‘Sean Combs: The Reckoning’ is a long time coming

While watching Netflix’s sprawling, emotionally charged docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, an old quote from the disgraced mogul loomed as a haunting presence.

“I want out of this,” Combs said in a 1997 Rolling Stone cover feature. “I never planned on this.”

Over a quarter century later, Combs certainly never planned for his life to turn out like this — serving a 50-month sentence in federal prison for two counts of engaging in prostitution. Sure, he planned on achieving his overwhelming success. He planned to become a crossover pop culture deity, permeating the worlds of fashion, high-end spirits, politics, and more.

As the docuseries suggests, Combs had a Muhammad Ali-like belief in himself, and he knew he would be a star before anyone else did. Yet, one thing he certainly never planned on was his crushing, inescapable downfall, mainly stemming from ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura’s bombshell November 2023 lawsuit alleging sexual abuse, domestic violence, drugging and more.

Combs talked about the dark side of fame in his music and interviews. He also repeatedly escaped the harshest punishments the – admittedly flawed – criminal justice system could offer. He was teflon for so long at the expense of so many others. The list of people he reportedly harmed, short-changed and made disappear is endless. Silenced voices can’t speak truth to power … until now.

It would be fair to say I was hesitant heading into The Reckoning, given that longtime Combs antagonist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson had been promoting it for several months. Would this be simply another dark joke from the greatest troll rap had ever seen? Was the documentary even real? Keep in mind, 50 Cent survived nine bullets from a hit allegedly ordered by one of New York’s most notorious kingpins and lived to tell his story. He’s been playing with house money ever since. But I wondered if 50, whose disdain toward Combs dates back well over a decade, could actually produce something that was a step beyond social media banter?

The answer is a resounding yes. Thanks mainly to the savvy direction of Alexandria Stapleton, The Reckoning is far more than that.

There has never been a series as comprehensive, nuanced and as resolute on Combs’ life and career as The Reckoning. Combs’ legal team threatened Netflix with a cease-and-desist letter, and it’s understandable why. A videographer Combs hired followed him around in the days leading up to his September 2024 arrest, recording some of the most intimate moments of the mogul’s suffocating, final hours of freedom.

The Reckoning production team obtained the footage, which is the thread that binds the entire four-part series together. It allows Stapleton to weave in and out of Combs’ childhood, early professional life and deeply successful career without fear of contradiction or confusion. As a viewer, one gets a courtside seat into what it feels like when “the feds” are closing in on a man who once felt untouchable.

Nothing in the docuseries feels sensational, which seems impossible given that Combs has specialized in sensationalism for decades. The intimacy of it all is both compelling and uncomfortable. Combs’ entire time in the public eye has been so carefully manufactured that seeing the bare bones of the foundation that made him is gripping. Across the series’ four episodes, there were a litany of topics to examine — including Combs’ upbringing with his mother, Janice Combs, and the flashy and sometimes adult lifestyle she allegedly introduced him to.

Meanwhile, the trappings of New York street life and the music industry were also influential in Combs’ rise. As was Combs’ role in the now-infamous East Coast/West Coast rap war.

“I think that Sean now, in my mature mind, had a lot to do with the death of Tupac,” Bad Boy co-founder Kirk Burrowes alleged in the series.

Voices like Burrowes, former longtime Bad Boy employee Capricorn Clark, Joi Dickerson-Neal (who claims Combs raped her in 1991 and showed a videotape of the incident at social gatherings), and many others who allegedly felt Combs’ wrath set the basis for The Reckoning. And it’s true, a critic could say these are all people who have a bone to pick with Combs. They would naturally want to see him kicked on his way down the ladder he reportedly guarded for so long.

But then arises the next question: Why hasn’t there been a rush to defend Combs (outside of diehard fans and rapper The Game, who shouted out Combs in a club this past week)?

The Reckoning shows that Combs’ life has been a wicked stew of moments that have allowed him to achieve unprecedented success, all while knowing an ominous black cloud hovers over him. Whether it be from the artists Combs worked with who claimed he never compensated them properly to the women he sought to woo, money was always a motive. But it was power, control and manipulation that have appeared to be Combs’ chief objective.

Throughout his career, Combs has, for the most part, been able to avoid severe punishment for his reported actions. All that came crashing down in November 2023 when Ventura’s lawsuit dropped. The stories of beatings, rape, forced sex with male prostitutes and more were revealed to the public. Despite his best efforts, Combs has never been able to get in front of this story since. Descriptions of how he treated the women and men who were most susceptible to his power — like the excruciating account of producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones in episode four — now live on Netflix, available to its 300 million global viewers.

The Reckoning stripped Combs of the invincibility and “Black excellence” he marketed, championed and lathered in for so long. Couple that with the now infamous Intercontinental Hotel beating of Ventura, and Combs’ public adoration has long been severed. It’s the feigned innocence Dickerson revealed she battled with after seeing Combs’ 2004 Times Square billboard. Or the late Kim Porter’s understanding that she was never the only woman in his life. Or the revelation that Lil’ Rod claimed he awoke beside Combs, sore, after being assaulted. Combs’ history is a trail of tears that spans multiple decades with little accountability. But this is also where one last grasp of manipulation comes in.

In the series, as Combs is just days away from being arrested, he traverses through Harlem, taking shots with rapper Jim Jones and posing for selfies with fans. It’s somewhat similar to the way O.J. Simpson tried to reconnect with Black folks when he was on trial for murder, because he wanted approval from a community he never sought validation from once his bank account surpassed a certain threshold.

Truth be told, The Reckoning would be a tragic tale if the main character weren’t the tragedy.

By the end of the series, which doesn’t feel anywhere near like the hit piece it could’ve been, one is left to wonder: Did Combs ever have a genuine relationship that wasn’t based on what he could manipulate out of a person? The answer is probably yes. But for the better part of two years, Combs’ name and image have been getting torn to shreds, and very few have come to his defense. One has to speculate what that actually looks like for the man who was once the life of every party. Combs is a man who once decided the taste of any country he set foot in, but now he’s an old man without one.

A Combs revival following a documentary of this nature seems insurmountable. The details, the admissions, the sheer audacity of indiscretion, the prestige he once had is almost inconceivable now. True, there will be people like The Game who will always come to his defense — mainly because The Game has always supported Combs and is promoting a new project. But if there were ever an opportunity to have a life somewhat similar to the one he had before going to prison, The Reckoning looked directly through the scope and squeezed the trigger on that chance. The only killshot is Combs’ reputation.

Combs once coined the phrase “can’t stop, won’t stop,” to describe his work ethic and meteoric success. And as his fame and power began to spread, spanning decades, we believed him and thought his time on top would never come to an end.

But the truth is this: It can stop. And honestly, thanks to The Reckoning, it’s hard to imagine when it will ever start again.

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