The Fall of Diddy (2025) s01e02 Episode Script
Empire Under Fire
1
[reporter 1] The rap world
has been shaken again,
this time by the violent
death of the performer
known as Notorious B.I.G.
[reporter 2] He went
down in a hail of gunfire
on a public street.
[reporter 3] His death comes
just six months after his rival,
West Coast rapper, Tupac
Shakur, was assassinated.
[man] Last six months, hip-hop
probably lost its two biggest stars.
It's just a tragedy.
[Gordon Chambers] After B.I.G
passed, I got this call from Puff.
I remember he
sounded so depressed.
He said that he hadn't
left the house in days.
He was one of the only
people besides my mother
that really cared about me.
[Chambers] And he said, "People
have been knocking on my door.
I've just been here by
myself. I ain't eat nothing."
And he was almost
sounding suicidal.
I just tried to talk some light
into what I could hear was
a time of a lot of darkness.
And just tell him that, you
know, you have a lot to live for.
Then, I remember days
later, him calling me back,
"Yo, G, come by
the studio after work."
And he played Every
Breath You Take.
And he was playing it loud.
Every step you take
I'll be watching you ♪
He was just into it
and just played it,
and kept playing
and dancing to it.
And I remember him asking me,
"What do you think?
What do you think?
Do you think people
would rock to this?"
I didn't know what to say.
Because, you know, Every
Breath You Take was so white pop.
I couldn't hear it or couldn't
envision it at the time.
But I'm glad to see that his
creative juices were flowing again.
And then I'll Be
Missing You was huge.
Every single day
Every time I pray ♪
I'll be missin' you ♪
[Peter Noel] It
was a runaway hit,
it captured the emotions
and the grief at the time
that was happening to the
African American community.
We just knew this was helping
us remember Biggie in some way.
[man 3] On a Sunday morning
headed to church, and I'll
Be Missing You came on.
It made it to the
gospel station,
and that's when I
knew who he was.
[Chambers] It was
like an amazing grace
for the hip-hop generation.
When people hear that,
it still touches people.
He could see things
for the culture that other
people just couldn't see.
And I remember just thinking,
like, "This man is a genius."
But while this genius man
was developing his talent,
what else was not developed
that he became somebody
who could create a lot of pain?
[opening theme music playing]
[Chambers] One of
my big motivations
of wanting to be a part of this,
it's one of those situations
where you just have
no idea in real time
that you're working
with somebody
that ends up changing the world.
It is hard to overstate
how important
Bad Boy and the Puff
sound was to the '90s.
I remember a time
where you could listen
to the radio for an hour
and hear nothing but Bad
Boy artists for that entire hour.
[Tisa Tells] Diddy
knew how to create
what Black culture
wanted to see,
what mainstream
culture wanted to see,
what American
culture wanted to see.
Puffy started to
work with producers
that.. that were using
samples lifted from records
and then taking some of the
vocals, and interpolating them.
Puffy took that to
yet another level,
to sing hooks on top
of the the rhymes.
Been around the
world And I, I, I ♪
And we been playa hated ♪
I feel like Combs and crew
were just throwing things
against the wall, and
everything was sticking.
[Alexander] He was
having a relationship
with product and audiences
from the beginning.
But nobody really could see that
until the empire got so big,
they was like, "Oh, this is what
he's been trying to do all this time."
[Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire] It
was interesting to see Puffy
move into other
areas other than music.
It was just inevitable for
the clothing to be next.
[P. Diddy] We call it
urban high fashion.
We combined the look
of the European clothes
to to the urban style,
which is a little bit loose, a
little bit baggy, a little bit more,
has a better fit, too.
Sean John was
incredibly successful.
You saw it go from
it's just worn on artists,
to it's worn by
influential people
in the cultural scene
to, like, a dad in Missouri
who's got a Sean John shirt.
Could he name any
Puff Daddy record?
No. But he knows who Puff is,
and he's rocking the Sean John.
[Mark Anthony Neal]
The clothing brand,
now, at this point,
transcends the music,
and it becomes part
of this mythology
that Sean Combs begins to build.
I remember going
with him to Macy's,
and we were up in in the
boardroom with all the executives,
and they treated him
like he was Ralph Lauren.
He was a king.
There was nobody
in New York City
that Diddy could
not get in touch with.
We used to call him
Puff the Magic Dragon,
and we said that with love.
He was so much fun.
He threw the best parties.
I remember seeing celebrities
just let their hair down.
I remember seeing Mary J. Blige,
Ashton.
[Smith] I mean, it
was Gatsbyesque.
It was like in the movies.
They were huge.
And part of Sean's move with the parties
is not just a party for party's sake,
but really to embellish
who he is in the culture.
Who can come to Sean
Combs' White Party,
in the Hamptons.
It speaks more to
a new Black money.
It carried a different
kind of cachet.
What we heard, even at the
time that they were taking place,
was that there was
a lot of debauchery.
Puffy would have women laid out
and have food on their bodies.
These are things that were
photographed and publicized,
and just viewed as kind
of grand and opulent.
[B. Scott] I started
blogging in the early 2000s.
I started getting reports
about the type of things
that would happen
at these parties.
I was hearing
about illicit drugs.
I was hearing about
sexual escapades.
I always have decisions
to make about stories.
And for a long time,
when it came to things
pertaining to Diddy,
I wouldn't run certain things
because I feared retribution.
He felt and seemed
like he was invincible.
[indistinct shouting]
[Diddy] I mean, I work,
like, 20 hours a day,
and I feel as a young Black man,
about anything I put
my mind to, I could do.
Whatever I put into it,
I'm gonna get out of it.
And I put 150%, 200%
into anything I do, always.
[Campo] Diddy really personified
Black excellence
and authenticity.
He was succeeding,
and he was doing it in
an authentically Black way.
So, he was really someone
that a lot of us looked up to.
[Tim Patterson] But with
money, he got more gangster,
he got meaner.
He got more no nonsense.
He couldn't let the
foot off nobody's neck.
His foot got harder on necks.
Because he knew,
"Yo, if I slip one inch,
if I show one inch
of weakness
they gonna take it from me."
[Patterson] I definitely
think there's a huge
reflection of his childhood
to who he is today.
Sean started
breathing rarefied air
before he even realized it.
Janice wanted a prince,
and the last thing
she wants to do
is to have her prince
making her look bad.
And one thing about
anybody from Harlem,
if you're soft, you're done.
That's just the mentality.
'Cause, mind you,
she lost her husband.
Now, she's got this kid
that looks just like him.
That's emotions.
Someday, she'll wake up, she
might be mad when she sees him
because she sees
what used to be Melvin.
So, Sean's mom
had to fill the shoes
of Sean's dad and mom.
And I'm sure everything from Janice's
way of raising him was coming from love.
But there were
times that I would see
Janice's personality
go from hot to cold.
And he had to be
on the receiving end
of a hot night or a cold night.
Janice didn't take
no shit. None at all.
She ruled with her iron fist.
Better get right.
And, you know, a lot of
times, Sean couldn't get it right.
Couldn't get nothing right.
And she didn't let him
get away with nothing.
Nothing.
And that's how it
was in Sean's house.
If he did something
wrong, he'd get his ass beat,
simple as that.
She knew that he
wasn't hard enough.
In those days,
that was the order.
You know, you
didn't spare the rod.
I remember that real vivid.
Especially if you don't
know if the punishment
really fits the crime.
Wasn't my place to say
whether it was or not, but to me,
it didn't seem
necessary at times.
So, he's learning how
to be a wolf the hard way.
For him, it wasn't as easy.
It took a while for him
to become his wolf.
Goddamn, when he became a wolf,
it was no turning back.
As part of our investigation,
we looked at the history
of Diddy's behavior
and relationships.
We have found that there has
been a clear pattern of abuse
since the beginning,
since he was a teenager.
[Patterson] I noticed how
he interacted with his girls,
and it was way different
than I interacted with my girls.
It was more physical.
It was more
self-esteem lowering.
It was a lot of insecurity.
It was a lot of "who
you're dealing with.
I heard you was
here. I don't like that."
You know, a lot of girls
got thrown out of the car.
Sometimes, I would
drive his girlfriends' home
to wherever they live
because they
they had a fight.
So, you know, I was the go-to.
I was the "Timmy,
what's wrong with him?"
It just never
seemed to get better
with him and relationships.
[Roundtree] One of Combs' first
public relationships was with Misa Hylton,
who also grew up in
the Mount Vernon area
and was a teenager
when they started dating.
[Patterson] Any girl that's
with Sean has to be fixed.
To his specs.
Sean looked at Misa
as his blank canvas,
like, "Oh, my God.
Yo, dawg, I could
fix her. Ooh!."
It was his project.
So, Misa became
somebody in the game.
When you think of the most
classic, iconic '90s looks,
Misa Hylton was behind them.
She was a visionary
in her own right,
creating some of the
best-known looks for Lil' Kim.
She really created the mold
of what an artist at
that time looked like.
[Sonny Williams] My sister,
Sonya, and Misa were close friends.
I heard that Puff was
putting his hands on Mis
in '89, '88,'89.
So, at that time, I
heard a few occasions,
he was physical with Misa.
[Patterson] They
fight all the time.
They argue like cats and dogs.
And yeah, I've definitely seen
them put hands on each other.
I remember when
Misa was pregnant,
Sean was in his early 20s.
This dude is a millionaire now,
he's not even 25 years old,
he's got millions of dollars.
They might have broke
up 15 times in a week.
They'd just break
up, back together,
break up, back together.
And here's Sean,
fear is kicking in him,
"I'm about to be a father.
I gotta hustle harder now.
I gotta hustle so hard, I
got this kid on the way."
One night, Puffy decided that he
didn't want Misa Hylton to go out.
He got into this rage,
and she screamed, and
her parents came out.
He just grabbed the baby.
And he said, 'You're not
you're not getting this baby.
You're not having it."
The father tried to talk to him
and he didn't like
being talked to.
The the grandmother tried
to talk to him and everything.
Eventually, they
had to call the police.
Misa Hylton may have felt
that something
was really happening
that she had no control over.
This is her life.
He was using the
baby to control her.
That, I think, scared her a lot.
He was just angry and upset.
He made threats. You know,
he was arrested.
She endured a whole lot,
his mercurial temper.
She was one of the few people
who got to understand
that type of rage,
who he was.
There was a monster
that came out of him
that nobody knew about.
[Chambers] But then, after Misa,
it was Kim.
[Smith] Kim Porter was
a model, sometime actor.
Great smile.
One of those girls
that's just, like, so pretty.
[Roger Bonds] She was Andre
Harrell's assistant at Uptown Records.
Puff told me how they first met.
He was working as A&R
at Uptown Records, and
that she was the first face
that he would see when
he got out the elevator.
And he had fell
in love with her.
And he said, "By all means
necessary, I'm gonna get her."
And that was his mission.
[Patterson] Puff's a little
older now when he met Kim.
And Kim was starting
to, slowly but surely,
teach Sean what
love looked like.
It's not fighting all
the time. It's this.
And he started to receive it.
He started changing
his ways a little bit.
He softened up for a minute.
He wasn't so triggered.
He wasn't so reactive.
He was trying to
become a good man.
His relationship
with Kim Porter,
I knew that it was an on
again, off again relationship.
They would, you know,
break up, get back together.
[Campo] But then,
there's the infidelity.
Kim Porter, a woman he
described as the love of his life
and the mother of
four of his children,
witnesses his relationship
with Jennifer Lopez
just flood the media.
[Patterson] I was there in the
beginning of the Jennifer days.
Just like all the other girls,
Sean goes all
the way to get you.
Sean Wanted J.Lo.
And he got her.
When we talk about Kim
and Sean, I don't see them
the way I saw Sean and J.Lo.
They would be at
the same function,
but not together type thing.
Not like him and Jennifer Lopez,
you publicly see him
at red carpet events.
So, what we see is a man
who claimed to love this woman
more than any other woman,
but was not necessarily
treated that way.
I've seen him act around Kim in ways
that were just awful and very mean.
I knew her well enough
to occasionally
socialize with her.
It was a last-minute
girls' night,
Kim Porter and
some other girlfriends.
And then I see Puffy
come into the club.
I really thought he
was coming in to kick it.
I thought he was about
to squeeze into the booth.
And it was about to be really
about to turn up, you know?
But everything just
turned on a dime.
It was not a cool
situation at all.
He just started hollering at her
that she should be
at home and not out.
And then he grabbed her handbag
and literally turned
it upside down.
He just emptied it out
in front of everybody.
I was so in shock.
The reason people
do things like that
is just to shame you
and make you feel small.
To scare you.
I never saw him
put a hand on her.
But as we all know,
that's that's not
the only kind of abuse.
[Bonds] It was a
controlling situation.
Puff felt like he could do
whatever he wanted to do.
Puff was definitely
abusive toward Kim.
I remember one
time telling him
"I can understand you having
a problem with one person.
But when you have a problem with
every woman you're dealing with,
then you've gotta
look into yourself."
So certainly, now we
know that there were signs
of some of the abuse he
would be accused of later.
It seemed that because
there were never
any real consequences for
him, his behavior escalated.
[Alexander] I was a
producer and an engineer
for Bad Boy Records
for about 12 years,
and Puffy, over time,
became more aggressive
about what the company could do
and what the vision
for the company was.
Bump somebody.
[Roundtree] There's a clip of
him. He hangs up the phone
and he jumps up,
and he's exclaiming,
"Whatever I want,
I have to get."
[exclaims] I'm a savage!
Whatever I want,
I'm going to get!
Whatever I want,
I'm have to get!
It was a really raw moment,
and it was just a clear window
into how he thought
and how he operated.
The case involving Steve Stoute,
you know, helped to expose him
for who he was and the kind
of mafia way he went about,
you know, trying to
to bring people in line.
Steve Stoute is a pretty
important executive,
a marketing genius.
In the music business,
he was working
with Nas at the time.
And Puff had done a song
with Nas called "Hate Me Now."
[Tim] And just like any other
event, this thing was being built up.
"You heard the Nas
joint with Puff? It's crazy."
You can hate me now ♪
I hate you too ♪
But I won't stop now ♪
In retrospect, it almost
sounds ridiculous
if Nas and Diddy would
be on a song together.
But, of course, Diddy
gives Nas a visibility
that Nas doesn't have quite yet.
[Toure] In the video, they ended
by being crucified like Jesus
in an obvious
visual Jesus analogy,
Nas and Puff together.
But then Diddy doesn't like the way
that he's depicted in the music video
and wanted to be changed.
But the version of the
video with Puff and Nas
being crucified in the
desert, was serviced to MTV
and the puff was
extraordinarily upset.
And he went to Steve's office.
Puffy went in with his people
and assaulted him.
When he did that
to Steve Stoute,
it became one of
the biggest stories.
[Mara] The Steve Stoute
incident is incredibly telling.
I mean, this was
over a music video.
So what we're learning is that
there are almost no
lengths that Puffy won't go to
if he feels that his
ego has been hurt,
if his pride has been hurt,
if his demands haven't
been complied with.
[Peter] He goes into court
and the prosecution to him said,
"Judge, we reached an agreement
that Mr. Combs would
plead to a misdemeanor."
Puff walks out of the courtroom.
One day of Anger Management.
In the courtroom, the
judge actually said,
"Mr. Combs, do you remember me?"
And, um, Puff says,
"I can't say that I do."
So the judge said, "You
have quite a history."
Because he's
always getting away.
There are so many cases that
the public doesn't know about.
A source actually
pulled these records.
He had this knack for
actually getting the system
to like him and
to go easy on him,
where he kept
avoiding going to jail.
A lot of this really worked to Puffy's
advantage in the hip-hop world.
You don't want to
be seen as someone
that the streets can't respect,
where everybody
can run all over you.
[Gordon] There ended
up being a lot of violence.
I think it's just
was something that was
always a part of his emotional
DNA, in a way.
Diddy, as a child,
believed his father, Melvin,
died in a car accident.
But as he grew older,
he came to find out that
that wasn't really the case.
So Diddy learned
that his dad was part
of a drug organization
up in Harlem.
[Roger] Puff's father, Melvin,
was connected to Frank Lucas,
one of the biggest
drug dealers in Harlem.
And he was
connected to the Mafia.
[Cheyenne] There is a video
Diddy posted on Father's Day,
where he talks about his dad,
and there's a real sense of loss
and kind of an
admiration as well for him.
And the things that
people have long said
about Combs, that
he is really determined,
that he's like a
world conqueror,
he credits those
traits to his dad.
Even if we don't
know our parents,
we still have their DNA in us.
I have his hustler's mentality,
his hustler's spirit, his
drive, his determination.
So I think it's just--
was something that
he's had to grapple with
that his father had
been a drug dealer
had been killed in the game.
Sometimes I wonder if that
was something he was proud of
or something that
he was ashamed of
or something that he may have
you know, I mean, emulated.
I mean, the record company
was called Bad Boy Records.
It wasn't called Good Man.
It was called Bad Boy.
You know?
[Rodney] I worked
with Puffy in 2023.
Puffy mentioned once
that he shot a person
um
in the club when
J.Lo was with him.
He said he's done
a lot of things before
and sometimes he could be
a person to overexaggerate.
It's like, "Okay,
he's talking that stuff.
He's got-- he's been
sipping juice or whatever it is"
But when I told somebody that,
they said, "No, he--
There was a situation
happen in the club with J.Lo
where Sean went to
jail for the shooting."
I'm spelling. I'm
trying to google
S-H-I-N-E,
only to realize,
no, it's S-H-Y-N-E.
[Peter] Shyne was known
around the Flatbush area
as a young guy who could spit.
And Puffy played on
young people's desire
to want to be in the spotlight.
Sean "Puffy" Combs
says, "Look, hang with me."
He's now being considered
the next big thing in hip-hop.
He was growing, he
was going to be big.
No one pictured it to turn
out the way it turned out.
I will never forget the first time I
heard about the 1999 club shooting.
It was shocking.
[Natania] I've spent
a quarter of a century
with my integrity and my name
in doubt.
In light of the
current atmosphere,
with the lawsuits
and all of the stories
that have come out,
I knew it was time
for me to speak up.
[Wardel] This is something
that was in my past,
and it belongs in the past.
But I can no longer
just remain silent.
This is the first time I've
shared my story on camera.
I started driving for
Mr. Combs in 1999.
On December 26th, I was informed
that Mr. Combs would
be requiring my services.
I drove down to his studio
to pick up Mr. Combs
and Jennifer.
Mr. Combs got in the vehicle
and I happened at one point
to glance over my shoulder,
and I noticed him
holding a black handgun.
No words were exchanged.
We made eye contact.
He said nothing. I said nothing.
And I proceeded en
route to Club New York.
I hadn't been in the
club scene or anything
for the better part of a month.
Honestly, I really
wasn't going out,
but one of my good friends
was a party promoter.
She wanted me to come out
and I wanted to
support her endeavors.
[Peter] Puff arrives
with his entourage
and they go to the VIP section.
[Natania] There started to
be a crowd walking through
coming from the dance floor.
People are gravitating
towards the VIP section.
And there were some
people who just
say, "This guy is showing off."
People were telling Puffy,
you know, "You ain't shit.
You ain't this. You ain't that."
The next thing you know,
we see pushing and shoving.
The crowd is
swaying. You hear
like, angered voices.
[Peter] And he bumped into Puffy
and Shyne just uttered,
"I'm tired of this shit."
I start to see Puffy
and Shyne backing up,
backing away from the area
of the melee towards the door.
And I see them
reach in their waists.
I turned to tell my friends,
"Oh, my God, Let's go!
Let's go!
Watch out! Something's
getting ready to go down."
And just as I turn
back and I look at them,
I see them both holding
guns, and God said to me,
"Be still. You're
about to get hit."
And I just see the muzzle flash.
Pow, pow.
I grabbed my face because
I instantly feel this hot
torching flame on my face.
And I turned my head
and I'm like, "Oh, my God
I got shot in my face."
I felt myself separated
and the cold air rushed
towards my chest
and passed through me.
I could feel it pass through me.
I was certain that I
was going to be dead
at that moment,
because I didn't think a human
could lose that much blood
and still be alive.
And I just
[crying]
I knew my life was never
going to be the same again.
[breathes deeply]
[Peter] At that moment,
Puffy is trying to
make the great escape.
It's just chaos.
[Wardel] Shyne was
in custody of the police.
Mr. Combs, his
security guy, Wolf,
and Jennifer Lopez comes out.
I'm instructed to, "Let's
go. Let's get out of here."
I was driving
through the red light,
evading the police.
I'd noticed the rear
passenger window
over my right shoulder
had been opened.
I later found out that
was when Mr. Combs
apparently tossed his
weapon out of the vehicle.
Mr. Combs and
Wolf were screaming,
"Don't stop! Don't
stop! Don't stop!"
Seated next to me,
I noticed another gun
in Wolf's waistband.
And then a cruiser had come out,
blocking Eighth Avenue.
And I said, "Chase is over."
We are all escorted
into the police precinct.
That's when out of
the side of his mouth,
Mr. Combs says,
"Yo, I'll give you
$50,000 to take the gun."
And he was saying this
under his breath, of course,
because we were right in
front of the desk sergeant.
Puffy reaches onto
his pinky and says,
"I will give you
this diamond ring,
which is worth $300,000,
to hold as collateral
if you don't think I'm
good for the money."
I did not want
to take the bribe,
but the phrase
on the street is
snitches get stitches.
Go, go, go, go, go!
- [woman] There go Puff.
- [reporter] Puff!
[anchor] Before it even began,
the trial of Sean "Puffy" Combs
had turned into
a tabloid torrent.
[anchor 2] A high-profile case
that's attracted
overwhelming support
from Combs' diehard fans.
Not guilty!
[anchor 2] Puffy's future
is in the hands of 12 jurors
and faces up to
15 years in prison
on charges of weapons
possession and bribery.
Sean Combs, in the early 2000s
is about selling a
lifestyle, selling a brand.
So he really had to
protect his reputation
and his freedom at all
costs in this moment.
[anchor 1] His
high-powered defense team,
including Johnnie Cochran
[Peter] Johnnie Cochran, he's
known as the O.J. Simpson lawyer.
If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit.
There was another attorney by
the name of Benjamin Brafman,
one of the top criminal
defense attorneys in the city,
defending Puffy.
Shyne, Wolf and Puffy,
they all have separate lawyers.
[Conrad] It was
really two trials.
It was this great
celebrity, "Puffy" Combs
and his bodyguard,
and Shyne, really just a
New York City teenager
that had just signed
the deal of his life.
From the notoriety
of the people on trial
to the notoriety
of the attorneys,
it was a circus.
[anchor] While he's not
accused of gunning anyone down,
prosecutors say someone
at the club taunted Combs
and he and fellow rapper
Jamaal "Shyne" Barrow
pulled out guns and fired.
Barrow's shots allegedly
injured three people.
Puffy denied from the beginning
that he ever fired a gun,
that he ever had any
guns in his possession.
I want to make this 100% clear.
I had nothing to do with
a shooting in this club.
[Peter] During the trial,
Puffy is looking around,
he's very confident.
"Hey, I allegedly
paid off people,
so I have nothing
to worry about."
But then
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I decided to testify.
I was the prosecution's
main witness.
[anchor] The most damaging
testimony so far from his former driver.
Yes, I was nervous
about cooperating,
but I had to.
You have to stand up for
what's right in this world.
[anchor] Fenderson
testified Combs had a gun.
I was recanting my statement
and no longer going along
with their scheme to
take ownership of the gun.
[anchor] But Fenderson
wasn't the only witness
to put a gun in Combs' hand.
[Natania] When I had to testify,
I said, "I saw without
a doubt who shot me.
I was shot by Sean
'Puffy' Combs."
I've said that ever
since that day.
I never once ever changed that,
modified it, modulated
it in any way.
And I never
expected to be a part
of such a reckless
act of violence.
Natania, she had
the kind of resilience
and defiance
My heart was with her.
[woman] The defense
described a two-prong approach.
First, calling their
own witnesses,
who say he didn't have
a gun at the nightclub.
[Peter] Most of the
witnesses who came up
said, "Shyne had a gun
and we did not see a
gun in Puffy's hand."
And, second, discrediting
the prosecution witnesses
who put a gun in Puffy's hand.
[Wardel] The lead
defense attorney,
his cross-examination
was getting a bit aggressive.
I says, "I'm not the one on
trial here today, Your Honor.
He is."
And I pointed and
glared right over at Diddy.
[Peter] Some people
said this was a conspiracy.
[Natania] People cursed me out,
accusing me of trying to
take down a good Black man
and destroy hip-hop.
My heart really, truly
breaks for Natania
and what she has been through.
Natania deserved
nothing but compassion
and protection,
and the culture failed her.
[Natania] They were
ridiculing me on the air,
saying, "Does anybody
know this one-eyed ho?
Call us up and give
us some dirt on her,"
playing rapid succession
gunfire soundtrack
in the background.
I was devastated.
Why were they doing this to me?
After the shooting, Natania,
she was appearing on the radio
and trying to tell her story.
She was actually
getting death threats.
[Natania] I would
look out the windows
and there'd be blacked-out SUVs
parked on the
corners by my house.
Those SUVs were watching me.
And for my own safety,
I had to be moved.
I will never forget that day
when the verdicts were read.
A gasp went up in the courtroom.
I'm just really right now--
I'm just very emotional.
Um, I'm at really a loss.
I'm very emotional.
I'm just-- I feel blessed.
[Roger] It was like Mardi Gras.
They all went out to celebrate.
And not only was it
Sean Combs acquitted,
but Anthony "Wolf"
Jones was also acquitted.
And, of course, "Shyne"
Barrow was convicted.
[Peter] Yeah, I spoke to Shyne.
Shyne says, "Look,
he lied on the stand.
He got people to lie for him.
Puffy betrayed me."
Those were his words.
He went in there
and he lied about the fact
that he didn't have a gun.
Everybody knew pretty
much that Combs had a gun.
When I found out the verdict,
I was shocked and disappointed
at our legal system.
But I was relieved
because I did not want to
be the guy that sent him to jail.
I didn't want that
for my own safety.
[Natania] I was
a child of hip-hop.
I didn't deserve
this. I was a victim.
I wanted justice.
[Conrad] You know,
went to try and console
Shyne's mother, grandmother.
And
as we left that day,
there were still
supporters outside.
But no one really cared
about him at that point.
He was yesterday's news.
When he was
convicted, I got angry
because there are families
that are giving young
people to you, Puffy,
and you have a responsibility
to these young people
on your record label.
[Johnnie] I think it was an attempt
to take down another rap star.
And I think that, clearly,
we proved his innocence.
He was, in fact,
a victim that night.
And I think you're going
to see great things from him
for the future.
I think it was pretty
clear to most people
that at the very least,
he hung him out to dry.
And at the very worst,
Shyne took the fall.
[Gordon] There was
the City College incident,
Steve Stoute incident,
and the nightclub shooting.
[Rodney] He's getting this
reputation of being a Teflon Don.
And that is a pattern
that we continue to see,
is that even when things
are really, really bad
for other people,
for puffy, just a blip.
[LaJoyce] He was getting
away with things for so long.
But I believe
the truth will
always find its way,
even in the dark.
Thanksgiving break
in November 2023,
I got a call.
"Your rape was caught on tape."
I said, "What do you mean
my rape was caught on tape?"
♪
♪
♪
♪
Combs: Who said we
had to have one name?
Combs found a way to rise again.
He was seen to many people
in the media as a
safe person of color.
I am the American dream.
Who wouldn't want to
be associated with him?
Puff was the top.
But then, everything changed.
Who would have thought that
Cassy was going to be the one?
It's almost like
a Greek tragedy.
I always believed that
I was the only victim.
He said, "Now you're hot
enough that I can [bleep] you."
"I can [bleep] you now."
He said, "Sometimes you just gotta
let these hoes know who the boss is."
I feel like the
drinks were spiked.
Puff said, "Keep your
effing mouth shut."
People knew, and
people kept quiet.
He looked at me and he said
"You don't want to end
up like my ex, Cassy."
♪
[reporter 1] The rap world
has been shaken again,
this time by the violent
death of the performer
known as Notorious B.I.G.
[reporter 2] He went
down in a hail of gunfire
on a public street.
[reporter 3] His death comes
just six months after his rival,
West Coast rapper, Tupac
Shakur, was assassinated.
[man] Last six months, hip-hop
probably lost its two biggest stars.
It's just a tragedy.
[Gordon Chambers] After B.I.G
passed, I got this call from Puff.
I remember he
sounded so depressed.
He said that he hadn't
left the house in days.
He was one of the only
people besides my mother
that really cared about me.
[Chambers] And he said, "People
have been knocking on my door.
I've just been here by
myself. I ain't eat nothing."
And he was almost
sounding suicidal.
I just tried to talk some light
into what I could hear was
a time of a lot of darkness.
And just tell him that, you
know, you have a lot to live for.
Then, I remember days
later, him calling me back,
"Yo, G, come by
the studio after work."
And he played Every
Breath You Take.
And he was playing it loud.
Every step you take
I'll be watching you ♪
He was just into it
and just played it,
and kept playing
and dancing to it.
And I remember him asking me,
"What do you think?
What do you think?
Do you think people
would rock to this?"
I didn't know what to say.
Because, you know, Every
Breath You Take was so white pop.
I couldn't hear it or couldn't
envision it at the time.
But I'm glad to see that his
creative juices were flowing again.
And then I'll Be
Missing You was huge.
Every single day
Every time I pray ♪
I'll be missin' you ♪
[Peter Noel] It
was a runaway hit,
it captured the emotions
and the grief at the time
that was happening to the
African American community.
We just knew this was helping
us remember Biggie in some way.
[man 3] On a Sunday morning
headed to church, and I'll
Be Missing You came on.
It made it to the
gospel station,
and that's when I
knew who he was.
[Chambers] It was
like an amazing grace
for the hip-hop generation.
When people hear that,
it still touches people.
He could see things
for the culture that other
people just couldn't see.
And I remember just thinking,
like, "This man is a genius."
But while this genius man
was developing his talent,
what else was not developed
that he became somebody
who could create a lot of pain?
[opening theme music playing]
[Chambers] One of
my big motivations
of wanting to be a part of this,
it's one of those situations
where you just have
no idea in real time
that you're working
with somebody
that ends up changing the world.
It is hard to overstate
how important
Bad Boy and the Puff
sound was to the '90s.
I remember a time
where you could listen
to the radio for an hour
and hear nothing but Bad
Boy artists for that entire hour.
[Tisa Tells] Diddy
knew how to create
what Black culture
wanted to see,
what mainstream
culture wanted to see,
what American
culture wanted to see.
Puffy started to
work with producers
that.. that were using
samples lifted from records
and then taking some of the
vocals, and interpolating them.
Puffy took that to
yet another level,
to sing hooks on top
of the the rhymes.
Been around the
world And I, I, I ♪
And we been playa hated ♪
I feel like Combs and crew
were just throwing things
against the wall, and
everything was sticking.
[Alexander] He was
having a relationship
with product and audiences
from the beginning.
But nobody really could see that
until the empire got so big,
they was like, "Oh, this is what
he's been trying to do all this time."
[Dr. LaJoyce Brookshire] It
was interesting to see Puffy
move into other
areas other than music.
It was just inevitable for
the clothing to be next.
[P. Diddy] We call it
urban high fashion.
We combined the look
of the European clothes
to to the urban style,
which is a little bit loose, a
little bit baggy, a little bit more,
has a better fit, too.
Sean John was
incredibly successful.
You saw it go from
it's just worn on artists,
to it's worn by
influential people
in the cultural scene
to, like, a dad in Missouri
who's got a Sean John shirt.
Could he name any
Puff Daddy record?
No. But he knows who Puff is,
and he's rocking the Sean John.
[Mark Anthony Neal]
The clothing brand,
now, at this point,
transcends the music,
and it becomes part
of this mythology
that Sean Combs begins to build.
I remember going
with him to Macy's,
and we were up in in the
boardroom with all the executives,
and they treated him
like he was Ralph Lauren.
He was a king.
There was nobody
in New York City
that Diddy could
not get in touch with.
We used to call him
Puff the Magic Dragon,
and we said that with love.
He was so much fun.
He threw the best parties.
I remember seeing celebrities
just let their hair down.
I remember seeing Mary J. Blige,
Ashton.
[Smith] I mean, it
was Gatsbyesque.
It was like in the movies.
They were huge.
And part of Sean's move with the parties
is not just a party for party's sake,
but really to embellish
who he is in the culture.
Who can come to Sean
Combs' White Party,
in the Hamptons.
It speaks more to
a new Black money.
It carried a different
kind of cachet.
What we heard, even at the
time that they were taking place,
was that there was
a lot of debauchery.
Puffy would have women laid out
and have food on their bodies.
These are things that were
photographed and publicized,
and just viewed as kind
of grand and opulent.
[B. Scott] I started
blogging in the early 2000s.
I started getting reports
about the type of things
that would happen
at these parties.
I was hearing
about illicit drugs.
I was hearing about
sexual escapades.
I always have decisions
to make about stories.
And for a long time,
when it came to things
pertaining to Diddy,
I wouldn't run certain things
because I feared retribution.
He felt and seemed
like he was invincible.
[indistinct shouting]
[Diddy] I mean, I work,
like, 20 hours a day,
and I feel as a young Black man,
about anything I put
my mind to, I could do.
Whatever I put into it,
I'm gonna get out of it.
And I put 150%, 200%
into anything I do, always.
[Campo] Diddy really personified
Black excellence
and authenticity.
He was succeeding,
and he was doing it in
an authentically Black way.
So, he was really someone
that a lot of us looked up to.
[Tim Patterson] But with
money, he got more gangster,
he got meaner.
He got more no nonsense.
He couldn't let the
foot off nobody's neck.
His foot got harder on necks.
Because he knew,
"Yo, if I slip one inch,
if I show one inch
of weakness
they gonna take it from me."
[Patterson] I definitely
think there's a huge
reflection of his childhood
to who he is today.
Sean started
breathing rarefied air
before he even realized it.
Janice wanted a prince,
and the last thing
she wants to do
is to have her prince
making her look bad.
And one thing about
anybody from Harlem,
if you're soft, you're done.
That's just the mentality.
'Cause, mind you,
she lost her husband.
Now, she's got this kid
that looks just like him.
That's emotions.
Someday, she'll wake up, she
might be mad when she sees him
because she sees
what used to be Melvin.
So, Sean's mom
had to fill the shoes
of Sean's dad and mom.
And I'm sure everything from Janice's
way of raising him was coming from love.
But there were
times that I would see
Janice's personality
go from hot to cold.
And he had to be
on the receiving end
of a hot night or a cold night.
Janice didn't take
no shit. None at all.
She ruled with her iron fist.
Better get right.
And, you know, a lot of
times, Sean couldn't get it right.
Couldn't get nothing right.
And she didn't let him
get away with nothing.
Nothing.
And that's how it
was in Sean's house.
If he did something
wrong, he'd get his ass beat,
simple as that.
She knew that he
wasn't hard enough.
In those days,
that was the order.
You know, you
didn't spare the rod.
I remember that real vivid.
Especially if you don't
know if the punishment
really fits the crime.
Wasn't my place to say
whether it was or not, but to me,
it didn't seem
necessary at times.
So, he's learning how
to be a wolf the hard way.
For him, it wasn't as easy.
It took a while for him
to become his wolf.
Goddamn, when he became a wolf,
it was no turning back.
As part of our investigation,
we looked at the history
of Diddy's behavior
and relationships.
We have found that there has
been a clear pattern of abuse
since the beginning,
since he was a teenager.
[Patterson] I noticed how
he interacted with his girls,
and it was way different
than I interacted with my girls.
It was more physical.
It was more
self-esteem lowering.
It was a lot of insecurity.
It was a lot of "who
you're dealing with.
I heard you was
here. I don't like that."
You know, a lot of girls
got thrown out of the car.
Sometimes, I would
drive his girlfriends' home
to wherever they live
because they
they had a fight.
So, you know, I was the go-to.
I was the "Timmy,
what's wrong with him?"
It just never
seemed to get better
with him and relationships.
[Roundtree] One of Combs' first
public relationships was with Misa Hylton,
who also grew up in
the Mount Vernon area
and was a teenager
when they started dating.
[Patterson] Any girl that's
with Sean has to be fixed.
To his specs.
Sean looked at Misa
as his blank canvas,
like, "Oh, my God.
Yo, dawg, I could
fix her. Ooh!."
It was his project.
So, Misa became
somebody in the game.
When you think of the most
classic, iconic '90s looks,
Misa Hylton was behind them.
She was a visionary
in her own right,
creating some of the
best-known looks for Lil' Kim.
She really created the mold
of what an artist at
that time looked like.
[Sonny Williams] My sister,
Sonya, and Misa were close friends.
I heard that Puff was
putting his hands on Mis
in '89, '88,'89.
So, at that time, I
heard a few occasions,
he was physical with Misa.
[Patterson] They
fight all the time.
They argue like cats and dogs.
And yeah, I've definitely seen
them put hands on each other.
I remember when
Misa was pregnant,
Sean was in his early 20s.
This dude is a millionaire now,
he's not even 25 years old,
he's got millions of dollars.
They might have broke
up 15 times in a week.
They'd just break
up, back together,
break up, back together.
And here's Sean,
fear is kicking in him,
"I'm about to be a father.
I gotta hustle harder now.
I gotta hustle so hard, I
got this kid on the way."
One night, Puffy decided that he
didn't want Misa Hylton to go out.
He got into this rage,
and she screamed, and
her parents came out.
He just grabbed the baby.
And he said, 'You're not
you're not getting this baby.
You're not having it."
The father tried to talk to him
and he didn't like
being talked to.
The the grandmother tried
to talk to him and everything.
Eventually, they
had to call the police.
Misa Hylton may have felt
that something
was really happening
that she had no control over.
This is her life.
He was using the
baby to control her.
That, I think, scared her a lot.
He was just angry and upset.
He made threats. You know,
he was arrested.
She endured a whole lot,
his mercurial temper.
She was one of the few people
who got to understand
that type of rage,
who he was.
There was a monster
that came out of him
that nobody knew about.
[Chambers] But then, after Misa,
it was Kim.
[Smith] Kim Porter was
a model, sometime actor.
Great smile.
One of those girls
that's just, like, so pretty.
[Roger Bonds] She was Andre
Harrell's assistant at Uptown Records.
Puff told me how they first met.
He was working as A&R
at Uptown Records, and
that she was the first face
that he would see when
he got out the elevator.
And he had fell
in love with her.
And he said, "By all means
necessary, I'm gonna get her."
And that was his mission.
[Patterson] Puff's a little
older now when he met Kim.
And Kim was starting
to, slowly but surely,
teach Sean what
love looked like.
It's not fighting all
the time. It's this.
And he started to receive it.
He started changing
his ways a little bit.
He softened up for a minute.
He wasn't so triggered.
He wasn't so reactive.
He was trying to
become a good man.
His relationship
with Kim Porter,
I knew that it was an on
again, off again relationship.
They would, you know,
break up, get back together.
[Campo] But then,
there's the infidelity.
Kim Porter, a woman he
described as the love of his life
and the mother of
four of his children,
witnesses his relationship
with Jennifer Lopez
just flood the media.
[Patterson] I was there in the
beginning of the Jennifer days.
Just like all the other girls,
Sean goes all
the way to get you.
Sean Wanted J.Lo.
And he got her.
When we talk about Kim
and Sean, I don't see them
the way I saw Sean and J.Lo.
They would be at
the same function,
but not together type thing.
Not like him and Jennifer Lopez,
you publicly see him
at red carpet events.
So, what we see is a man
who claimed to love this woman
more than any other woman,
but was not necessarily
treated that way.
I've seen him act around Kim in ways
that were just awful and very mean.
I knew her well enough
to occasionally
socialize with her.
It was a last-minute
girls' night,
Kim Porter and
some other girlfriends.
And then I see Puffy
come into the club.
I really thought he
was coming in to kick it.
I thought he was about
to squeeze into the booth.
And it was about to be really
about to turn up, you know?
But everything just
turned on a dime.
It was not a cool
situation at all.
He just started hollering at her
that she should be
at home and not out.
And then he grabbed her handbag
and literally turned
it upside down.
He just emptied it out
in front of everybody.
I was so in shock.
The reason people
do things like that
is just to shame you
and make you feel small.
To scare you.
I never saw him
put a hand on her.
But as we all know,
that's that's not
the only kind of abuse.
[Bonds] It was a
controlling situation.
Puff felt like he could do
whatever he wanted to do.
Puff was definitely
abusive toward Kim.
I remember one
time telling him
"I can understand you having
a problem with one person.
But when you have a problem with
every woman you're dealing with,
then you've gotta
look into yourself."
So certainly, now we
know that there were signs
of some of the abuse he
would be accused of later.
It seemed that because
there were never
any real consequences for
him, his behavior escalated.
[Alexander] I was a
producer and an engineer
for Bad Boy Records
for about 12 years,
and Puffy, over time,
became more aggressive
about what the company could do
and what the vision
for the company was.
Bump somebody.
[Roundtree] There's a clip of
him. He hangs up the phone
and he jumps up,
and he's exclaiming,
"Whatever I want,
I have to get."
[exclaims] I'm a savage!
Whatever I want,
I'm going to get!
Whatever I want,
I'm have to get!
It was a really raw moment,
and it was just a clear window
into how he thought
and how he operated.
The case involving Steve Stoute,
you know, helped to expose him
for who he was and the kind
of mafia way he went about,
you know, trying to
to bring people in line.
Steve Stoute is a pretty
important executive,
a marketing genius.
In the music business,
he was working
with Nas at the time.
And Puff had done a song
with Nas called "Hate Me Now."
[Tim] And just like any other
event, this thing was being built up.
"You heard the Nas
joint with Puff? It's crazy."
You can hate me now ♪
I hate you too ♪
But I won't stop now ♪
In retrospect, it almost
sounds ridiculous
if Nas and Diddy would
be on a song together.
But, of course, Diddy
gives Nas a visibility
that Nas doesn't have quite yet.
[Toure] In the video, they ended
by being crucified like Jesus
in an obvious
visual Jesus analogy,
Nas and Puff together.
But then Diddy doesn't like the way
that he's depicted in the music video
and wanted to be changed.
But the version of the
video with Puff and Nas
being crucified in the
desert, was serviced to MTV
and the puff was
extraordinarily upset.
And he went to Steve's office.
Puffy went in with his people
and assaulted him.
When he did that
to Steve Stoute,
it became one of
the biggest stories.
[Mara] The Steve Stoute
incident is incredibly telling.
I mean, this was
over a music video.
So what we're learning is that
there are almost no
lengths that Puffy won't go to
if he feels that his
ego has been hurt,
if his pride has been hurt,
if his demands haven't
been complied with.
[Peter] He goes into court
and the prosecution to him said,
"Judge, we reached an agreement
that Mr. Combs would
plead to a misdemeanor."
Puff walks out of the courtroom.
One day of Anger Management.
In the courtroom, the
judge actually said,
"Mr. Combs, do you remember me?"
And, um, Puff says,
"I can't say that I do."
So the judge said, "You
have quite a history."
Because he's
always getting away.
There are so many cases that
the public doesn't know about.
A source actually
pulled these records.
He had this knack for
actually getting the system
to like him and
to go easy on him,
where he kept
avoiding going to jail.
A lot of this really worked to Puffy's
advantage in the hip-hop world.
You don't want to
be seen as someone
that the streets can't respect,
where everybody
can run all over you.
[Gordon] There ended
up being a lot of violence.
I think it's just
was something that was
always a part of his emotional
DNA, in a way.
Diddy, as a child,
believed his father, Melvin,
died in a car accident.
But as he grew older,
he came to find out that
that wasn't really the case.
So Diddy learned
that his dad was part
of a drug organization
up in Harlem.
[Roger] Puff's father, Melvin,
was connected to Frank Lucas,
one of the biggest
drug dealers in Harlem.
And he was
connected to the Mafia.
[Cheyenne] There is a video
Diddy posted on Father's Day,
where he talks about his dad,
and there's a real sense of loss
and kind of an
admiration as well for him.
And the things that
people have long said
about Combs, that
he is really determined,
that he's like a
world conqueror,
he credits those
traits to his dad.
Even if we don't
know our parents,
we still have their DNA in us.
I have his hustler's mentality,
his hustler's spirit, his
drive, his determination.
So I think it's just--
was something that
he's had to grapple with
that his father had
been a drug dealer
had been killed in the game.
Sometimes I wonder if that
was something he was proud of
or something that
he was ashamed of
or something that he may have
you know, I mean, emulated.
I mean, the record company
was called Bad Boy Records.
It wasn't called Good Man.
It was called Bad Boy.
You know?
[Rodney] I worked
with Puffy in 2023.
Puffy mentioned once
that he shot a person
um
in the club when
J.Lo was with him.
He said he's done
a lot of things before
and sometimes he could be
a person to overexaggerate.
It's like, "Okay,
he's talking that stuff.
He's got-- he's been
sipping juice or whatever it is"
But when I told somebody that,
they said, "No, he--
There was a situation
happen in the club with J.Lo
where Sean went to
jail for the shooting."
I'm spelling. I'm
trying to google
S-H-I-N-E,
only to realize,
no, it's S-H-Y-N-E.
[Peter] Shyne was known
around the Flatbush area
as a young guy who could spit.
And Puffy played on
young people's desire
to want to be in the spotlight.
Sean "Puffy" Combs
says, "Look, hang with me."
He's now being considered
the next big thing in hip-hop.
He was growing, he
was going to be big.
No one pictured it to turn
out the way it turned out.
I will never forget the first time I
heard about the 1999 club shooting.
It was shocking.
[Natania] I've spent
a quarter of a century
with my integrity and my name
in doubt.
In light of the
current atmosphere,
with the lawsuits
and all of the stories
that have come out,
I knew it was time
for me to speak up.
[Wardel] This is something
that was in my past,
and it belongs in the past.
But I can no longer
just remain silent.
This is the first time I've
shared my story on camera.
I started driving for
Mr. Combs in 1999.
On December 26th, I was informed
that Mr. Combs would
be requiring my services.
I drove down to his studio
to pick up Mr. Combs
and Jennifer.
Mr. Combs got in the vehicle
and I happened at one point
to glance over my shoulder,
and I noticed him
holding a black handgun.
No words were exchanged.
We made eye contact.
He said nothing. I said nothing.
And I proceeded en
route to Club New York.
I hadn't been in the
club scene or anything
for the better part of a month.
Honestly, I really
wasn't going out,
but one of my good friends
was a party promoter.
She wanted me to come out
and I wanted to
support her endeavors.
[Peter] Puff arrives
with his entourage
and they go to the VIP section.
[Natania] There started to
be a crowd walking through
coming from the dance floor.
People are gravitating
towards the VIP section.
And there were some
people who just
say, "This guy is showing off."
People were telling Puffy,
you know, "You ain't shit.
You ain't this. You ain't that."
The next thing you know,
we see pushing and shoving.
The crowd is
swaying. You hear
like, angered voices.
[Peter] And he bumped into Puffy
and Shyne just uttered,
"I'm tired of this shit."
I start to see Puffy
and Shyne backing up,
backing away from the area
of the melee towards the door.
And I see them
reach in their waists.
I turned to tell my friends,
"Oh, my God, Let's go!
Let's go!
Watch out! Something's
getting ready to go down."
And just as I turn
back and I look at them,
I see them both holding
guns, and God said to me,
"Be still. You're
about to get hit."
And I just see the muzzle flash.
Pow, pow.
I grabbed my face because
I instantly feel this hot
torching flame on my face.
And I turned my head
and I'm like, "Oh, my God
I got shot in my face."
I felt myself separated
and the cold air rushed
towards my chest
and passed through me.
I could feel it pass through me.
I was certain that I
was going to be dead
at that moment,
because I didn't think a human
could lose that much blood
and still be alive.
And I just
[crying]
I knew my life was never
going to be the same again.
[breathes deeply]
[Peter] At that moment,
Puffy is trying to
make the great escape.
It's just chaos.
[Wardel] Shyne was
in custody of the police.
Mr. Combs, his
security guy, Wolf,
and Jennifer Lopez comes out.
I'm instructed to, "Let's
go. Let's get out of here."
I was driving
through the red light,
evading the police.
I'd noticed the rear
passenger window
over my right shoulder
had been opened.
I later found out that
was when Mr. Combs
apparently tossed his
weapon out of the vehicle.
Mr. Combs and
Wolf were screaming,
"Don't stop! Don't
stop! Don't stop!"
Seated next to me,
I noticed another gun
in Wolf's waistband.
And then a cruiser had come out,
blocking Eighth Avenue.
And I said, "Chase is over."
We are all escorted
into the police precinct.
That's when out of
the side of his mouth,
Mr. Combs says,
"Yo, I'll give you
$50,000 to take the gun."
And he was saying this
under his breath, of course,
because we were right in
front of the desk sergeant.
Puffy reaches onto
his pinky and says,
"I will give you
this diamond ring,
which is worth $300,000,
to hold as collateral
if you don't think I'm
good for the money."
I did not want
to take the bribe,
but the phrase
on the street is
snitches get stitches.
Go, go, go, go, go!
- [woman] There go Puff.
- [reporter] Puff!
[anchor] Before it even began,
the trial of Sean "Puffy" Combs
had turned into
a tabloid torrent.
[anchor 2] A high-profile case
that's attracted
overwhelming support
from Combs' diehard fans.
Not guilty!
[anchor 2] Puffy's future
is in the hands of 12 jurors
and faces up to
15 years in prison
on charges of weapons
possession and bribery.
Sean Combs, in the early 2000s
is about selling a
lifestyle, selling a brand.
So he really had to
protect his reputation
and his freedom at all
costs in this moment.
[anchor 1] His
high-powered defense team,
including Johnnie Cochran
[Peter] Johnnie Cochran, he's
known as the O.J. Simpson lawyer.
If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit.
There was another attorney by
the name of Benjamin Brafman,
one of the top criminal
defense attorneys in the city,
defending Puffy.
Shyne, Wolf and Puffy,
they all have separate lawyers.
[Conrad] It was
really two trials.
It was this great
celebrity, "Puffy" Combs
and his bodyguard,
and Shyne, really just a
New York City teenager
that had just signed
the deal of his life.
From the notoriety
of the people on trial
to the notoriety
of the attorneys,
it was a circus.
[anchor] While he's not
accused of gunning anyone down,
prosecutors say someone
at the club taunted Combs
and he and fellow rapper
Jamaal "Shyne" Barrow
pulled out guns and fired.
Barrow's shots allegedly
injured three people.
Puffy denied from the beginning
that he ever fired a gun,
that he ever had any
guns in his possession.
I want to make this 100% clear.
I had nothing to do with
a shooting in this club.
[Peter] During the trial,
Puffy is looking around,
he's very confident.
"Hey, I allegedly
paid off people,
so I have nothing
to worry about."
But then
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I decided to testify.
I was the prosecution's
main witness.
[anchor] The most damaging
testimony so far from his former driver.
Yes, I was nervous
about cooperating,
but I had to.
You have to stand up for
what's right in this world.
[anchor] Fenderson
testified Combs had a gun.
I was recanting my statement
and no longer going along
with their scheme to
take ownership of the gun.
[anchor] But Fenderson
wasn't the only witness
to put a gun in Combs' hand.
[Natania] When I had to testify,
I said, "I saw without
a doubt who shot me.
I was shot by Sean
'Puffy' Combs."
I've said that ever
since that day.
I never once ever changed that,
modified it, modulated
it in any way.
And I never
expected to be a part
of such a reckless
act of violence.
Natania, she had
the kind of resilience
and defiance
My heart was with her.
[woman] The defense
described a two-prong approach.
First, calling their
own witnesses,
who say he didn't have
a gun at the nightclub.
[Peter] Most of the
witnesses who came up
said, "Shyne had a gun
and we did not see a
gun in Puffy's hand."
And, second, discrediting
the prosecution witnesses
who put a gun in Puffy's hand.
[Wardel] The lead
defense attorney,
his cross-examination
was getting a bit aggressive.
I says, "I'm not the one on
trial here today, Your Honor.
He is."
And I pointed and
glared right over at Diddy.
[Peter] Some people
said this was a conspiracy.
[Natania] People cursed me out,
accusing me of trying to
take down a good Black man
and destroy hip-hop.
My heart really, truly
breaks for Natania
and what she has been through.
Natania deserved
nothing but compassion
and protection,
and the culture failed her.
[Natania] They were
ridiculing me on the air,
saying, "Does anybody
know this one-eyed ho?
Call us up and give
us some dirt on her,"
playing rapid succession
gunfire soundtrack
in the background.
I was devastated.
Why were they doing this to me?
After the shooting, Natania,
she was appearing on the radio
and trying to tell her story.
She was actually
getting death threats.
[Natania] I would
look out the windows
and there'd be blacked-out SUVs
parked on the
corners by my house.
Those SUVs were watching me.
And for my own safety,
I had to be moved.
I will never forget that day
when the verdicts were read.
A gasp went up in the courtroom.
I'm just really right now--
I'm just very emotional.
Um, I'm at really a loss.
I'm very emotional.
I'm just-- I feel blessed.
[Roger] It was like Mardi Gras.
They all went out to celebrate.
And not only was it
Sean Combs acquitted,
but Anthony "Wolf"
Jones was also acquitted.
And, of course, "Shyne"
Barrow was convicted.
[Peter] Yeah, I spoke to Shyne.
Shyne says, "Look,
he lied on the stand.
He got people to lie for him.
Puffy betrayed me."
Those were his words.
He went in there
and he lied about the fact
that he didn't have a gun.
Everybody knew pretty
much that Combs had a gun.
When I found out the verdict,
I was shocked and disappointed
at our legal system.
But I was relieved
because I did not want to
be the guy that sent him to jail.
I didn't want that
for my own safety.
[Natania] I was
a child of hip-hop.
I didn't deserve
this. I was a victim.
I wanted justice.
[Conrad] You know,
went to try and console
Shyne's mother, grandmother.
And
as we left that day,
there were still
supporters outside.
But no one really cared
about him at that point.
He was yesterday's news.
When he was
convicted, I got angry
because there are families
that are giving young
people to you, Puffy,
and you have a responsibility
to these young people
on your record label.
[Johnnie] I think it was an attempt
to take down another rap star.
And I think that, clearly,
we proved his innocence.
He was, in fact,
a victim that night.
And I think you're going
to see great things from him
for the future.
I think it was pretty
clear to most people
that at the very least,
he hung him out to dry.
And at the very worst,
Shyne took the fall.
[Gordon] There was
the City College incident,
Steve Stoute incident,
and the nightclub shooting.
[Rodney] He's getting this
reputation of being a Teflon Don.
And that is a pattern
that we continue to see,
is that even when things
are really, really bad
for other people,
for puffy, just a blip.
[LaJoyce] He was getting
away with things for so long.
But I believe
the truth will
always find its way,
even in the dark.
Thanksgiving break
in November 2023,
I got a call.
"Your rape was caught on tape."
I said, "What do you mean
my rape was caught on tape?"
♪
♪
♪
♪
Combs: Who said we
had to have one name?
Combs found a way to rise again.
He was seen to many people
in the media as a
safe person of color.
I am the American dream.
Who wouldn't want to
be associated with him?
Puff was the top.
But then, everything changed.
Who would have thought that
Cassy was going to be the one?
It's almost like
a Greek tragedy.
I always believed that
I was the only victim.
He said, "Now you're hot
enough that I can [bleep] you."
"I can [bleep] you now."
He said, "Sometimes you just gotta
let these hoes know who the boss is."
I feel like the
drinks were spiked.
Puff said, "Keep your
effing mouth shut."
People knew, and
people kept quiet.
He looked at me and he said
"You don't want to end
up like my ex, Cassy."
♪