How Did 50 Cent Get the Diddy Footage? What to Know About the Never-Before-Seen Videos in The Reckoning By Caroline Blair

The bombshell four-part docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning includes never-before-seen footage of Sean “Diddy” Combs just days before his September 2024 arrest.

The videos show Combs making several calls to his legal team — including attorney Marc Agnifilo — discussing his legal troubles. Combs hired a videographer at the time to document his life before he was indicted on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson served as an executive producer on the docuseries, while Alexandria Stapleton directed it. Both Jackson and Stapleton have kept tight-lipped about how they obtained the footage, but they have maintained that they did so legally and have the “necessary rights” to it.

However, Combs — who is serving a 50-month sentence in prison after being acquitted of the racketeering and trafficking charges and convicted on the prostitution charges — has issued a cease-and-desist order through his attorneys, in which he alleges the footage was never authorized for release. Netflix responded by calling Combs’ comments “false.”

Here’s everything to know about how Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson obtained footage of Sean “Diddy” Combs ahead of his arrest, as shown in Sean Combs: The Reckoning.

What footage was shown of Diddy in Sean Combs: The Reckoning?

The Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning opens with previously unseen footage of Combs speaking on the phone with one of his lawyers, Agnifilo, inside his room at the Park Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Sept. 10, 2024.

Combs initially captured the footage with the help of a videographer whom he hired to record his legal issues prior to his arrest on Sept. 16. In the footage, Combs put Agnifilo on speakerphone while he expressed his frustrations over his looming indictment.

“I’m having this emergency call, because something has to give,” Combs told Agnifilo. The lawyer urged Combs to stick to the “core theme” that he “didn’t do anything wrong on any front” and that he came to the city to “face things head on” with “complete honor.”

“I don’t think it’s working,” Combs quipped. “I’ve listened, I’ve been a superb client. As you’ve said, I jumped on a plane, I’m coming to New York, but I’m just running around waiting for a shoe to drop.”

Combs went on to recommend that Agnifilo hire a communications representative to appeal to the broader masses.

“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 the dirtiest of dirtiest dirty business of media and propaganda,” Combs told him, while he added later, “We’re losing.”

In addition to Combs discussing his legal troubles with team members, he is also seen making calls about his finances, biking around N.Y.C., learning about new civil suits against him, visiting his stomping grounds in Harlem and taking photos with fans.

“The amount of people that actually I’m coming in contact with, that’s what I have to do,” he said while asking for hand sanitizer. “It’s time to cleanse, I gotta go under the water, water gotta be boiling hot, put some peroxide in that.”

Why did Diddy hire a videographer to document his legal problems?

The footage shown in Sean Combs: The Reckoning was filmed by a videographer Combs hired to capture the days leading up to his arrest.

“I don’t think you can get closer,” 50 Cent told Tudum of the footage. “He was documenting himself on his way to jail.”

After Netflix made the video footage public, a spokesperson for Combs claimed that the video was taken for the rapper’s own documentary that he allegedly had arranged with Netflix. However, the film was allegedly postponed amid his legal issues.

One of Combs’ spokespersons, Juda Engelmayer, told The New York Times in a statement that the footage featured “private moments, pre-indictment material from an unfinished project, and conversations involving legal strategy that were not intended for public viewing.”

While Combs’ exact intentions for filming certain aspects of his life remain unclear, 50 Cent and Stapleton have shared their opinions on the rapper’s decision.

“To be honest, I don’t know why somebody would want to do that,” 50 Cent told GQ after the docuseries aired in December. “When I saw it was like, ‘Oh, s—. Wow.’ ”

Meanwhile, Stapleton theorized that he was recording himself in hopes of controlling “his own narrative.”

“I mean, I think you can tell that Sean is a person who likes to film himself,” she told the publication. “He had a whole 10-year run in reality programming, right? I don’t know what the end result is, but I think that it is fair to say that he likes to control his own narrative and wants to always be the person that is going to author his story.”

How did 50 Cent obtain the footage of Diddy for Sean Combs: The Reckoning?

50 Cent, Stapleton and Netflix have all kept the source of the footage private.

“It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights,” Stapleton told Tudum. “We moved heaven and earth to keep the filmmaker’s identity confidential. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession throughout the decades. We also reached out to Sean Combs’ legal team for an interview and comment multiple times, but did not hear back.”

50 Cent has also emphasized the importance of keeping their source confidential. “I figure most journalists would not disclose their sources,” he told NBC News in an interview aired Dec. 1.

The rapper reiterated his intentions during his GQ interview when the reporter asked him how he obtained the footage. “You’re a journalist, right? You’re not going to reveal your sources, so why would you ask me to reveal my sources?” 50 Cent said.

“But look, you know that when you’re part of the culture that things will come to you faster than something that’s not,” he added. “Because whoever he’ll be working with, it is usually [someone] in or around the culture, so, it surfaced.”

What has Diddy’s team alleged about the footage?

On Dec. 1 — just one day before the docuseries hit Netflix — Combs’ lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the streamer cancel the launch of the series. In the letter, Combs’ attorneys alleged that the footage had been illicitly obtained and violated contractual agreements.

“The footage was created for an entirely different purpose, under an arrangement that was never completed, and no rights were ever transferred to Netflix,” Engelmayer claimed in a statement to NBC News. “A payment dispute between outside parties does not create permission for Netflix to use unlicensed, private material. None of this footage came from Mr. Combs or his team, and its inclusion raises serious questions about how it was obtained and why Netflix chose to use it.”

Engelmayer further slammed Netflix for its alleged “reckless disregard.” Combs’ representatives further accused the streamer of creating a “shameful hit piece” with alleged “stolen footage that was never authorized for release.”

Meanwhile, Netflix has maintained that the footage was gathered legally.

“The claims being made about Sean Combs: The Reckoning are false,” a Netflix rep told Variety in a statement in early December. “The project has no ties to any past conversations between Sean Combs and Netflix. The footage of Combs leading up to his indictment and arrest were legally obtained. This is not a hit piece or an act of retribution.”