Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson says his Netflix docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs wasn’t driven solely by their long-running feud, while Combs pushed back that the project used footage “never authorized for release.” The claims surfaced around the June 2 Netflix s
NEW YORK — Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson didn’t frame the making of his Netflix docuseries as an act of revenge. On June 2. during a post-screening Q&A for Netflix’s “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” at Manhattan’s IFC Center. Jackson said the feud with Sean “Diddy” Combs wasn’t the whole reason he went looking for a story.
“It wasn’t ‘beef’ that made me make the decision to make the docuseries,” Jackson said during the event. Netflix’s series, he pointed out, has been a global hit since its release in December 2025.
Jackson, 50, said he’d spent six months developing the project before filmmaker Alex Stapleton (“Reggie”) came aboard. He described his search for a director as careful—he wanted a precise tone, not a “hit piece.”
“I was looking for the right director because I didn’t want it to be a hit piece,” Jackson said, smirking. “But it went No. 1 in 31 countries. It’s a hit.”
The docuseries is a four-episode deep dive into the “troubled” life and career of Combs, a Harlem-bred mogul. The series arrives after Combs was convicted last July on two federal counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and sentenced to 50 months in prison. He was acquitted of more severe charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Within “The Reckoning,” the show includes interviews with many of Combs’ ex-employees and collaborators. Some of them alleged that Combs physically and sexually abused them. At times. interview subjects backed out of filming last minute because they feared what might happen if Combs’ associates found out.
Stapleton also described that fear during production. Jackson later recalled his own conversations with her.
“I assured her she’d be fine,” Jackson said. He told her. “’Whatever happens. you can blame it on me.’ … There was a point before we released it where they were prepping us for legal [reasons]. I was like. ‘This feels like a deposition prep.’ We were doing publicity for the docuseries. but they were really anal about what we could say and couldn’t say. which was really killing me.”.
Jackson’s appearance drew visible reactions. During the Q&A, he made off-color remarks about some of Combs’ accusers that prompted audience members to gasp multiple times.
While the show is built on allegations and fallout, Jackson also presented himself as a firsthand observer of how Combs’ orbit operates—how power, money, and proximity can soften consequences for some insiders.
Combs, 56, once built a sprawling business empire that included Bad Boy Records, Sean Jean, and a Cîroc partnership, among other ventures. Jackson suggested that legacy helped people excuse misconduct over time.
“It gave him a pass on a lot of things over a long period of time,” Jackson said. “He’d say things in front of everybody, like, ‘Yo, man, I love the way you’re scratching and scraping, daddy.’”
Jackson said that while his inappropriate comments made some men and women uncomfortable, they continued to accept them because the remarks came from Combs.
Their conflict dates back roughly two decades, with a series of contract disputes, diss tracks, and their competing alcohol brands. Jackson used the IFC Center stage to press that personal history, even as he insisted the docuseries wasn’t only about “beef.”
Unlike Combs. Jackson said. “I don’t get off on hurting people.” He later mocked Combs over a detail from the days leading up to Combs’ September 2024 arrest. saying Combs hired a videographer to follow him around New York. Jackson said that footage was later obtained by the filmmakers and included in “The Reckoning.”.
“I can appreciate an idiot, at times, when you do something that crazy,” Jackson sneered. “Your lawyer would tell you not to even communicate. He was just cocky because he thought he would beat the case. But when you get hit by surprise RICO charges, you forget to pay that videographer.”
Even as Jackson defended his motivations onstage, Combs has been pushing back on the project itself. Combs claimed Netflix used “stolen” footage in the new documentary—footage that, he said, was “never authorized for release.”
The screening captured the collision of two parallel storylines: a film built from interviews and document-based tension. and a legal and reputational fight over what the public is allowed to see. Jackson told audiences the series came together through careful choices and tense production constraints; Combs says the release crossed a line. based on authorization.
Together, the remarks and the dispute underscore how entertainment, legal exposure, and access to images can all move at once—sometimes faster than agreement.
50 Cent Curtis Jackson Diddy Sean Combs Netflix Sean Combs: The Reckoning IFC Center Alex Stapleton Reggie docuseries legal RICO charges Bad Boy Records Sean Jean Cîroc
So 50 says it wasnt beef but it’s still literally about Diddy so… ok
Netflix really out here turning everything into content. If Diddy says the footage wasn’t authorized then why is it on TV? Seems like nobody cared to verify anything.
Wait are they saying 50 made the documentary after Diddy got convicted? Cuz I thought this was older footage from like 2019 or something. Also “Reggie” director?? I’m confused, I saw another clip on TikTok that said it was about the feud the whole time.
50 Cent always acts like he’s above it, but he loves the drama. And Diddy pushing back about unauthorized footage makes me think somebody’s lying in the editing room. Plus the fact it’s Number 1 in 31 countries doesn’t mean it’s accurate, just means people can’t look away.