Sean Combs: The Reckoning (2025) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Happy birthday to you
Everybody.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, Puff Daddy
Happy birthday to you
Thank you.
I always looked at him
as just being this rich Harlem cat
who just wanted to dance and make money.
All the ladies look so right.
All the niggas, all the real players
in the motherfuckin' house.
Throw your hands in the air…
No violence in him.
But every time I turned around,
there's violence.
There's violence with his name on it.
B-I-G-G-I-E. A-K-A…
At the time, there's this tension
that is going on between Pac and Puff.
When I'm gone…
Puff wanted to work with Pac
on a lot of levels, business-wise.
And Pac wasn't having it.
He was more interested
in Biggie and his career.
Puff was very threatened by Pac.
He was very threatened,
especially if you're an executive
who wanted the guy to make you money,
and the guy's saying, "No, fuck you."
Around that time,
Tupac was going to do a song
with Little Shawn
at Quad Studio.
They wanted me to do this song,
so I said, all right.
Stopped off to get some weed…
…smoked the weed.
Then I was getting a page,
"Where you at? Why you ain't coming?"
I was like, "I'm coming.
I'm on my way, hold on."
I wasn't thinking,
"Why they want me here so bad?"
We walking up to the building.
Somebody screamed from up the top
of the studio, and it's Lil' Cease.
He's like Biggie's side man.
We was recording with B.I.G. and Puff,
and I'm yelling, like, "Yo, Pac!"
He looked up,
"Yo, what's up, little nigga?"
I go back in the room, I tell B.I.G.,
I'm like, "Yo, B.I.G., Pac downstairs."
He was like, "Oh, all right, go get him."
Get into the elevator,
and when I was about to walk out,
two dudes came from both sides.
"Get the fuck back in the elevator."
Shit.
Recording artist Tupac Shakur
was shot five times last night
in a robbery attempt.
After surgery, his condition
was upgraded to satisfactory,
and he checked out of the hospital
against his doctor's advice.
I think they was trying
to rub me out, really.
Robbers don't leave behind,
uh, $80,000 Rolexes.
You know what I mean?
They don't do that. In case nobody know.
Let's look at the facts.
Puff is there.
Pac has been shot in New York
under your watch.
The question would be,
who knew that he was pulling up?
Biggie, nor myself,
had nothing to do whatsoever
of, um, Tupac being robbed.
We… We… That's just a fact.
After everything that has unfolded,
I have to think twice
about how that situation went down.
Do you think Puffy
was involved in the shooting?
I believe so.
I do believe so. I have proof…
You can see now why someone like a Puff
would want someone
like a Pac out the picture.
You know,
Pac was vilified while he was alive.
And Puff was exalted.
That's the bigger picture.
And that's a story that hasn't been told.
Bad Boy! Bad Boy!
Obviously, Barkley,
A.J. Brown, what have you.
It allows them to get a clearer picture,
stretches the defense
horizontally faster, right?
And it also, conversely,
makes the defense think a tick longer…
This shit is not fucking funny.
There's a whole lot
of crazy shit going on.
I went and saw they knocked
the Bad Boy building down.
Yeah.
That shit was crazy to me
that that shit wasn't there,
which is a sign to me, like,
nigga, time to go to the future.
Time to go to the future.
"That was a little building,
compared to the building
I got ready for you, son."
You know what I'm saying?
It was a sign to me.
I'm saying, that shit was there
like two months ago, right?
-I'm not tripping.
-Yeah, it was there.
Puff is in this position
where he has all this turmoil.
But he's not at the point
where he's saying, "Where I went wrong?"
He's saying to himself,
"How do I get out of this?"
"Maybe I can convince some witnesses
that I'm not the guy who I am."
Eventually, he's going to get to the point
where he's going to ask himself,
"How did I get myself in this situation?"
Bad Boy
Niggas is mad…
'95, we had two of the hottest acts.
Craig Mack gave us "Flava in Ya Ear"…
Here comes the brand-new
Flava in ya ear
Time for new flava in ya ear
…and Biggie.
You got a gun up in your waist
Please don't shoot up the place
-Why?
-'Cause I see some ladies tonight…
Bad Boy was rising up.
My little lab right here, you know,
where I cut my deals and all that.
Got my little headset. Living out a dream…
One time, Sean was in his office.
I'm in a little cubbyhole
around the corner.
He buzzes me.
So I get up and I go in
with my papers and go.
A girl is giving him
a blowjob at the desk.
He wanted me to see that.
He wanted me to see her face.
And he was able to get her to do that
right then and there in the office.
She leaves. I'm…
"What did you want me for?"
"Eh, I didn't want you for anything."
That was the beginning for me to see,
this is what's going on here.
Can everybody make some noise for B.I.G.
for bringing it back to the East?
So the seeds for all of this was early on.
I would like to thank y'all,
Arista Records, BMG…
And that came from people in the industry
co-signing his activity.
Because it brought money in.
I don't know if y'all niggas know this.
"Juicy" went platinum.
"Big Poppa" went platinum.
"Flava in Ya Ear Remix" went platinum.
That whole Bad Boy thing was so big.
Faith Evans.
I wanna be first lady
on Puff Daddy's label…
Total.
What you do to me…
Biggie.
For those imitators…
And Craig Mack.
And the Single of the Year is Craig Mack.
It was a consistent
back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
So let me just give you
a day in the life of Puff Daddy.
Gets up from wherever
he stayed that night,
heads to the office two hours late.
You might have somebody pulling him over,
saying, "Hey, ain't you in that video?"
-"Oh, yo, here go a demo."
-Puffy's over there.
Sure. Oh, what's up, Puff?
How you doing, bro?
Had the big baseball bat cell phones,
and the phone might ring.
Such and such is calling from jail.
"Yo, I'm coming home."
You might have a group
standing in front of the office,
all ready with the microphone,
ready to sing…
You love me, I love…
…just to get their shot at Puffy.
Everybody wants to see him.
He is now the new gateway into music.
You're gonna take all of this power
and money you're getting now,
and play by the rules?
"No, I'm the rule now."
"I am the exception to the rule."
Word up! Bad Boy representing. Puff Daddy!
-It's called Bad Boy, you know?
-Yeah, all right.
One day, it seemed like out of the blue,
my door opens up.
Sean walks in.
He had a baseball bat.
And a big attaché case suitcase
with the snaps on it.
The stocks were there.
We in a fucking hustle,
we in a grind. Do your job…
He wanted me to sign my 25% over.
And then he's over me like this.
He wants the stock back.
He wants it now.
I'm not gonna stay fucking lying down.
I'm not. I can't do that, man.
He said, "There's a business deal
I need to take care of. I need to do it."
"I need this all on one side,
but I'll give it back to you."
"I'm gonna give it back to you."
This shit ain't fucking funny.
Y'all don't know how to be accountable.
And he threatened until I did.
People always say to me,
"Why would you do that?"
Like, "Why did you do that?"
Like, that was, you know.
I didn't want to give it back.
I wanted to stay in good graces.
I still wanted to be at the company.
It wasn't like he was firing me.
But I was definitely confused by it.
It might sound strange,
but if you've ever built something,
and you want it to last,
you think about how to make it last.
I wanna know who's been naughty or nice
With the device turnin' grown men…
I thought he was kind of cool at first,
and then,
we started seeing some things.
Craig started becoming disenchanted.
I want to congratulate Craig Mack
on his Grammy nomination.
-No question.
-Yes, baby.
That's cool…
Yo, you got nominated for a Grammy,
but we had no money.
If you look at Bad Boy,
Bad Boy didn't sell enough records
to explain his wealth.
But enough artists were on the label
that sold enough records
to explain his wealth.
Sean's trick was,
"I'm gonna make you a star."
You're signed, follow the money.
That's what you're gonna try to do
as hard as you can.
You're gonna try your best.
And we know you're gonna try your best.
So you sign your deal.
We gave you your advance.
At Uptown, that's the only money
the artists have ever seen,
that first advance.
Andre had them wait.
They never saw anything else.
Diddy picked that up.
He made it even tighter.
Don't leave your girl around me
True player for real
Ask Puff Daddy…
It's a shell game.
You hide everything that isn't earning.
You confuse the earnings.
"And now I own everything."
You'll go out into the world
and the shell game,
you'll be looking for your money
for the next 20 years.
Sean did that to every artist.
You're in the studio.
Now you have to recoup
for being in the studio.
Puff owns the studio.
"I have four sessions with you,
you owe me $400,000."
…with Biggie Smalls…
If Puff records a song
with his artist, he pays hisself.
If he's in your video, he pays hisself.
He inserted himself into their videos.
A video come on, you're like,
"I fucking hate that guy."
As an artist, you can go number one.
Song is being played all over the nation,
but you don't have the money to go tour
because you're not making
the proper money off of your royalties.
Craig and I hit a point
where we were fucked up.
No money, nothing.
Hell, I was getting money from my father
to take care of the house.
We were all at, like,
somebody's album-release party,
and Craig's gonna tell Puff
to give him a few dollars
and he'll hit him back
once he went and did this show.
He literally went in his pocket
and pulled out
a knot of money this big
and gave him one hundred-dollar bill.
You really just don't give a fuck.
I think Sean had an envy
for his own artists.
He was jealous of their talent
and wondering, like,
"This talent is wasted on people
who don't even really know what to do."
"And if I had that talent
and my know-how, wow!"
That's interesting,
because a lot of people Puffy's age
wanna grab this mic and rap,
but, Puffy, you wanted to do other things.
And you're doing a lot of them.
Can you talk about his skills as a rapper?
Sucks.
He has zero talent musically.
Nothing. He don't know how to--
He don't know nothing about R&B.
None of that stuff.
He used to ask me
to always be there in the sessions
because I would tell the truth.
I'd be like, "That's not it."
People would be there like,
"Yeah, that was tight."
I'd be like, "Yo, for real,
you got a lot of people
who'll just tell you anything."
"That sucked."
"It doesn't sound good
and it makes no sense."
But he always wanted to be an artist.
We about to drop our R&B stuff.
The Puff Daddy album.
What about the Puff Daddy solo project?
-Don't like to talk about that…
-Hey, Puffy…
Sean used other methods and ways
to get to where he had to go.
Big on strategy, big on swag,
all of those things became important.
When it boiled down to the music,
"Even if I didn't touch it,
I showed you what to do."
So that's what he was.
-Damn, you know what I'm saying?
-What?
Damn, you know what I'm saying?
-Where's the makeup at? Makeup?
-Right here.
That whole Bad Boy was built on him.
You cannot take that from him.
But I think that Puffy wanted the light
like he always wanted.
From dancing the whole night.
Anybody that boasts and lies like that,
they wanna be in the spotlight.
It wasn't no secret.
That's what he wanted.
Six foot three, 335-pound,
Suge Knight has managed to become
the head of a $100 million record company.
It's the record label at ground zero
of the whole gangster rap phenomenon,
Death Row Records.
Suge was about that money,
but he didn't want to be
in that limelight like Puff.
He had his own lane.
You're a big guy,
and there are people
who are afraid of you.
There's probably people afraid of you.
Back in 1988, the person who did
the greatest job of protecting me
was the head of my security at the time,
Suge Knight.
I'm on the Heartbreak Tour
with Bobby Brown and New Edition,
been out since September…
We're about to get on the tour bus,
and these dudes came over
and they was, like, talking crazy.
Y'all niggas this,
y'all niggas that, this, this, this.
And I seen Suge kind of just turn this way
and gave him one of these… bam! Like that.
And knocked dude down the hill.
It looked like a cartoon.
Dude was rolling down the hill.
Boom, boom.
His Timbs came off.
He's a street dude.
He's a real street dude.
But Suge knew talent,
and he knew business.
They took me on tour,
and I learned how
every person who's writing songs
was getting beat out their money
like their publishing.
He was able to dovetail that into--
He started Death Row Records.
One, two, three and to the four
Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre
Is at the door…
Death Row can be bigger than Motown,
or Sony, or Warner Bros.
Death Row's gonna be
the biggest record company there is.
The Chronic album is the foundation.
Before Bad Boy, Death Row was
the most successful label in the business.
From the depths of the sea
Back to the block, Snoop Doggy Dogg…
Sean had admired Death Row
and wanted us to emulate them.
Laid back…
And that was my job.
How do I make Bad Boy
equal the success of Death Row?
And, of course, my eyes was like this.
Death Row, they had a head start.
They had artists, they picked superstars
up from other indie labels.
We're starting off.
Me and him were friends.
Who, Suge and you?
Yeah, he would pick me up
from the airport.
I was just networking with the brother.
He showed me a lot of love.
You know.
I really had thought we were cool.
Me and Puffy,
we used to run around with each other.
He was getting in the business,
I was in the business.
Livin' life without fear
Puttin' five karats…
Only a few years later,
Bad Boy, Death Row…
Death Row Is the label that pays me…
…the two hottest labels.
But I would look over
at Death Row and say,
"They're taking care of their artists
better than we are."
They're putting in your head,
"Fuck the artists."
And my thing was opposite.
It's about me and my people.
Fuck you.
Craig wasn't happy there.
Death Row was courting him
because Suge was opening up
a Death Row East.
And it was found out.
-Sean found out about that?
-Yes.
It's the Source Hip-Hop Music Awards!
The Source Awards
was happening in New York City.
Come on, New York!
Yeah
Behind the scenes,
people were running back and forth
to the next dressing room,
to the next dressing room,
which were in trailers
parked outside of Madison Square Garden.
How important is it
to have the Source Award?
Let me just wait in front.
You got that?
Come on,
who's banging on the door like that?
When I-- Dog, what is the deal, man?
Keep the door closed!
And it escalated with words
from the podium at the awards show.
Any artist out there wanna be an artist,
and wanna stay a star,
and don't want to have to worry
about the executive producer
trying to be all in the videos,
all on the record, dancing,
come to Death Row!
I'm the executive producer that
a comment was made about a bit earlier.
But check this out.
Contrary to what other people may feel,
I would like to say
that I'm very proud of Dr. Dre,
of Death Row, and Suge Knight
for their accomplishments.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm a positive Black man, and I make music
to bring us together, not to separate us.
All this East and West,
that needs to stop.
So give it up for everybody from the East
and the West that won tonight.
One love.
Sean wants to present strength.
He wants to show coolness.
And then there's a side of him
that's all-out dark.
He processes things differently.
He remembers every slight.
Once again, y'all, please give it up
for all the nominees.
Before I signed with Bad Boy,
I was working at the door
of the club in Platinum House.
Every Friday, we had a Bad Boy party.
So Puff was there.
Suge Knight came that night
with his friend Jake,
and I was working the door.
Suge was looking for Puff.
Sean would try to go after
people's side chicks,
like a girl in Atlanta
that Suge was dealing with.
Sean wanted me to take $50,000
out of the overhead account
so he could buy her a diamond necklace,
wooing her
because she was Suge's side piece
in Atlanta when he came there.
A real police officer
in a real police uniform
came and got on Jake.
I said, "Man, you touch the homies,
we gonna tear this mother up."
He said, "I gotta throw him out."
I said, "For what?"
He said, "He's with Puffy."
Suge and Jake
was being escorted out the club
by the off-duty officer
we always had there, moonlighting.
Jake comes out.
Suge come out. Puff come out.
Everybody's outside.
A man appeared
with one hand behind his back,
and he was holding a pistol.
He touched Jake with the pistol,
and he looked at Suge like this,
and was shooting Suge's friend like this.
He shot him five times.
Suge grabbed a hold to Puffy
in a choke hold
and put him in the front of him like this.
So he was moving Puff around like this.
In case you shoot him,
you're gonna shoot Puffy.
"You're not gonna shoot me."
Puff was like, "It's gonna be aight, man.
It's gonna be aight."
Suge said, "What you mean
it's gonna be aight?"
He said, "Tell your mama
it's gonna be aight."
"Tell your kids it's gonna be all right."
And then the shooter ran.
Ambulance came
and took Jake to the hospital.
A couple days later, he died.
That's what started
the East Coast-West Coast War.
-Open up, please.
-Coming through.
-Coming through.
-Excuse me.
Tupac Shakur, out of the hospital
after surgery from bullet wounds,
is convicted on sex charges.
After Pac gets shot in Quad Studio,
he had the rape case.
A New York jury convicted the rapper
of first-degree sexual abuse
but acquitted him of more serious charges.
Since your period of incarceration
at Clinton Correctional Facility,
have you taken the time
to reflect on your gangster thug image?
Pac and B.I.G. were friends at one time.
But then once Pac was in jail,
Bad Boy and all of his associations
were nemeses.
I'm in jail.
Strangers is telling me.
"Yo, you don't know?"
"Biggie's homeboy shot you."
'Cause they bragging.
They telling their n in jail,
"Yo, we just got Pac. Woo, woo, woo."
Once the conflict happens,
Pac needed someone strong
that was gonna stand with him.
And it just so happened that Suge
had his own issue with Puffy.
So, Suge went to jail and visited him.
The whole shit is like some mob shit.
Enter Tupac, a young captain.
I want to join the family, Don.
Get me out.
Suge Knight first signed Tupac
to a recording contract
when Tupac was in
this New York State prison,
unable to come up with
the million dollars needed for bail,
while his lawyers appealed
a 1995 conviction for sexual assault.
I want everybody to give
a big welcome for…
Tupac.
Out on bail,
rapper Tupac Shakur's rush-to-market
double album, All Eyez on Me,
debuts at number one
on the Billboard chart.
With the addition of Tupac,
there's no way y'all can stop us now.
Niggas named Bad Boy,
I say fuck them all!
We're coming to the East Coast
to prove there is no fear.
Overthrow the government
y'all got right now,
which is Bad Boy and all that bullshit.
And we will bring a new government here
that will feed every person in New York.
All right, cool.
All right, man, peace. Thanks a lot.
Sean tried everything to get Biggie upset.
He had to go at him with business.
"This guy came at us."
I was more in a mind frame of…
"Keep your mouth shut, B.I.G."
You know what I'm saying?
"Just don't feed into it."
"You feed into it, it's gonna do nothing
but escalate." You know what I'm saying?
Biggie never wanted to be an enemy to Pac.
As things was coming from the West Coast,
Biggie did not want
to give any shots back.
When Pac was producing All Eyez on Me,
he called us and said,
"I just fucked Faith Evans,"
B.I.G.'s wife.
We was like, what?
First off, fuck your bitch
And the clique you claim
Westside, when we ride
Come equipped with game
You claim to be a player
But I fucked your wife…
But that's not true at all.
B.I.G. is still my husband legally.
I am having his baby.
No, I'm not…
Sean kept putting pressure on Biggie.
"You gotta answer back."
Tupac had me pissed off,
you know what I'm saying?
And the rumors that's spreading
is on some tip like we set him up.
You know what I'm saying?
And that's crazy.
The East Coast, West Coast thing
was invented, period.
No matter what, we all went to the East,
they came here, went to the West.
They wasn't arguing with each other.
We was able to roam.
Fuck Biggie
Fuck Bad Boy as a staff, record label
And as a motherfuckin' crew
It was just Bad Boy and Death Row.
Who shot ya?
Separate the weak…
That right there put people in danger
because it made people be like,
"F you. F you."
People started doing stuff for no reason
'cause it's… it's just people
that want to ride for each other.
And then look what happened, so…
Doing the street thing,
my affiliation was
with the Mansfield Hustlers.
Today, uh…
we go by Mansfield Gangster Crips now.
Police say that drugs and violence
are being spread
by two longstanding rivals
in the Los Angeles youth gang scene.
Groups who call themselves Crips
and wear blue colors,
and Bloods who wear red.
Did you guys provide protection?
Sean Combs was a friend.
Christopher Wallace was a friend.
And, you know,
when we hanging out with our friends…
we gonna protect our friends.
So they knew.
And they were our associates.
You got beef with them,
you got beef with me.
Period.
Reports have come out
that Bad Boy Entertainment hired Crips
for security work on the West Coast.
Is that true?
Um, we've never hired Crips
or any other gang faction
to do security for us.
It would be extremely unintelligent
to hire a gang, um,
some gangs to do security for you.
We have never…
A lot of the New York guys
come out to L.A.
Zip is a person that I know
that was Puffy's man.
That was his guy.
Eric Von Zip is a drug lord from Harlem,
but Sean told me he was his uncle.
He might have known Janice on the fringe.
He might have known Sean's father
from those days.
Zip had a relationship
with the Southside Crips,
and then he also
had a relationship with us.
Sean said Zip can give us protection
going back and forth to L.A.
because he was in with the Crips.
And we had a beef
with Suge Knight and the Bloods.
Knight dresses in all red,
the colors
of the drug-dealing Bloods street gang.
One of the Death Row people
got jumped by someone at a mall,
and that someone was from Southside Crips.
One of the Crips
tried to take a Death Row chain.
I think that was an order from Bad Boy,
an order from Puff
because it was specific.
"We want a Death Row chain."
Introducing
the one and only Iron Mike Tyson!
Everybody got what they wanted that night.
People got to see
Tyson knock a motherfucker out.
And Tyson with a left hook
and Seldon is down.
It's over in the first round!
That's probably the reason
it got us all fucked-up
and in a lot of shit from fight night.
When you seen a Tyson fight,
you wanna fight.
I told you all! We back!
At the fight,
the guy who was ripped off
for the Death Row chain
is with Suge and Pac.
He just whispers to Pac, "That's him."
Hey, hey, hey!
It was Orlando Anderson
from Southside Crips
who was connected with Puff.
Next thing I know, I see Pac, like…
Took the nigga down.
That was the foundational moment
when all this was getting out of control.
I'm out on one right now.
I got a couple guys shot.
I need medical ASAP.
Rapper Tupac Shakur
was shot in the chest late Saturday night.
…shot multiple times in the chest
in a drive-by shooting.
Death Row record label owner
Marion "Suge" Knight
was also in the car,
but his injuries were minor.
Craig called me up. It was late.
He was out there at the fight,
'cause he was supposed to have performed
at some club
that Suge owned,
and I guess Tupac
was supposed to come through.
He was like,
"How come Tupac just got shot?"
Craig was, like, scared.
Who was he scared of?
Probably Puff.
He ended up
not going to Death Row after that.
Hi, I'm Tabitha Soren with MTV News.
Controversial rapper
and actor Tupac Shakur
has died in a Las Vegas hospital
of complications from several bullets…
I was in jail.
I was in jail when he got shot.
There was a lot of niggas in jail
that were celebrating Pac's death.
I'm glad that, uh, I didn't kill anybody
or anybody killed me.
But I damn sure came close.
Police in Las Vegas say
they have no motive
for this latest shooting,
but the rapper's troubled past
will certainly be part
of the investigation.
Do you know who was responsible
for the killing of Tupac Shakur?
No, I don't.
I think that Sean, now in my mature mind,
had a lot to do with the death of Tupac.
In 2006, I was recruited
to work a task force
that was going to look at
a cold case investigation.
At the time,
Tupac's murder was an unsolved case.
Gang crimes oftentimes
are difficult to solve
because you don't get
cooperating witnesses.
They want to stick to a code
that typically entails
not cooperating with law enforcement,
and then taking matters
into your own hands.
It ain't my job to snitch on nobody
'cause I would never snitch on nobody.
We had built
a narcotics case against Keffe D.
Keffe D was kind of the shot caller
for the Southside Crips.
He was the most prominent drug dealer.
He was very influential in his gang.
His nephew, Orlando Anderson,
was a very well-known,
violent gang member.
Tupac Shakur had assaulted
Orlando Anderson
just after the Mike Tyson fight.
So Keffe D was potentially looking
at a life sentence
for federal drug trafficking.
Uh, we wanted to question him
about his potential role
in the murder of Tupac Shakur.
We let him know
that he could potentially mitigate
some of the damages
if he wanted to come in and talk to us.
And the U.S. attorney agreed
that they'd allow Keffe D
to do a proffer session.
Keffe, what we'll do,
we're gonna go over with
a fine-tooth comb the Las Vegas incident.
We do have to emphasize to you
if it's determined
that some of these details are incorrect,
then everything's off the table.
A proffer session is when a person
facing criminal charges
can answer questions
wherein self-incriminating information
would not be used against him
in a criminal prosecution.
It doesn't mean
they have any kind of immunity.
Hey, I wanna say this, though, too.
I feel like I said that day,
don't bullshit me
and I won't bullshit y'all.
You know what I'm saying?
In the year prior
to the murder of Tupac Shakur,
he has had several conversations
with Sean Combs.
I met him… he gave a party at…
some club down on Santa Monica.
That's where I met-- First day I met Puff.
Sean Combs's affiliation
with the Southside Crips
came by way of a New York street figure
known as Zip.
Zip set up the introduction
between Combs and Keffe D,
and then they developed
their own relationship.
Zip introduced you,
"This my boy"? What'd he introduce him as?
-"This is my friend, my nephew"?
-"My boy."
"My boy, it's Puff."
And after that,
they used my car on the video.
Which car was that?
The '64 Chevy I had.
Every time I look at you
There's so…
-What color was it?
-Brown.
It was Usher's video.
Puff was driving the car.
Usher's first song ever.
He was in a Laker uniform.
He had the little kid dancing on my car.
When he got back, it was fucked-up.
He had to-- He paid to get it repainted.
Don't have no money
I can't buy a diamond…
Puff, he calls Zip's phone.
He wanted to speak to me.
They gave that BET tour in Anaheim.
He gave us some tickets,
and I brought the crew.
Say, "I wanna hear a new flava in ya ear!"
I wanna hear a new flava in ya ear!
Check it, check it, yeah.
To all the ladies in the place…
Keffe D says that Sean Combs kind of makes
this general announcement
while they're all inside a hotel room
after a musical event.
So it's Harrell, Puffy, Zip, you.
About 40-something Southsiders.
Yeah. That was stupid as hell too,
you know?
Shit, he said he'd give us anything
for them dudes' heads, you know?
-Tupac and Suge, you mean?
-Yeah.
He said it in front of all those people.
I couldn't believe it.
You know what I'm saying?
A whole room full of Crips.
-After Jake got killed.
-Yeah.
So he was on point.
Worried about something happening.
He mouthed off about a bunch of stuff.
-So he was scared.
-He was scared to death.
Okay.
Then there's a more specific incident
that takes place at a deli
on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles,
a place called Greenblatt's Deli.
What made it a specific, like,
"Hey, I'm serious,
I want you guys to kill these guys?"
When he told me-- The Greenblatt's.
When we got there, we was laughing at him.
He was with this broad that sucked dick,
that sucked every dick in there.
He was all up kissing with her.
We was laughing like a motherfucker.
Like, "What you laughing at, dog?"
Man, don't just come out here
and get in any broad, dog.
I took him downstairs. He's like,
"Man, I would get rid of them dudes."
"It's gonna be a problem."
Fuck your bitch
And the clique you claim
-After the record.
-"Hit 'Em Up" came out?
Yeah. That pissed him off.
Yeah, we wanted a million.
-Okay.
-Uh-huh.
He tells you seriously,
"I need to get rid of these guys."
He's looking at you in the eyes
and he's like scared.
Yeah.
You tell him, "We'll do it for a million."
And he's like, "Okay."
-"For a million"? He agrees?
-Yeah.
You shake on it or something like that?
Yeah.
-What happened?
-Gentlemen's-- He…
Like, man, shit,
"We'll wipe their ass out. Quick."
You know? It's nothing.
Here we go, round one. Scheduled for 12.
And Tyson comes right out, right into…
He says that when Las Vegas happens,
and they're all out there,
and his nephew gets assaulted by Tupac,
they're like,
"This is the perfect occasion."
We was eating,
then my head of the gang said,
"They just beat up Lane!"
We was in a hotel.
Yeah. At the MGM, at a restaurant.
There was a few New Yorkers,
though, with Zip.
Like, "Man, y'all need some help?"
"No, we got this."
"This is your perfect opportunity, baby."
-Zip?
-Yeah.
Because of what happened with Lane?
Yeah.
We ain't got no pistols down there and…
Z told me in the lobby
that he had some Jimmies.
-Some what?
-He had a Jimmy.
In the Benz.
He had a little secret compartment.
The thing popped out.
The vehicle that Zip
was driving that night
reportedly had what we call a trap in it.
Which is a concealed compartment
where you can place a gun.
It's a difficult thing to find.
Zip had driven that car to Las Vegas.
A few days before Tupac was murdered,
Sean requested that we rent cars
and have multiple drivers
drive clear across the country
to this fight.
But I arranged, through my budget,
to make that trip happen
for those drivers.
And to this day, it stands out in my mind.
Why did we rent multiple cars?
Why did we hire people
from Harlem and other locations
to drive?
Did you tell Zip, "We're gonna
go handle this shit," or whatever?
Yeah, they asked, "Y'all want us to come?"
"We know where them motherfuckers at."
They was telling us
they gonna be at the 662 Club.
Two cars go to 662?
Yeah, the Benz and the Cadillac.
They didn't show up.
We waited about 15, 20 minutes.
They didn't show up.
So it's like, "Let's go get some liquor."
Then we came up, uh, Harmon,
at the Las Vegas Boulevard.
And, ah, shit.
Here they come in that BMW
with a gang of cars.
On their way to the club,
Suge is blaring his music too loud.
He gets pulled over
by some police officers.
They essentially say,
"Just turn down your music," no big deal.
And it's at this point in time
that Suge and Tupac see these girls.
Like, "There's Suge!"
Police were going through his car
or something or another.
And then, the traffic was stopped
and then they got in the car.
Could you see who was with Suge?
Um, I saw it was Tupac.
And he was like,
"Come on, come go with me."
"Come go with us. We're going to 662."
Them broads.
"Tupac, Tupac!"
We like, "There they go."
Just swung a U-turn.
We just pulled up on the side,
checked every car to see where they was.
So, what directed your attention
to them was some girls shouting at Tupac?
"Tupac!" He gave himself away.
Otherwise, they would have got away.
And Lane, he leaned over,
the window rolled down, and popped them.
-Suge looks over, he sees you?
-Yeah.
-Yeah, he looks at me.
-Okay.
Fucking known each other
since we were seven or eight years old.
I seen a bullet go in Suge's head.
I thought he was dead.
I thought he was dead.
If you knew who killed Tupac,
would you tell the police?
Absolutely not.
I went and parked the car.
Put the gun on the tire and left.
Where did you guys go?
We smoked weed and drank.
-Wait, at the hotel?
-At the hotel.
-We partied.
-In the room?
They pulled up in an ambulance
while we was standing right there.
-Think I'm bullshitting you?
-You guys on the street?
We're on Las Vegas Boulevard
at the crosswalk.
They pull up in the ambulance
right next to us.
With him in the car already?
-With Tupac and Suge in the car.
-Y'all was walking?
-This close.
-Did they see you?
They could see. We didn't give a fuck.
They were right in front.
The ambulance was parked right here.
Right next to us.
That shit was funny as a motherfucker.
And I ain't ever told nobody that story.
You get back to L.A.
The next day Zip calls you.
Says, "Meet me
at the hot wing place we're at"?
On Melrose. By Pink's.
You guys go there.
Zip shows up. What happens after?
Puff give him a call,
"Was that us? That us?"
He told him, "Yeah."
-On Zip's phone or yours?
-On Zip's.
And Zip gives you the phone?
Yeah.
Kept on saying, "Was that us?"
He was happy as hell, shit.
Did you ask then about money?
When you gonna get paid?
Nah. I didn't say that
on the phone with Zip.
With Zip, go get our cash.
Okay, so you tell Zip,
"We need to get paid."
What does Zip say?
"I'll go back home and…"
Yeah. "I'll get back with y'all." Yeah.
According to Keffe D,
he was never compensated for the murder.
But he said that
a partial amount of the money
was intended to be forwarded
to him through Zip
to the tune of about $500,000.
The million-dollar solicitation amount,
only half of it was fulfilled
because only Tupac
and not Suge was killed.
Keffe D has a conversation
with Darrius Rogers, with D-Mac.
He don't like to be introduced.
D-Mac right there. You know…
And D-Mac says there had been a payment
from Combs to Keffe D,
but it had gone through Zip,
and then that money was never forwarded.
We're just hoping and waiting to see
what kind of progress Las Vegas would make
with Keffe D's cooperation.
Nothing really happens.
Ultimately, Zip dies from cancer.
Thank you for coming out to Zip's.
I want everybody to know that
when you come here,
we want to keep the peace…
And Orlando Anderson
is shot and killed in 1998.
So it's really Keffe D and Puffy Combs
are the last men standing.
They can be held accountable
for Tupac Shakur's murder.
-Go this way.
-I'll go this way.
I want to talk to you, man.
I'm waiting patiently
and looking to see if actually…
All right to put this on you?
Living in the past
I don't need this third chain shit.
Take that off.
All right. Let's move and groove.
Move and groove
What goes up…
Must come down.
And what goes down, must come up.
Fuck me.
He ain't gonna miss this.
I remember '99,
we were working in the studio
on a song called "Muscle Game."
This is our game right here
Then you gotta have hustle
We ain't playing With you weak niggas
Come on now
The song comes on
and Puff is talking in the beginning.
It's 1999
If you don't have the muscle
No more Mr. Nice Guy
I'm like, "What is he talking about?"
Fuck with me
I'll drop a million dollars on your head
Erase you and your whole family
Gonna start making
Y'all niggas disappear, now
Everything that's done in the dark
must come to light.
Everything that goes up must come down.
You'll be aight. You'll be aight.
You all jumping in this?
Let's roll.
Yeah, I'm headed to 113th and Lenox, King.
I gotta catch my man up there.
I'll see you up there.
-Are y'all rolling?
-Yeah, we rolling.
With the backdrop
of East Coast-West Coast beef,
Sean took Biggie to Los Angeles
to record what would be
the finishing touches
on Biggie's Life After Death album,
which wasn't titled that yet.
-Yo.
-Yo, B.I.G. Wake up, baby.
Diddy, what the fuck? What's up?
Come on, it's a quarter to six.
We got the 7:30 flight.
We're going to LAX.
Oh. Cali?
No doubt, baby.
We had been warned to not come to L.A.
There were warnings all along
for the last few months
that we are not to set foot
on the West Coast.
It was awards show season,
and Sean wanted him
to start promoting the album.
Come on, Soul Train,
get up out your seats, come on!
Get up out your seats!
Biggie did not want to go,
but Sean talked him into
doing all of those things.
Down low, get up out your seats, come on!
…I, Poppa
Freaks all the honeys
They were, like, catcalling and booing.
What's up, Cali?
We were not welcome.
After the awards show, Saturday morning,
Biggie and I were to go to London,
and we were going to have
a two-, three-day press junket
to have Biggie be one of the first artists
from Bad Boy to meet the European press.
I had worked on that
for months and weeks leading up.
We were supposed to go
to the airport that morning.
I'm calling Biggie like crazy,
"What's going on? Wake up."
He's like, "Yo, Puff is bugging."
"He just called me and told me,
'I want you to stay here in L.A.'"
"I don't wanna stay, I wanna go."
But Sean was adamant.
Cancel the flight.
Biggie's not going to the U.K.
"What do you mean he's not going?"
Click, he hangs up.
This was his M.O.
Ego, power-tripping.
All of it because Sean
wanted to do a party on enemy turf.
Scared to death.
That's how real it is.
I think somebody's trying to kill me.
I be waking up paranoid.
I be really scared.
I'm just in peril.
That night, B.I.G. and Puffy
was with us.
They were having a party.
I spoke to B.I.G. and I was like,
"Yo, man, you know, what are you doing?"
Cats in L.A., man,
they get down in these circumstances, man,
and you just can't be
walking around here freely.
Everybody's mingling.
I look around, I say,
"Where's B.I.G.?"
-I want to get out.
-Get out.
Hey, what'd he say? Wait. Hold up.
…across the street.
-Zoom in. I see him.
-Oh, I didn't see him.
-That sure is.
-Just had a feeling.
-That's B.I.G. and them!
-Somebody got shot!
-Get down!
-Somebody got shot.
Gotta keep down.
911. What are you reporting?
Yeah, we need an ambulance
on Fairfax and Wilshire.
Please, in Los Angeles.
We have a man shot. We have a man shot.
-Okay, hold on. I'll get that--
-Corner of Wilshire and Fairfax.
Get on Fairfax!
-Let's go!
-Sir. Hold on.
Listen, sir, I can't hear
what you're saying.
We have a man shot in our car right now.
Right now, we're trying
to roll him to the hospital.
I know the way.
You gotta go back.
Gotta turn around, Kenny.
You're going the wrong way.
What the fuck is wrong
with y'all, man? What's going on?
-B.I.G. You hear me?
-Is he responding?
-Is the man responding?
-B.I.G.!
I was following B.I.G.'s lead on, like,
we're going to do this peace tour.
And, um…
you know, it didn't work out.
Sean said it on "Can't Stop, Won't Stop."
"Biggie wanted to go."
-Make a left, man.
-B.I.G., you hear me, baby?
He's lying about that.
Sean wanted that trip
and was pushing it for weeks and weeks.
He lied about it.
It let me know that's a weak spot for him
and he's nervous about that information.
It's a SS Impala…
Aqua blue. Shit.
-What color was it?
-Aqua blue.
He ushered Biggie to his death.
Who do you think killed Biggie?
Next question.
All it was is a Puffy and Suge Knight war.
You're messing with lives here,
and that's exactly what happened.
Two lives were lost as a result of what?
Stupidity?
When I sat down with Voletta,
we briefly brought up Sean Combs.
It was clear to me that she had
no real respect or appreciation for him.
Sean clearly didn't do
all that he could have done
to help out in the investigation.
In fact, he was a hindrance
in the investigation.
Puffy was kind of
stonewalling people from talking
because he knows
if you make inroads on Biggie's murder,
you're gonna make inroads
on Tupac's murder.
And that potentially
can lead right back to him.
How are Biggie's mom and Faith
and the kids taking all this?
Um, Biggie's mom, and Faith,
and the children are extremely strong.
Matter of fact, they've been strong for me
and helping to hold me up.
Sean assumed the position
of his best friend
in every article and publication.
And that wasn't necessarily true.
I'm gonna be there for them
just like he would be for them,
to make sure that they're all right.
Sean said,
"We're gonna do the biggest funeral
for Biggie that New York has ever seen."
We start to put that together,
he starts to see the price,
and he says,
"We're gonna do the biggest funeral,
but Biggie's gonna to have to pay
for this funeral."
He was gonna make the funeral
be a recoupable charge to Biggie in death.
This is one of my closest friends,
and is still one of my closest friends.
I just… I feel his loss.
I just miss him so much.
Sean doing a big show looks good on him,
but he's not gonna tell the world
that Biggie was gonna pay for it.
In Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn,
the whole hood was outside.
If you could make it there, you was there.
It was a big loss for the city.
I loved Biggie. Biggie inspired me.
He gave me hope.
Made us feel like you was from the town,
you could make it.
We loved Biggie,
so it was like losing a family member.
Biggie just wanted to be a rap superstar.
He didn't want to hurt nobody.
He's probably one of the only people
I really trusted, like, for a long time.
It's not a feeling that I really felt
a lot, like, in my life.
I don't have a lot of friends.
I think people think
I have a lot of friends, you know.
I don't think I really make a good friend.
Before he was assassinated,
Biggie had an opportunity
to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.
We were delivering the elements
so that could happen,
and Sean called me and said,
"Pull that cover.
I need to be on the cover."
"My solo album is coming in July,
No Way Out, and I need to amp that up."
He took the cover from Biggie.
Another thing at the time,
Biggie was negotiating his contract.
Every day I wake up…
We acquiesced and gave him
everything he wanted, and then he died.
…can't believe you ain't here.
Sean wanted me to change the agreement
to more favorable terms for Bad Boy,
and his family and mother would not know.
And since he had signed the agreement,
he wanted those changes to come
from out of the center of the agreement
and have those pages replaced
with the other terms.
I said, "That's not right.
I'm not doing it."
Ninety days later, I'm fired.
It's like I feel empty inside
without you being here.
Yeah!
I remember Michael Jackson,
the Motown 25 special.
MTV, Madonna, "Like a Virgin."
And I remember Puff with Sting.
-Every breath you take
-Check it out.
Every move you make
To have a TV moment in music is very rare.
It elevates you
to such another level of superstardom.
It made him rock-star big.
It's kinda hard with you not around
Know you in heaven smiling down
Watching us while we pray for you…
He became humongous, but now it's him.
"Now I'm the man."
It was like a dream come true
to see the lines,
like, in front of the stores, like,
people going there to get my record.
It's crazy.
It all happened pretty quickly for you,
from being an intern to being…
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
Thanks for Biggie's mother who's sitting
right there for having Notorious B.I.G.
You've abused everyone
and used most everyone.
Put your lighters in the air for B.I.G.!
Everybody, put your lighters in the air.
There are horror stories like this
all throughout.
Cleared of gun possession
and bribery charges,
Sean "Puffy" Combs walked out a free man.
Some people speak up about it.
Most do not.
The first member is…
Aubrey.
It's a pattern with him.
Come to Daddy, baby.
Violence was a very normalized part
of living in that world.
Ah, yo. You a Bad Boy, now.
Your life has changed.
Allegations of sexual misconduct…
Puffy called them "freak offs."
…witnessed Diddy abusing Cassie,
and that they encouraged Cassie
to get away from him.
Everything in life,
you're gonna have people that are bad
and people that are good, you know?
You have to choose your side.