw to immaculate, and thus presumably destroy. One had authentic talent, and the other possessed an unmatched influence that was praised with sovereignty. 

The medicine for power for which Combs believed was insatiable. Combs dealt the cards that were already stacked to his advantage, and allegedly he carefully networked with people who he knowingly entrusted to do his bidding. Stapleton’s raw footage of Combs, which is intercepted throughout each episode, serves a purpose to draw a thin line of contrast.

 The version of Combs we know parallels the versions of him who left an impact on the lives he has either exploited, or stolen. The episodes compile many events that align in a domino effect. Many people who have had the unfortunate pleasure of encountering Combs in his many chapters of fame, were in some way, left with a scar.

A scar of remembrance for fear that he had intentionally instilled within them, echoing the many fates he has robbed and discarded. The segway into the third episode, titled “Official Girl”, explores Combs’ many interpersonal relationships. His partnership with the late Kim Porter was a bond that seemingly fashioned Combs as a modern Black successful patriarch. 

This relationship, which coincided with his long budding romance with Cassie Ventura, whom he met when she was 19 years old, served as a paradoxical facet to Comb’s public persona.

Following the death of Kim Porter in 2018 from pneumonia, the true nature of Combs and Ventura’s relationship was shown in the third episode, specifically pertaining to their sexual lives and history of activity. 

The intimate information detailed by a sex worker, Clayton Howard, who was hired by Ventura under the orders of Combs, revealed unsettling details. The central theme of fear was prevalent, as Stapleton ensured to convey the surreal discomfort pertaining to sexual exploitation, both consensual and non consensual, that is well known within the darkest corners of Hollywood. 

Stapleton strongly attempts to reiterate how Combs’ known sexual deviancies is not something that should easily go unnoticed. The intentional crafting of this narrative comes to an uneasy height this episode. Stapleton carefully also attempts to humanize Ventura’s experience as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse. This also goes for the many people Combs have also threatened and harmed. 

The harrowing repercussions of exploitation, harassment, abuse, and subjugation bleeds into the fourth and final episode. Titled “Blink Twice”, Stapleton’s final installment in this docuseries is a cautionary reminder for the audience to not yet look away. The shame and disgust at Combs’s actions are treated through a direct lens. 

We must know and reconcile with the fact that this is a man who made conscious decisions during his lifetime that has forever influenced what we understand the industry to truly be within its concealed inner workings. The element of truth takes center stage, calling out Combs’ legacy as a twisted fraud. 

A man who, with more gradual access to money, fame, and notoriety, was able to feed his immoral vices at the expense of other people’s safety and lives. With the accounts of his former employee, Capricorn Clark, and musician and producer Rodney “Lil Ron” Jones, we see the full extent of how far Combs will go to exercise his manipulative tactics and terrors. 

While Ventura was not present for an interview in the docuseries, it ensured to capture the emotional toils she had suffered in her periods during and after Combs, eventually escaping him. This also included singer Aubrey O’Day (a former member of Comb’s girl group, Danity Kane), who ambiguously states a recount of an associate who claimed she witnessed O’Day being sexually assaulted perpetrated by who was alluded to being Combs and another unidentified man. 

With the core information grotesquely detailed, there are many truths revealed and hinted at in this docuseries. What this man has done, whether alleged or confirmed, will always remain standing, looming over the lives of those who have unfortunately lived it. 

We may never be able to uncover the entire story that paints the world of Sean John Combs as there are numerous currently pending charges being against him, but Stapleton’s attempts to deconstruct the integrity of Comb’ legacy serves its purpose to face truths with acceptance, empathy, and courage.

Cover Photo: LOS ANGELES – FEB 8: Sean Combs, Diddy at the “The Four” Season 1 Finale Viewing Party at Delilah on February 8, 2018 in West Hollywood, CA