I have different personalities. Nobody
knows who's coming downstairs in the morning.
This programme contains
very strong language
and some scenes which some viewers
may find upsetting,
and deals with Sexual Abuse
..
He's topped the charts all over the
world. He sold nearly 11 million
albums worldwide.
He has single handedly raised
the profile of rap music.
For me, growing up in the '90s
in Peckham, and now as a DJ,
hip-hop has always been a massive
part of my life.
And Diddy really was
the centre of it.
A music pioneer, star maker
and a billionaire business mogul.
The meek and the humble shall
inherit the earth.
But he didn't say you had to be like
that every day.
This is what I imagined,
but even bigger.
You know, I'm just beginning.
Puff Daddy forever!
He was the ultimate hip-hop mogul.
But the Diddy story is complex.
Breaking news. Sean Diddy Combs
has now been arrested.
The indictment alleges that between
at least 2008 and the present,
Combs abused, threatened and coerced
victims
to fulfil his sexual desires,
protect his reputation
and conceal his conduct.
After a seismic fall from grace,
will his rise turn out to be
a tale of ruthless ambition?
I'm a savage! Whatever I want,
I'm going to get!
Of unchecked power and bravado?
My mother has always taught me
if somebody hit me,
make sure I hit them back harder.
Make sure they never hit me again.
Make sure I f*ck them up.
Or is there some truth
in the allegations of abuse
and violence?
This office is charging Sean Combs
with racketeering conspiracy,
sex trafficking,
interstate transportation
for prostitution.
Today, he's been indicted
and will face justice
in the Southern District
of New York.
Mr Combs is a fighter.
He's going to fight this to the end.
He's innocent.
He came to New York to establish
his innocence.
He's not afraid.
He's not afraid of the charges.
He's been looking forward
to clearing his name.
And he's going to clear his name.
I grew up listening to Diddy's
music,
but his recent public downfall
has been epic.
I don't know what to believe.
The wild chat on social media,
or the charges that are being
levelled against him.
My friend Shayna
and I both worshipped Diddy.
I was shocked at the length
and breadth of the accusations
against him. Mm-hm.
Like, because of the legacy
that he's built,
because of the mogul
that he's become,
because Diddy's the guy,
Diddy was the man.
And he's been the guy since I was
seven all the way through. Yeah.
I don't even... I don't even know
what to believe.
Do you know what it is, yeah?
The caricature that he made himself,
it's almost like a cartoon villain.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
Like, he's so wild.
He's so eccentric.
He's an eccentric billionaire.
Yeah. You know, like, then you'd
think he could never do that. Never.
That didn't happen. I mean, Cassie,
her and Diddy, they're this
incredible couple.
And she was like fire!
Oh, she's going to take over
from Rihanna, from Beyonce,
from whoever it is. Yeah.
It's a perfect example of truly
never knowing what happens,
especially when people
paint this picture.
Do you remember
when she shaved her head?
Like she was so stunning.
So I shaved my head.
Of course you did.
Of course I shaved my head.
So now, when I read the stories
about it being Diddy's idea
that he saw someone in a club...
Mm-hm.
..that had half their hair shaved
or something, and then said,
"You're going to do that."
And the next day... The next day,
she did it. Like, that's a very big
level of control. That's a big
statement.
And it makes me feel guilty,
how much I bought into
that lifestyle
and what he showed me
to be black excellence,
and how much I wanted to be involved
in his parties. Mm-hm.
I want to be invited
to these brunches.
This was the party to be at.
This was the place to go.
If we're believing the allegations,
the question is, who is this man?
Like, who is this man?
Who have you been?
And what are you capable of?
What are you showing us?
What are you capable of?
What else have you done?
What...? And who helped you do it?
Yeah.
So now I want to understand exactly
who he was...
..and find out from the people who
were there what really went on.
P Diddy has been facing
a string of claims
in connection with parties thrown by
the hip-hop star.
Combs allegedly planned
and controlled the sex performances,
which he called Freak Offs,
and he often electronically
recorded them.
What do you do to make just
an amazing k*ller party?
This is what you need to do.
Um, women.
Beautiful women. Of course.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Diddy was celebrated
for his extravagant lifestyle
all over the media.
But getting people to open up about
what happened at the parties
hasn't been easy.
But there is one woman
who is willing to share her story
with me.
"Precious Muir is a 40-year-old
today, and is a famous TV presenter.
"When she was in her 20s,
she moved to New York.
"She started modelling
and many people advised her to go
"to celebrity parties to make
connections
"and make her way in that world."
I'm here to try and get a sense of
what actually went down at
a Diddy party.
I want to know what it was like.
I want to know what Diddy was like.
I want to know
what his entourage were like.
And I think Precious is the perfect
person to speak to about that.
Basically, I got
a model contract to move to
Manhattan, New York.
I moved there in 2005,
but I don't think I ever really
understood
what kind of environment it was
going to be,
because I hadn't been familiar with
the country before. Of course.
What was the nightlife like?
They would have these kind
of VIP host club promoters
that would kind of present
this kind of atmosphere
where you can, as a model,
you can actually go and enjoy
all these luxuries for free.
Initially, I went to a vodka
brand party
that's associated with Diddy,
and that is how I was, really,
I guess, approached
and introduced into this
kind of lifestyle.
So the first time
that you went to one,
it must have been
a little bit like starry-eyed?
I thought, "This can't get better.
This is Hollywood!"
Like, every single person you can
imagine was at these parties.
I mean, it must have been
a pinch-me at some point?
Yeah. I mean, God, like,
the house was insane.
There was beautiful girls dancing
and champagne was flowing.
It was like walking into a film set.
Like, it was something
so extravagant,
so insane
that you can't understand it
unless you're there.
Diddy had to always make sure
that his presence was known, right?
Everyone in the party wanted to be
around him.
He wanted to be close with them.
He wanted
to make sure everyone's drinking,
everyone's dancing,
everyone's having a good time.
But I feel like when I was there,
I was part of something
that was bigger than me.
There was a lot of people asking you
questions before you could qualify
maybe to those big lavish parties.
Like what kind of stuff you're into,
like would you like to come to
this kind of party?
I received a drink from someone
while I was at this party,
and there was something in my drink.
Before I knew it,
I couldn't stand up.
I was basically just completely
paralysed on one side of my face,
and I had no idea what was going on.
Mm-hm. I didn't know
the people I was around.
So the person that came
and, like, helped me out of
the situation was one of
the venue's security guards.
If I hadn't been saved by
that security guard,
I have no idea
what would have happened to me.
Why didn't you go to the police?
I was advised that as long
as I'm seen by the doctor
and I'm OK by the next day,
I don't need to pursue anything
with the police.
I feel now, looking back, it was
an initiation.
I feel like his inner circle
were testing me.
So when you don't do something,
as in pursuing the police and making
a report, they feel like,
"OK, Precious is cool."
If I had done the opposite, I don't
think I would have been included
in that inner circle any more.
You won't be invited to
the White Party in the Hamptons.
Why did you keep going back
if you felt uncomfortable?
If someone said to you,
"I'm going to give you
the golden ticket,
"and you can be able to stand
in front of an executive
"who is going to be able to book you
for that big job",
are you not going to go?
You're going to go to network
and meet these people.
But you had to take that at a risk.
You need the ladies. You need
the booze. You need some water.
LAUGHTER
For watering plants? No, no.
I don't know if guys have
noticed this,
like, a lot of ladies drink water
at parties.
Right. You know, so if you
don't have what they need,
they're going to leave. Right.
Got to keep them there.
Right. You need locks on the doors.
LAUGHTER
For those of us who have never
been to a Diddy party,
can you set the scene?
Because even Diddy's descriptions
are pretty sinister.
Talking about things
going on behind locked doors.
What did you see at
the Diddy parties?
Well, you would
see girls sitting on guys' laps
and they're kissing and doing...
..all different drugs,
coke, basically,
on the woman's breasts,
and he's sniffing off her breasts
or whatever.
Popping pills,
they were smoking weed,
and I would see open condom wrappers
in the rubbish bins.
I would hear stuff
as I'm walking past different rooms.
I would hear things going on
in the bedrooms.
I saw children there.
I saw young children
with whomever brought them
to the parties during the daytime.
And alongside there was naked girls.
I mean, girls would be literally
fingering each other in the pool.
Like, this isn't the atmosphere
for kids, at all.
Like, this is strange.
I've heard after a certain part,
they would ask you,
you need to sign an NDA
for you to continue on
to the rest of the party.
Was sex offered to you?
Definitely. Sex was...
It wasn't, it wasn't offered to you.
You were asked,
"Do you want to stay, do you want
to hook up, do you want to...?"
And I would be like, "No, I'm good,
I'm good, it's time to go,
"like, I'm good."
I know there are things
you're not telling me. Mm.
Am I right in that?
There's a lot of things
that I would love to say,
but because...
It's OK.
Because obviously I fear
the repercussions
of what I could say...
..I have to hold back a little bit
because I don't know...
..what could happen to me.
I was drugged and taken...
..into a space where...
..you know...
It's uncomfortable to talk
about that,
because I don't know
what happened exactly.
Do you understand?
And you have no idea,
if you speak up and you go to
the police or you say something,
what could happen to you.
I think you're very brave.
Having heard Precious' story,
I then came across something else
that made me think it was unlikely
that she was the only person
potentially drugged.
We used to go in the club.
We'd go into the nightclub, right?
All of these girls come around
and VIP.
I found an interview with
an artist Diddy used to work with.
It was pretty disturbing stuff.
Freako parties?
Yo, let me tell you something.
When we'd go to the club, we used
to have these bottles, right?
And on this bottle, they'd be
regular Moet bottles.
On them bottles right there, they'd
have something to make the girls
be real, real slippery,
and all of this kind of stuff.
Slippery?! So when you'd get up,
they be like,
don't touch them bottles right there
and only drink them bottles
right there.
So we already knew
what the drill was.
You just don't mess
with them bottles, right?
What?! All of the girls
in the club,
after a while, they all running,
opening up their mouth
like little birds. He was running
around just pop, popping pills
in their mouth.
Pop pill, pill, pill, pill,
and then, that was the party.
But all of the females in there,
that's what they wanted.
That was what party -
it was part of the hip-hop culture.
When they're slippery, to quote
our good friend Mark Curry here
- yeah? - that's when they're
popping pills in their mouth?
Yeah. But that's choice
the girls have made.
Because they're like, mouths open.
Why are their mouths open?
Because you put something
in their drink... They're high!
Innit? Even if what
he's saying is true,
it's like, the way that women
were and are treated...
Yeah, because he said,
it's hip-hop culture,
this is what we did, this is what
we done, it's how we partied.
So the girls are objects?
The girls are objects.
HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYS
In the '90s, LA was
the home of West Coast hip-hop.
Misogyny wasn't just present,
it was the norm across the culture.
Power, entitlement, the belief
that people, especially women,
were theirs to control.
I've come to meet Amy DuBois,
former editor of Honey magazine.
She was in the thick of it
at the time,
rubbing shoulders
with hip hop's biggest names,
including Diddy himself.
Honey magazine, that I was
the editor in chief of,
was an urban magazine,
so it was for young women of colour.
Honey magazine gave Beyonce
her first solo cover.
Sometimes we even co-hosted album
release parties with music labels,
so we were very much
in that scene at that time.
It was the zenith of hip-hop.
There was so much money.
Andre Harrell was
the founder of Uptown Records,
and Andre was very influential,
you know, on Puff.
I mean,
he gave him his first opportunity.
He was the first person, I think,
to meld, you know,
urban culture and hip-hop
with kind of style and lifestyle.
His, you know, kind of grown-in
sexy aesthetic.
Puff absorbed all of that.
You could have had
the Colt 45 lifestyle at that time,
or you could have had the, you know,
drug dealer baller,
uptown record industry,
champagne lifestyle.
Black wealth is,
I don't say non-existent,
but is almost non-existent
in this country.
So for a lot of music executives,
particularly, um, you know,
folks who were black who maybe
came up with not very much,
you know, um, when they were
exposed to
kind of wealth and power,
you have a sense of
self-importance and, you know,
you have kind of a sense
of invincibility. Mm.
And I think that, you know,
was what governed a lot of
the way people were behaving
around that time.
One of the things that I think
a lot of people, especially women,
potentially struggle with when
it comes to being fans of hip-hop,
is that you can be
a fan of the music,
but then when you really strip down
to the lyrics, it's degrading.
You know, there is a certain amount
of guilt that many of us have...
Yeah. ..you know, because we
are consumers of the culture.
Yeah. Some of us have benefited,
you know, from, um,
you know, financially,
from the culture.
Yeah. Misogyny and sexual violence
in the lyrics made it
very acceptable, I think,
for male artists and male, you know,
music industry executives
to disrespect women.
I don't know a woman who, you know,
worked in the music industry
who doesn't have some kind of story
of having to, you know,
escape a man who was treating her
disrespectfully.
Are you comfortable to talk me
through some of those experiences?
I mean, there were -
there were so many. Oh, gosh.
Um, yeah, there were so many.
I mean, they ranged from,
you know, music artists, you know,
grabbing me, you know,
my...you know, my...
..my bum and my,
you know, my body, you know,
um, propositioning me, you know,
in parties and then,
um, calling me out of my name
when I turned them down.
You know, a very, very well-known,
um,
music executive locked me
in a limousine
and wouldn't let me out
until I kissed him.
The misogyny was so widespread.
We felt it, but we also just sort
of treated it as par for the course.
It was helpful for our careers,
for them to desire us,
but we had to always kind of
toe the line
where we were also kind of creating
a boundary of professional respect.
I mean,
it sounds really strange now,
but this is really
the environment at the time.
I was only a kid in the '90s,
but I'm starting to realise
how unregulated the industry
was back then.
It seems like it was normal
for young upcoming artists
to be sent to live with industry
insiders to mentor them.
Diddy himself lived with his mentor,
Andre Harrell, at 19.
But Usher was just 14
when his record label sent him
to live with Diddy, yet is coy about
the details of what life was like
with him.
That's the crazy thing, right? New
York City. We're sending you over
to something called
Puffy Flavour Camp.
There you go. To learn some...
Flavour camp?! Yeah.
In the '90s, do you understand
what that's like?
It was curious.
I got a chance to see some things...
Uh-huh. And I didn't
necessarily understand it.
14 years old. You're a dad now.
Would you ever send your kid
to Puffy Camp?
Hell, no!
Usher never revealed
what went on at Puppy Flavour Camp,
but revealing footage of
a 15-year-old Justin Bieber
when he stayed with Diddy
for 48 hours has got people talking.
A man after my heart.
That's what I'm talking about.
The allure of the music industry
has always attracted
the young and ambitious.
So I'm meeting a former employee
of Diddy's record label, Bad Boy.
Mel Love was just a teenager
when he started as an intern.
Mel, hi! Hey, how are you doing?
I'm Yinka.
Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
How are you? Everything is good.
Good. Nice sunny day.
I want to find out, for someone
so young, what is the price of fame?
Every single day
I was going downtown,
the Uptown MCA.
I'm going to Universal Records,
telling them, I need
a job with y'all,
y'all got to hire me,
I'm the best man for the job.
I was 13 at the time.
And I'm trying in any way possible,
I'm trying to get in and work
for these people because I know
that it's something that I need
to do... Mm. ..with the industry.
Did you enjoy working
in that industry?
Um...
You know, this industry is cruel.
I was a kid.
Um, at a business party,
an individual at the label
came at me the wrong way.
"You're handsome,
you're a handsome black man.
"Wow, you know what I'll do to you?
"I'll take care of you
for the rest of your life.
"All you got to do is just
play with my booty hole.
"All you got to do is suck me off."
So then after that,
I was in a singing group
and...my singing partner,
he was like, yo, I got these people
that want to manage us,
this and that. So I'm like,
all right, no problem.
So I go to their house, I'm eating,
they offering hamburgers, fries.
So, I don't know what happened.
You know what I mean?
I went to sleep.
All of a sudden I felt myself
getting up,
and I'm like, damn,
it's dark in here, oh, sh*t.
f*ck going on? At the same time
I'm feeling somebody
rubbing on my leg, start rubbing
on my front, and I'm like,
oh, sh*t, what the f*ck is going on?
I'm like, yo, I don't like
what's about to happen
if this guy grabbed me,
because his arms is like this,
these look like big bouncing dudes
and stuff like that.
They tried to trap me
and my friend in that situation.
My experience,
that's what I dealt with.
It was very scary,
young age, dealing with that.
How old were you? I was, um...
..15, 15, 16 at that time
when that happened.
And Diddy, being the boss,
would he have been aware
of this choice
or these circumstances?
I don't think he was aware of these
people coming at me like that.
I never opened up and told him
or anything,
because I was embarrassed myself
that these people was even coming
at me like that.
Did you ever hear about Diddy
abusing or crossing the line
with anybody? Um...
..I heard it,
but I didn't see nothing like that.
Personally, working with this guy,
he never came at me wrong
or anything like that.
Like, I'm hearing these stories
with him touching on people
and doing all this stuff.
And I'm like, wow, this is crazy.
Back then, being a kid running
around and stuff like that,
he had mad time to do whatever
he wanted,
you know what I mean? To say
or try to manipulate me to do
all these crazy things
that I'm hearing now.
And it never happened. So, only
thing I can do is just speak
the truth on what I lived through.
Mel, whether he knows it or not,
is part of the collateral
damage of this culture
of abuse in hip-hop and beyond.
So one of the most shocking things
about speaking to him
was the casual way in which he talks
about abuse in the workplace,
as if it is just commonplace.
And it just sounds like it was
a free for all,
that execs,
bosses, whoever's in
a higher position,
had free rein
and could just do what they want.
Although Mel told me he never saw
Diddy abusing anyone,
he is facing multiple civil lawsuits
where individuals
are seeking personal damages.
A lawyer representing the alleged
victims of musician Sean Diddy Combs
says there could be as many as 300
people with viable claims of abuse.
But before these civil matters
can be dealt with,
he'll be in a criminal court
dealing with the federal case.
As well as the sexual allegations,
he's also facing conspiracy charges.
Combs Enterprise. Enterprise meaning
a group of people organised
for the purpose of committing
crimes. In shorthand, right?
Organised crime. Now, prosecutors
allege that Diddy was the leader
of that criminal enterprise,
which consisted of security
and household staff,
personal assistants,
high ranking supervisors
and other close associates.
HIP-HOP MUSIC PLAYS
I'm heading to New York,
where Diddy's bad boy image
was created.
It was his empire,
where his character evolved,
where his conduct
and drive became more extreme.
What's next? Give me something else.
What can't you do?
I could do it. I could do anything!
sniffin' cocaine
It does feel like a lot
of stuff went down in New York.
Right now, I'm going to meet Gene,
who worked for Diddy
for more than 20 years.
From the '90s, as a bodyguard,
he was one of the first people to
speak out about his time with Diddy.
Hear what really happened
from someone that was really there.
Former head of security for Bad Boy
Entertainment, Gene Deal.
Puff comes over to me.
I want you close by, you know,
cos if they try to do this sh*t,
I'm going to snuff his a*s.
I can't stop, I won't stop.
Take that, take that.
Cos you're going to know everything!
And what was New York
like back then?
Can you paint a picture for me?
All the hustlers,
everybody had money,
everybody dressed.
It was how fly you could be.
You understand?
You had to have two or three cars.
You had to have jewellery.
You had to have money
in your pocket.
You had to be fly.
And where did everyone
get the money from?
Uh, some people
were street entrepreneurs.
That's a polite way of putting it.
Yeah.
You got to realise everybody wanted
to be where Bad Boy was at the time.
Mm.
You had these beautiful women
that...
..would just throw theirself at
these people that they didn't even
know...
Yeah. ..just to be around.
At that time,
what was his energy like?
Did you ever heard
the song Five People Inside of Me?
Puff was like that. OK.
You have him, whereas that...
..he's that solemn,
down to earth, cool dude
with his kids and stuff like that.
He had that, you had that person
whereas that if you don't do
what he say do - you understand?
As far as in his business thing,
he going to chop your head off.
You had that person there where
some people that he was generous to,
and then there's some people
that he wouldn't piss on
when they was on fire.
Especially to certain women
on certain things.
You know what I'm saying?
From the Diddy that you met,
did his personality change?
I think that had a lot to do with
when he started using the drugs.
When was that? Uh, first of all,
it came to be where,
after him and him and Kim Porter
got into a big fight
and she took a corkscrew
and ripped his right wrist.
And so he got...he got, you know,
addicted to those opioids.
OK. And after that, I think he
just went to a whole 'nother level.
Speaking to Gene
has made me think about
what else was going on at the time.
I wonder if Diddy's behaviour
had become normalised, and if so,
how much people could have enabled
his actions by their own inaction?
What were the parties like?
It's a party. What does that mean?
It means that you're dancing,
you're drinking.
If you was a part of that,
you're having
the best time of your life.
Those after parties
and stuff like that,
that didn't happen that I know of
in New York.
It was only one party
I ever been involved in
when some women that I brought -
you understand? -
got...
..uh, they drank champagne,
and then they felt dizzy
and what you call.
But they was smart enough to go
to the car.
You understand what I'm saying?
When I'm reading through
the allegations,
the word bodyguards comes up a lot.
What do you say to that? Well,
but you got to understand this.
This happened after I was with him.
A 17-year-old man said
in a complaint that he was
sexually assaulted by both Diddy
and a bodyguard... Whoa!
..over a three day audition process
for the reality show
Making the Band.
I was with Diddy during
that time Making the Band.
So this allegation said
that he was ultimately eliminated
from the competition
due to his reservations
about performing oral sex
on the bodyguard.
Wow. And I have to ask you
if it's you.
Get the hell out of here.
Not at all.
Did you hear of any of that
when you...?
I never heard that before.
Until now.
Have you ever seen any footage
of Diddy having sex on camera?
Never.
Now you want to know
why I didn't see that?
Well, no, if you haven't seen it,
you haven't seen it.
But it's just...
It is so hard to fathom
that if somebody is getting up to
all this stuff, and the person
who is arguably one of the closest
in proximity to them,
doesn't see anything...
You got those bodyguards
that's with everything.
Anything and everything that you do
- yeah, boss, uh-uh.
Then you got your bodyguards that,
you know, if they do something,
you do something,
they going to snitch on you,
they going to tell.
You pick and choose. Which one you
going to do your bullshit around?
I'm listening.
So you're not a yes man? Never been.
Do I seem like a yes man?
Do I act like a yes man? Not today.
Do it seems like...?
Not no day.
Not no day. Never have been.
If Diddy did the things
that he's accused of,
Gene, how could you not know?
How?
You could hear something.
That's hearsay.
But to know something
is to have to see it
and be around it.
What happens when he's not with me,
I'm not responsible for it.
You understand what I'm saying?
Gene claims nothing
happened on his watch.
But even though no-one else
has been charged,
Diddy has been accused of running
a criminal operation,
as well as kidnapping
and making threats of violence.
Now, I want to find out
from Roger Bonds,
another security chief, to see
what it was like to work
in Diddy's inner circle.
Hi. How you doing? Yeah,
I'm all right.
Do you want to come
take a seat?
You were working with him for about
a decade, right, about ten years?
Yeah. I was with him since 2003,
when he was up-and-coming.
At that time, I was kind of like
a bad boy, you know what I'm saying?
I ended up at Rikers Island
for manslaughter.
How old were you? 19 years old.
Trying to get other jobs, all
they seen was, oh, he got a record.
This, that and the other.
So being with him, I was able
to kind of get away from that.
And it was just
a way of taking care of my family.
Can you describe
what it was like to work for Diddy?
When I first got with him,
I looked up to him.
You know what I'm saying?
As somebody that kind of,
like, not took over the world,
but took over my world
as far as I could see it.
Like, I can remember the first time
when he said, yo, tell Bonds
to come in the elevator with me.
The way I felt, I was like,
yo, he know my name?
You talking about
a young man from Harlem.
You know what I'm saying?
Somebody who didn't travel
outside of the five boroughs.
Imagine you -
we in New York right now.
And when I wake up eight hours
from now, we in London.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm sitting down with Muhammad Ali
one day,
then the next day going to France.
You know what I'm saying?
It opens you up a lot of ways.
What do you think Diddy got
from having somebody like you
as his security?
Street credibility.
He has to be accepted
by the toughest of the tough
in whatever city or state
that he go to.
And he also knows
that he has very loyal people.
His nucleus is very loyal,
because we said we was brothers.
He's very smart
when it comes to that.
So Diddy's the type of person that,
as long as you there with him,
he'll be there for you.
But the minute
that you're not there,
he tries to swish you
under the rug.
You know how some people say
family mean everything to him?
His love is money. Nothing
is more important than money.
He needs to acquire it all
to become powerful.
You know what I'm saying? I didn't
come here to just f*cking die.
I came here to live, man.
Change the world and be great.
You know what I'm saying?
I need more, more and more
and more and more.
I need more than anybody.
you can't understand
I'm starting to understand more
about Diddy's personality
and what he would do to get
to the top.
Oh, look, it's Biggie!
It's Biggie forever.
Biggie forever, yes!
I love that.
In 1993, Diddy signed a then unknown
Biggie Smalls to his up-and-coming
record label, Bad Boy.
Biggie quickly became
the East Coast's biggest rapper.
His friend and rival was West Coast
lyricist Tupac Shakur.
By the mid-90s,
the friends had turned to enemies,
resulting in the murders
of both artists.
Though Diddy has always denied
being involved in their deaths,
the outlandish rumours are back
in the spotlight.
Prosecutors confirmed that Diddy's
name was used 77 times
in documentation, alleging that
Diddy was the one that put the hit
out on Tupac.
P Diddy, on Biggie's car,
the night Biggie got shot...
Oh, I've seen that! ..they put
a sticker on like, the tyre.
Biggie was k*lled in a drive-by
sh**ting less than
a year after Tupac's death.
Gene Deal, Diddy's bodyguard,
was a witness to the m*rder.
I was right there.
He stopped at the light.
A car came pulling out. We hear,
pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!
Pulled Biggie out the car.
I know he's dead.
Do you think Diddy had anything
to do with it?
I think he's indirectly
capable of it.
Setting somebody up.
Facts is, is that if Big and Tupac
would have gotten their own label
and everything,
Bad Boy probably wouldn't
have had the rise they did.
The picture Gene paints of Diddy
is someone
that was completely relentless
in his pursuit of power
and global success.
And he achieved this in the wake
of Biggie's death
by releasing one of the biggest
selling records of all time.
Number one over here, back there,
and possibly the whole universe...
..the single of the summer...
..it's a tribute
to the late Notorious B.I.G.
half your breath
your life after death
I blame you, personally, for
inciting a whole nation to start
singing old Police songs.
Everywhere I go, you walk down
the street, everyone's going,
Everywhere.
And it's your fault.
You know that? I'm sorry.
This catapulted him from producer...
Yeah.
..to... Artist. ..rapper to
artist... Yeah. ..to the guy
that you're looking at
in front of the camera.
After that success,
Diddy was completely unstoppable.
It led to an empire
that transcended music.
I'm shocked every day, like,
I can't believe it.
Every day I just feel like
I'm in this long, long dream.
Can you give me a ride home?
Thank you! All right, baby.
I love you all. Thanks a lot.
His ability to draw people to him
was somewhat unique.
So wherever he was, there was
a throng of people wanting to get
as close as possible to the power
that he represented
and the energy he was putting forth.
He's got a tremendous sense
of where he's going.
I think really you have to say
that he does epitomise
the American Dream.
The richer he got,
the God syndrome came.
I'm very m*therf*cking wealthy.
You're g*dd*mn right. I could live
wherever the f*ck I want to live.
Right. I could do
whatever I want to do. Yeah.
It feels like Diddy
thought he was untouchable
and was quite happy to boast
about the scale of his gatherings.
You're legendary for the parties
that you throw. Mm-hm.
I'm a legend, baby,
for a whole bunch of things. Yes.
The parties cemented his status.
And this fame infused
itself into pop culture.
The more pervasive
and notorious this activity was,
the more normalised
the outrageousness became,
and the harder it was to tell
fact from fiction.
I mean, Puff was
a mythic sort of figure.
Sort of the Pied Piper of fun.
He had extreme cultural power.
People used to vie for him
for invitations to those parties.
Everybody from actors to, you know,
music artists to, you know,
fashion designers. You know,
Trump would come to the parties.
You were in the mix of
the most culturally powerful people,
and it enabled you to kind
of let your hair down a little bit.
You know,
you had the illusion of safety.
The indictment alleges
that Combs abused,
threatened and coerced victims
to fulfil his sexual desires.
Combs allegedly planned
and controlled the sex performances,
which he called freak-offs,
and he often electronically
recorded them.
Come get some of this,
come get some of this on...
We're going to put you
in the middle, let you clean up.
Put you in the middle.
Did you ever witness
any sexual abuse?
I know there always was two couples.
And that he would be butt naked
in those rooms with the other men
and other women.
But all of them was consensual.
Yeah. I've been to the store,
and I got the K-Y jelly,
and I got the baby oil,
and I got the condoms.
These are things
that he does to prep the room.
And it's been a couple of instances
where I hear
the housekeeping get upset.
The baby oil all over the sheets
and blood on the sheets.
But I've always thought this
was just some freaky stuff that him
and his girl did.
You know what I'm saying?
So are you saying that you may have
inadvertently set up
the freak-offs... The baby oil,
or whatever? ..when you're buying
the baby oil, when you're buying the
K-Y jelly? No, because this is stuff
that he has in his house
that he does anyway.
OK. You know what I'm saying?
So the assistants is really
the ones that prep everything.
So if he asks me to go get
some baby oil or something,
it was because it was
a last minute thing.
Now it makes sense. When I listen
to a lot of things, I say,
damn, for real,
that what was going on?
And have you ever heard of him
showing people tapes
of him having sex?
I've never seen him do anything
like that,
but I do know
that he used to keep his...
One of his assistants used to keep
a camcorder with him.
And I remember one time
a little tiny tape got lost
and he went f*cking ape - yo,
you sure y'all ain't see the bag?
Y'all didn't see the tape?
This, that and the other.
Us being security,
we wasn't privy to the tape,
but I do know that they carried
a camcorder with them.
Did you ever witness
Diddy using threatening
or intimidating behaviour?
Well, he said some sh*t
that I didn't like before.
You know, he was speaking about,
uh, Danity Kane.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying?
He had said that,
they going to keep
f*cking around with me,
and I'm going to drug their a*s,
I'm going to pimp them out
to my BLEEP.
And when he said that sh*t,
I said, yo,
them somebody's daughters,
what the f*ck is you talking about?
Nobody in the studio said nothing,
and they looking at me
like I'm crazy.
You hear a lot of stories
about Diddy and his temper.
Did you ever witness it?
Of course.
And he can go to one to ten
in a matter of seconds.
Savage! I'm a savage!
Ooooh!
I'm a savage! Whatever I want,
I'm going to get!
Whatever I want, I have to get!
The craziest thing I seen him do
was the Cassie situation.
Everybody meet Cassie.
You all know who this is.
How did you meet Cassie?
When did you meet her?
She came out with her boyfriend
then, Ryan.
And Ryan is a producer that -
that's something else
that was very important
that attracted you
to his situation,
can I sell something more
than just records?
Like, I laugh at it
because two weeks later,
she came back, but she came back
by herself this time.
So Diddy had told him like, yo,
yeah,
she could come back,
but make sure Ryan ain't with her.
So in his mind, he had already knew
what he was going to try to do.
You're signed to Diddy's label? Yes.
What was it like the first time
you met him? Were you starstruck?
I was so nervous, so nervous.
But we sat down for about two hours,
talked about my career
and the future, and it was great.
You know, it turned out amazing.
And he's a great guy. Great guy.
See, one thing about Diddy is,
he's a great reader of people.
Of course, he wouldn't be where
he was at in life if he didn't.
So he seen what she was excited by.
Then you got to remember she was 17,
18 years old
when she first came around.
You know what I'm saying?
So when you're with somebody
for ten years and you're
at the age of 18,
they're, they're - in a way,
they moulded you.
Keep up, keep up, keep up.
Oh, who's this? No!
Who's this? Who's this?
Who's this? Say what's up
to the people. Hi, people.
Say what's up to the people.
That sh*t is bright!
Say what's up to people. Hey,
people. That's Cass right there.
She's in the vocal booth
doing what she got to do.
It was a toxic relationship
that he had to be in control of,
where she tried to be
her own person,
or tried to, uh, find her way,
he would be like, nah,
she can't take that.
Or, yo, they got to give up
more money.
What? What you got to say now?
You ain't BLEEP got to say.
When you see two people fight, you
don't really think nothing of it.
But when you start seeing a man
using that same strength
that you would fight a guy with,
you know what I'm saying?
It's just like, when you hit
your son or you hit your daughter,
you don't hit your son or your
daughter with that authority of,
I'm fighting a BLEEP in the street.
You hit your son
or your daughter enough
that they may know
who's in authority.
And when I seen a fight break out
where I felt like,
oh, no, he must be forgetting
this is Cassie,
then I would always
jump in between it.
You know. I can remember one time
we were on Sunset Boulevard,
Cassie was basically talking
to another manager.
And he grabbed her,
he threw on the floor,
you know what I'm saying?
And he kicked her.
And I seen, like, a look,
like, that person
don't even look the same no more.
You know what I'm saying?
He was actually kicking her
on the floor,
so I jumped in between it.
I grabbed him and I held him.
So when I snatched him up,
I'm whispering in his ear
the whole time, I'm like,
yo, we're on Sunset Boulevard,
you know?
Unless you think you're untouchable,
that you could have
threw away your whole career
in those matter of seconds.
Did you, did you ever...
..tell her to leave,
advise her to leave?
Every conversation
that I had with Cassie,
or I've seen other people have
with Cassie,
she always reported back to him.
I've seen Diddy have
his assistant sit there
and go through each and every email
or text that Cassie might have
had on her phone.
Diddy has a look
and then Cassie would be quiet.
Just the fear
in her made her feel like
if she didn't tell him
something was going to happen.
So when you have that type of power
and implement that type of fear
in a person, yo,
it's hard to talk to him.
Do you feel somewhat responsible?
Of course.
A lot of people would say,
yo, you did what you could.
You stepped in while you was there.
But I feel like I was
asleep on my job.
Diddy has denied
all allegations of abuse,
but there is one instance
that isn't in doubt.
Because only when that video of
what happened in that hotel dropped
did people start to believe...
..what she said happened.
Before that,
when she first dropped her lawsuit
and the whole world was able
to read those allegations,
people made fun of her.
People called her a gold digger.
They called her
an attention grabber.
And that's
when the world started to think...
..do we really know who P Diddy is?
Looks like she tried to escape
while he was sleeping.
She's not wearing any shoes.
She's trying to call for help
on the phone.
She claims in her lawsuit
that this is not the first time
that he's done it.
If so, she may have
a familiar pattern of behaviour
that she goes through to try
and stop
the as*ault from continuing.
It's disgusting.
It makes you quite emotional.
Diddy issued
a rather unconvincing public apology
for the footage
that had been captured.
It's so difficult to reflect on
the darkest times in your life.
But sometimes you got to do that.
I was f*cked up.
I mean, I hit rock-bottom.
But I make no excuses.
My behaviour on
that video is inexcusable.
I'm going to rehab.
I had to ask God for
his mercy and grace.
I'm truly sorry.
He denied all of the allegations
in Cassie's civil suit,
which alleged r*pe, physical abuse
and sex trafficking.
The suit was settled within 24 hours
for a reported $30 million.
Probably the dumbest decision
that he's made was not to settle
with her before she filed
the complaint,
because it inspired
a lot of other people
to come forward and say,
oh, my God, if Cassie has this level
of courage, maybe I can too.
The number
of cases could still go up.
It's important to say
that Sean Combs has denied all of
the allegations against him.
Lisa Bloom came to prominence acting
for some of
Jeffrey Epstein's victims.
She's now representing
a woman called Dawn Richard
in the civil case against
Sean Combs.
We have the criminal allegations,
which is what he's going to face
trial for. Right.
And then there are
the civil allegations.
What is the difference
between the two?
The civil side
where I operate is less known,
and that is simply filing a lawsuit
for money damages.
So that's to get compensation
for victims,
for the emotional distress
that they've endured,
the damage to their career,
the damage psychologically to their
relationships, their self-esteem.
And that's what we're seeking
in our lawsuit for Dawn Richard.
Why don't people just leave?
I think it's very easy for
people to sit back and say,
well, I would've left.
I would've punched him
in the face.
I would've called the police.
That's about 1 in 1,000 who do that.
We have a lot of psychological
research at this point
about how victims behave when
it's a known perpetrator.
Somebody you might care about.
Those are the victims who are
the least likely to leave.
And that's because of
the psychological mechanisms
of denial, shame, self-blame.
A victim has to work through
all of this.
So what do you say to those who
believe that people file
these allegations,
these lawsuits, for attention,
or that it's just untrue
and to bring someone
down who's already on the fall?
Well, Dawn Richard certainly didn't
file her case for attention.
She doesn't need attention.
She's a very successful musician
and artist in her own right.
There's not a person in the world
who wants the attention for being
an alleged victim of sexual
harassment or sexual as*ault.
That's just the most
unpleasant situation to be in,
in the public eye.
You know, and Dawn knew,
that you're going to get
a lot of hate, a lot of insults,
a lot of nastiness online.
People show up at their homes,
they knock on the door,
they leave death threats.
It's terrifying.
Um, again, if anybody thinks there's
something fun about sitting on
the witness stand talking about
the most intimate,
horrific details of your life
and having a very
skilled attorney cross-examine you
for hours and hours,
they really lack compassion.
It is a gruelling experience.
I've been in trials with victims
where they were cross-examined
for almost three days.
You've faced Jeffrey Epstein,
Bill Cosby, now P Diddy,
like, these huge characters.
What's the most difficult part
of that job?
Sad but true, when you have
a lot of money,
you're probably going to do better
in our legal system than somebody
who doesn't have money.
That's just the way it is.
You can hire better lawyers,
endure for a long
period of time paying out
those legal fees to those attorneys.
I would say also access. You know,
Sean Combs had many
powerful friends.
So somebody who is just
an everyday person might say,
how could I possibly go
up against Sean Combs?
He's friendly with people at
the highest levels,
not only of the music industry,
but the business world, politics.
You know, people just feel like,
how could I possibly stand
up to somebody like that?
Some people have so much power
and have gotten away with things
for so long,
they feel
that they can just do anything,
they will always get away with it.
But in the legal system
it's a whole different thing.
Lawyers for Sean Diddy Combs
made their third attempt at bail,
but prosecutors asked
why Combs would follow
the rules outside of jail
when they say he has been trying
to obstruct
the case from inside of jail?
They say he cannot be trusted.
Ghislaine Maxwell,
R Kelly,
they've spent time...
..in that building where one of
the most famous rappers
of my generation
currently resides.
When you were that rich,
that powerful,
you think you're untouchable, right?
You think that you are invincible.
Diddy has been refused
bail multiple times,
as prosecutors fear
he will intimidate witnesses
before the trial.
Cos he still has that power.
That power hasn't diminished
amongst some people.
You got to realise he put people
in certain high places. Mmm.
Then he's working for people
in high places.
You know what I'm saying?
If you come out and speak up on him,
they may think that one day you
might come out and speak on them.
Are you surprised by any of
the allegations?
If you were a nosy person,
you could find out
whatever you want to find out.
I think a part of me was just,
I don't want to know
none of that sh*t,
because then I'm not
held accountable
for knowing some of this sh*t.
So, my thing was always turning
my cheek to another side.
I don't want to know about
your personal business.
So would you say you turned
a blind eye?
To certain things.
If I asked something outside of
what I'm supposed to do,
and, you know, Bonds asking
questions, and he's the type of,
yo, what you asking about that for?
What you worrying about that for?
You know what I'm saying?
And that's something you don't
want to come about.
Do you still think that he
wields that power?
Am I fearful for my safety? Yes.
The people that he's around
and the people that he knows,
it's a very scary thing.
I think it's really messed up
how the industry is,
how people look the other way.
There is always going to be that
element there of
this person's in power
and you are kind of vulnerable.
I don't see executives at
the top really caring,
really doing anything
about this problem. You know,
female artists can't be expected
to take all this on by themselves.
When you're talking about
the reckoning,
the potential reckoning,
it's not just a few people,
it is culture. And so you're really
talking about, you know,
something that doesn't have borders.
If he do get out of this,
I believe he could bounce back.
Donald Trump. Perfect example.
He's the biggest thug
in the whole world,
and he's more than
30 felony accounts.
And he still became our president.
And I believe Puffy could come back
from that as well.
Would you work with him again? Nah.
Is there a scenario
in which P Diddy somehow comes back
from this, after everything
that has happened?
I don't think so. You know,
I don't think that we can ignore
the 100-plus allegations.
And, in particular,
I don't think we can unsee
that video.
Enough, you know? Enough now.
It's enough.
Yeah.
With hip-hop having
soundtracked my life,
maybe I shouldn't be
that surprised about the misogyny
and the view of women that is
so embedded within its culture.
But the scale of the allegations
against Diddy point to an attitude
of complete disregard of humans
for the sake of money and power.
I'm very m*therf*cking wealthy.
You're g*dd*mn right. I can live
wherever the f*ck I want to live.
Right. I can do whatever
I want to do. Yeah.
Power seeps down.
It also corrupts those around you.
We are not done.
This investigation is ongoing
and I encourage anyone
with information about this case
to come forward
and to do it quickly.
No-one is untouchable
and no-one should be untouchable.
And if there's ever a time
for it to get better
or to start to get better,
I mean, yesterday is a great time,
but today is OK.
Mr Combs' legal team said
that the allegations in
this documentary were...
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P Diddy: The Rise and Fall (2025)
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