Latest / Fanatically Speaking with Kent / 1 of 4 The Diddy Doc - Episode One: Sean Combs The Reckoning - Pain Vs Love

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1 of 4 The Diddy Doc - Episode One: Sean Combs The Reckoning - Pain Vs Love · Fanatically Speaking with Kent

0:00
Just for full disclosure, as someone who has
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consumed a lot of media, has worked for media
0:09
in a certain aspect, and views media in certain
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ways, especially documentaries. I love documentaries,
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and I've actually kind of debated on whether
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or not I'd like to try to make a documentary
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myself one day. Not about me, just about some
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interesting things that I've seen and experienced.
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The one thing about a documentary, and I just
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want to make sure that anyone listening to this
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understands, you can frame a documentary to look
0:35
however you want it to look. You can frame a
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documentary to paint a picture however you want
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it to be painted. And it's just a perspective
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that has a big picture overall. That's not in
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any way trying to justify anything. But we know
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that if we were going to make a documentary,
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and our names is, you know, 50 Cent, Curtis Jackson.
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And we want to make a documentary to make P Diddy,
1:02
Puff Daddy, Diddy, Papa Diddy Pop look poor,
1:07
look like a bad guy, look like a villain. It's
1:09
absolutely something that's not that hard to
1:11
do, especially with all the facts and everything
1:14
that we have now. So just something to keep in
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mind. I can't dispute anything that was made
1:19
in that documentary, but also just understand
1:21
that when you're watching it, that you're watching
1:24
someone else paint a picture of someone else's
1:27
life. And that's kind of the best disclosure
1:29
that I can add to it. What's up everybody welcome
2:04
to another episode of fanatically speaking I
2:06
am Kent the co -host and promoter I Am log off
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the log off legend the hater of all social media.
2:13
I'm Nicole's and producer of the show and today
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We're gonna do something a little different I've
2:18
told Kent for years. I'm late to everything So
2:22
usually when something new happens or something
2:24
comes out I'm usually one of the last people
2:27
to hear or consume whatever it is whether it's
2:29
music whether it's a movie And in this case,
2:33
it's a documentary. So this documentary, it's
2:37
pretty popular. It's all over Netflix, produced
2:40
by 50 Cent. It's Sean Combs, The Reckoning. These
2:44
episodes are going to be all spoilers, guys.
2:47
Everything we're going to say is a spoiler. So
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if this is something that you haven't watched,
2:51
if this is something that you intend on watching,
2:53
We're gonna give you some perspective on it,
2:56
and maybe you'll feel comfortable watching it
2:58
on your own if you haven't. But just know, we're
3:00
absolutely gonna spoil this in every single episode
3:03
that we record about this. If you go on social
3:06
media, I'm sure people are spoiling it for you
3:08
anyway. But I'm not on social media. This is
3:11
just our perspective on it. But just know, spoilers,
3:14
spoilers, spoilers all day long. Yes. And when
3:19
I caught Wind of It, I ended up watching the
3:21
first episode of it. and I reached out to Kent
3:24
and I'm like, I think this will be something
3:26
good for us to cover on the podcast. It's a four
3:29
part documentary that's broken down into four
3:31
different segments, just kind of going over Sean
3:35
Combs. AKA Puff, AKA Puffy, AKA Puff Daddy, AKA
3:41
Diddy. And it just kind of gives a full P Diddy,
3:46
Papa Diddy Pop. It's a full breakdown of, from
3:51
what I've seen thus far, his life and just the
3:54
trajectory of him from starting off as a young
3:56
man up into what we know him as today, someone
4:01
who's sitting in prison. So That's kind of a
4:07
good lead -in for it. You know our our last movie
4:10
episodes have done pretty well This is something
4:12
that's really topical that's really popular and
4:15
I found it really interesting there was a lot
4:17
of things in here that I did not know and There
4:19
were some things that I knew that it just kind
4:21
of you know, refresh my memory on But just kind
4:24
of as a whole for you Kent before we kind of
4:26
get started. What were your thoughts on it on?
4:29
the first episode or the Well, just no just so
4:33
just just the documentary as a whole like like
4:35
what I guess Was it just me was it just me saying?
4:38
Hey, man I think you should take a look at this
4:39
that kind of or had you heard about it before
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I mentioned Yeah, so so I'd heard some buzz and
4:44
it's funny that after you mentioned it then I'm
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hearing it from other people Like oh, you know,
4:50
so -and -so said you need yeah, it was pretty
4:52
good especially get into the next episode just
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that the other and I never know about documentaries,
4:59
especially When they come out like so quickly
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Because like you said Diddy is in prison it just
5:08
happens so It's kind of like okay. Is there enough
5:13
information like who did that so I didn't really
5:15
I had not really looked into who did it So then
5:18
you find out you know 50 cent is You know behind
5:23
the documentary which I think is interesting.
5:25
Yeah that he Because as you know if you know
5:29
about the document like we said Did he recorded
5:32
himself last year? He had a videographer kind
5:37
of do some video and and leading up to Before
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he got arrested Yeah, and I think that's probably
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one of the most riveting things about it that
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makes this documentary land is the fact that
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they've got footage from last year, yeah of before
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he actually gets arrested and put in handcuffs
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in and you know it leads into kind of what his
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mind state was before he actually got arrested
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that i think that the investigations and everything
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we're kind of pending but he hadn't been taken
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into custody the lynchpin all this is having
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that footage which is incredible to get to begin
6:17
with you got his actual footage of him on the
6:22
phone you know, in the very beginning of the
6:24
documentary, speaking to his attorneys and we
6:26
can dive into that in a little bit, but that's
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how things kind of start. And for him to be able
6:31
to do this and say, you know what, I'm going
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to take this and then frame an entire documentary
6:34
around this popular figure who's been popular
6:37
for almost 30 years now, it's incredible. I've
6:42
got some criticisms for it, but I'm going to
6:44
wait until we kind of get a chance to elaborate
6:46
a little bit more. But no, but it's up to you.
6:48
I'm one of these people, I hate spoilers. Some
6:49
people don't care. They can consume anything
6:51
and then go watch it. I'm not one of those guys.
6:53
Yeah. And again, I think it... Like you said,
6:57
it's it's kind of ironic though. It was not ironic
6:59
But it's just it's kind of funny to me that 50
7:02
cent went out and bought these you know bought
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the the tapes the footage and You know, I don't
7:08
think did he intended for him to get his hands
7:10
on it and do a good document No, not at all.
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So that's so no not at all. That's about it And
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by the way, and by the way, you know, it is it
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is hilarious and we know 50 is petty And the
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interesting thing about this to me is I haven't
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seen, and maybe you have, I haven't seen any
7:25
record of where he actually paid for this footage.
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It just says he obtained it. I don't know how
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he got it. Well, I read, yeah, I mean, I don't,
7:32
again, we don't know what's true, what's sometimes
7:34
on the internet, so I did read that he purchased
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the footage. Got it. Which, okay, no, that's
7:40
good to know, that's good insight to have. Which
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would make sense, that videographer, you know,
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he was doing it with Diddy, you know, for Diddy,
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and then... Probably wasn't supposed to get out
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and then 50 cent was like hey, but I'll pay you
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this and he's like, okay You know, I mean business
7:55
is business and But but yeah, like you said we're
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gonna we're gonna look into this and like you
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said People may have other takes I mean I know
8:07
why we taught we learned something that we didn't
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know and we lived we lived through the 90s so
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Yeah, the 90s, you know the the 90s hip -hop
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scene the bad boy era like yeah It was like it
8:22
was massive like it's a major part of my childhood
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and there was absolutely some nostalgic some
8:28
nostalgic moments in there for me was like, oh
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my gosh, like it takes me back to a certain moment
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and So we're gonna start this off with episode
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one. The name of the episode is called pain versus
8:39
love and Just for clear clarification for you
8:43
can't yeah I watched this with my wife and my
8:46
daughter. They insisted on watching this. So
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we actually sat and watched this as a family.
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My daughter's a high schooler. Some of the subject
8:54
matter was a little touchy. But she'd already
8:57
heard a lot of this stuff anyway over the past
8:58
year from the kids at school. So the documentary
9:04
starts off with a scene in Diddy in a hotel room.
9:07
on the phone with his attorneys. And this is,
9:11
I believe it was like six days before he's actually
9:13
taken into custody. And he's in this, you know,
9:17
this dope ass New York luxury suite. And he's
9:21
on the phone with the lawyers. And one of the
9:23
quotes I wrote down was that he says, we are
9:25
losing. And he says, I'm spending millions and
9:27
they're still coming. Meaning that he was trying
9:31
to shift the narrative on what the public perception
9:35
of his image was in this case. You know, he mentions
9:39
that, you know, that he's trying to, you know,
9:41
cleaning, he wants to clean things up. And what
9:44
it does is it implies that he's trying to, you
9:47
know, kind of manage the fallout, get a better
9:50
public PR spin on it. And he's frustrated with
9:53
his attorneys about trying to reach the masses
9:59
on the internet. to try to change the story and
10:02
the trajectory of how things are going, because
10:04
right now the walls are kind of closing in on
10:06
him. How do you feel about that part of it? Yeah,
10:09
he's trying to save himself, right? I mean, he's
10:13
not, it's not about anything else. And you'll
10:18
learn this obviously through the documentary.
10:21
Diddy is definitely about himself. So it was
10:25
funny because again, at this point as well, I
10:28
believe the video had been released with Cassie,
10:32
right? Yeah, so at this point, I don't know what
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he thought, or what he thought his lawyer could
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do, because once there's video footage of you
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doing something, then public opinion is out there.
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And as bad as that video was, it's almost like,
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yeah, so I see it, so I know it, and I believe
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it. So anything else that I hear, I'm gonna then
10:59
probably believe as well. Because if you can
11:02
do this, then you're probably guilty of doing
11:06
these other things that you're being accused
11:08
of. And that's an assumption that I think, I
11:14
don't wanna be speaking generalities, but I think
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that's an assumption that most people would make.
11:18
So I get what you're saying. Yeah, like you said,
11:20
public opinion. Yes. Not the court system, not
11:25
the jury. It was public opinion. When you see
11:28
something, then your mind shifts a certain way.
11:32
If you don't see it, then you're like, well,
11:34
I don't know. It's a he said, she said, this,
11:36
that, and the other. But when you see that video,
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and that's not a part of the documentary. It
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is, but not in this part. But that's what I thought
11:44
of was you're trying to save yourself and you're
11:47
mad and you're angry because it was backing up
11:50
against him. And like you said, he's losing.
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And it's not just I'm losing, but I'm losing
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my image. I'm losing my life. I'm losing everything
12:03
based on all of these allegations. Yeah. And
12:06
in that scene specifically, I think his frustration
12:09
was with his attorneys where he's telling them
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like, I need you guys to go do more. I don't
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care what you do. I don't care how you do it.
12:17
You go figure it out. That's what I'm paying
12:19
you people for. And I mean, a terrible thing
12:23
to say on record, but I kind of understand where
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he's coming from with that. Where, I mean, if
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you're him and someone's taking on a case of
12:33
this magnitude, the expectation is that they
12:36
understand who he is as a celebrity and that
12:40
all thing. Everything needs to be on the table
12:43
as an option. When you're accepting his millions
12:45
of dollars of money to represent him, he wants
12:49
you to go out there and be the bulletproof vest
12:51
and take the shield. I don't even know what these
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attorneys look like. We know that Diddy and it's
12:57
shown throughout the documentary that he likes
12:58
to have control. And this was him trying to say,
13:01
Hey, like, I don't care what it takes, just go
13:03
get it done. And, you know, didn't really look
13:07
too great as the documentary progressed, but
13:10
things move into the kind of the second scene,
13:14
it kind of goes into his childhood. And it rewinds
13:18
back to, you know, him as a young boy growing
13:20
up in Mount Vernon, New York, which is a place
13:23
that, you know, I'm somewhat familiar with. And,
13:27
you know, it talks about, you know, his relationship
13:29
with his mom. It talks about his father, Melvin
13:32
Combs, who was murdered. And it goes into kind
13:36
of an interesting Pass about his dad where they
13:41
imply that his dad was this hustler street guy
13:44
Drugs, you know and and kind of you know, well
13:48
respected within the street culture you know,
13:51
he's he's murdered when puff is at a young age
13:54
and as a result, you know, he's you know, he's
13:57
raised by his mother and You know, there were
14:00
family friends and there's actually a gentleman
14:03
in the documentary who is Who actually lived?
14:07
on the, I think he lived on the bottom floor
14:09
underneath Puffy. Apparently his parents had
14:12
a home where, you know, there was like a dual
14:15
home where another family could live, like a
14:17
duplex of some sort. And so they grew up together
14:20
as young men and he described, you know, how
14:23
he was, you know, for the most part a soft kid.
14:26
And, you know, he wasn't a street tough guy,
14:29
but he was tough when it came to being a fighter,
14:34
he was a dirty fighter. He would do whatever
14:36
it took to win to get his way. I mean, and there
14:39
were some examples that he made, you know, in
14:42
the documentary where he's like, no, he's going
14:44
to go all out because he doesn't want, he can't
14:47
go back home and tell his mom that he lost that
14:49
fight. So from that aspect, was there anything
14:52
in that second scene that kind of stood out to
14:54
you? No, I mean, you know, they talked about
14:57
his mom raised them. And like you said, yeah,
15:00
he fought dirty. Biting scratching claw whatever
15:03
he had to do to to win a fight You know wasn't
15:08
like he was this big guy either so you know as
15:11
a kid he wasn't huge so You know I mean you can
15:16
only imagine you know what he's trying to go
15:19
through he probably got picked on a little bit
15:23
and You know fighting his way out of it like
15:27
some kids do so, you know He just had that kind
15:30
of upbringing where you know, he had to kind
15:33
of he didn't have the father figure So he's you
15:36
know out here scratching and clawing like he
15:39
said he wasn't putting it. Yeah trying to find
15:41
his way he wasn't putting his fist up fighting
15:42
like a Only say like a man or however you want
15:46
to call it But you know, he was just like I'm
15:48
gonna fight and I'm gonna do again, whatever
15:52
it takes Yeah, yeah, and there was there was
15:57
one thing that was glaring to me When it shifted
16:00
to that scene was was his childhood friend and
16:03
he said the example of he used an example of
16:08
The discipline within the household from from
16:12
from Diddy's mother and he said, you know when
16:15
I was a young man I got weapons. I got beatings.
16:18
He was like I didn't get beatings like Like did
16:21
he write? And apparently, this is someone who
16:25
has just kind of an experience. And the interesting
16:30
thing, and I don't know if you caught this, he
16:32
actually said, after he says it, he's like, wow,
16:35
man, I don't even like having to think about
16:37
that. When he said it out loud, he kind of grimaced
16:42
and he was thinking like, damn, it was such a
16:46
dark thing for him to remember. just to kind
16:49
of the beatings and the discipline that took
16:50
place within the Combs household that he didn't
16:54
even want to think about it. So, you know, obviously
16:58
there's some trauma that could be extended from
17:00
that. I'm a young man who got beatens. You know,
17:03
I feel like every single one of them, every single
17:05
ass whooping I got as a child was deserved because
17:07
I was wilding. But, you know, but obviously there's
17:10
a limit. And people are different. Some people
17:13
take discipline in different ways. And ultimately,
17:17
it does kind of shape the type of person that
17:19
you evolve into, especially as a young man, without
17:23
having a masculine father figure representation
17:27
within your household. Yeah. And again, different
17:32
time, different era. You can only imagine the
17:36
stress of a single mom raising, you know. We've
17:41
heard these stories, right? A young black boy
17:44
in Mount Vernon, New York. Yeah, so, you know,
17:46
no excuses for anybody. I'm not condoning anything.
17:49
I'm just saying that if we're looking at it,
17:52
we're dissecting it, then we're going to say,
17:54
hey, you know, she might have let out some stress
17:57
on him, you know? But again, I know people who
18:01
are in those similar situations, and they didn't
18:04
do that. So, you know, but that's just, again,
18:07
like you said, that's his childhood friend's
18:10
memory. and it was pretty ingrained in his brain.
18:14
We all have those childhood memories, and like
18:15
you said, I remember beatings, and I remember
18:18
the bad ones. Like you said, but nothing like
18:24
this. It was just that this was someone from
18:27
the outside, and what he had to hear or see,
18:31
it still bothers him to this day. So it was probably
18:35
pretty bad. And again, like I said, yeah, everything
18:38
in life shapes you. So this was just something
18:40
else for for Diddy. And there you go. Yeah, no,
18:47
I'm with you. And then so then it shifts to him
18:50
as a as a young man going up through adolescence
18:53
and, you know, his it it lands on him going to
18:55
Howard. So he, you know, he attends Howard University.
18:59
And while on campus, he becomes just kind of
19:03
a campus celebrity in a lot of ways, promoting
19:06
parties. And they had some interviews with some
19:11
of the students, and they were talking about
19:13
how he was electrifying, he was exhausting, he
19:17
was obsessed with just kind of being seen as
19:20
an important figure on campus and just kind of...
19:24
trying to make himself look bigger than what
19:27
he actually was and you know again that's another
19:31
theme that continues throughout but you know
19:33
the origin story you know we all kind of hear
19:36
about you know people at the end result you you
19:38
know they talk about their successes but to hear
19:41
other people talk about him within that Howard
19:43
era was a little it was a little jarring for
19:47
me because you kind of saw him as as a young
19:49
teenage man And for me, I'd never seen him like
19:53
that. I'd always seen him as, you know, you know,
19:55
bad boy clinking the bottles in the biggie videos.
19:58
So to kind of see him in, in like backstage campus
20:01
footage of him, you know, just trying to be the
20:03
life of the party and be the guy that everyone
20:05
liked and admired. And the popular guy was a
20:08
little bit something for me. Um, how'd you see
20:10
it? Yeah, the same. Um, and then you go back
20:14
to, you know, I think we, I don't know if we
20:15
skipped this, but they talked about him, his
20:18
mom having parties. Right at their place. So
20:23
again that inspired maybe that inspired him,
20:25
right? and then like you said then he was trying
20:28
to be the life of the party throwing parties
20:31
and Again it goes back to Why you know, why was
20:38
he looking for that? Why was he trying to be
20:40
that again? Did he hit stories about his dad?
20:43
Was he trying to be like him a bigger than larger
20:46
than life figure was it? away from like you said
20:50
all the fights that he went through as a kid
20:53
you know maybe was he shifting that to uh you
20:56
know trying to be then popular and you know again
21:00
like said the life of the party and uh and then
21:03
again diddy had a look about him you know i'm
21:07
not gonna say diddy's a handsome guy but you
21:09
know so he's he's competent he's not overcompensating
21:13
but he's trying to i think Create an image and
21:18
create something that he's not but become something.
21:21
Does that make sense? Yeah, no, it makes total
21:25
sense and that's something that a lot of you
21:27
know young men Do like they you know, they don't
21:31
really have They don't really have an identity
21:35
and you know, I'm I'm not gonna empathize with
21:39
Diddy, but this is something that young men experience
21:42
where it's like, who am I really? Who is it that
21:46
I want to be? Which actually leads to just kind
21:49
of the next step in this, in the documentary,
21:52
which is where he wanted to move into the music
21:56
industry. and at that time I believe they said
21:59
that there were you know pretty much two venues
22:02
for you to get through in the music scene in
22:05
that New York area at that time and one was Russell
22:07
Simmons and the other was Andre Harrell and they
22:11
said how apparently you know with some of the
22:15
connections at Howard that that Diddy would go
22:17
to Heavy D who was in, you know, in partnerships
22:20
with Andre Harrell and knock on his door every
22:23
day, you know, asking for him to make an introduction,
22:26
you know, just so that he could get in the room
22:28
with him. And it actually led to him getting
22:30
an internship with Andre Harrell and he ended
22:33
up dropping out of Howard. Dropped out of Howard,
22:36
dropped out of college to go and join as an internship
22:39
with Andre Harrell. And so that shifts to the
22:43
next scene. You know where he's there, you know
22:46
with Uptown Records and Andre Harrell tells a
22:50
great story about just kind of how hard -working
22:53
Diddy was and how he asked him to go I think
22:55
he asked him to go and get some tapes Yeah, you
22:58
know from the store that was some blocks away
23:00
and apparently Diddy got back incredibly fast
23:02
and he's like, how did you get these so fast?
23:04
He's like, well I ran the whole time And he used
23:07
that as an example of like even from day one
23:10
He was a hard worker. He was somebody who wanted
23:13
to prove himself. He was someone that wanted
23:14
to legitimize himself. Like, no, I have a value.
23:18
You want me here. You know, these are the things
23:21
that I'm willing to do. I am willing to go all
23:24
out, even if it's something as simple as just
23:26
go get me some cassette tapes. Here's how I'm
23:29
going to go do it. And, you know, there were
23:32
some interviews with some of the staff that worked
23:34
at Uptown where they described him as a kind
23:36
of a once in a generation type of scout. Because
23:40
he was so ambitious and he wanted to see himself
23:42
in in a such a manner What what were your thoughts
23:46
on that aspect? Yeah, very you know that this
23:48
is a this is a time like you say you got to be
23:51
impressed with Him at that age and how hard working
23:54
he was and motivated So you you can see how he
23:59
made it to what he where you you know to what
24:01
he became right? Yeah in life Different reasons
24:07
but Again, the work ethic and the drive and the
24:11
motivation at a young age has to be respected
24:14
and you're impressed with that he had a I don't
24:18
know if he knew where he wanted to be but he
24:21
knew he wanted to get in like said get in the
24:23
door and Then you know then didn't take the steps
24:27
up right work your way up and he definitely did
24:31
that as an intern Yes, yeah, and then so he ends
24:36
it up and there was actually, I think it was
24:38
an interview that they played within the documentary
24:41
where Puff talks about how, I keep calling him
24:44
Puff. I'm going to go back from calling him Puff,
24:46
calling him - He was Puff at the time. Pee Diddy.
24:49
Puff Daddy. Yeah, he was Puff at the time. Puff,
24:52
Puffy, Puff Daddy. But even the name in itself
24:56
is trying to imply that he was bigger than what
24:58
he was. That's just putting everything together.
25:02
But he spoke about how he went and he actually
25:05
took Andre Harrell out to lunch and said, hey,
25:09
I want you to make me an A &R. I want you to
25:12
make me someone that has a relationship with
25:14
these artists. I feel like that would be a good
25:16
job for me. And he gets promoted to an A &R.
25:20
And one of the first responsibilities that he
25:23
has is he's assigned to be the A &R for newly
25:27
discovered Jodeci, the R &B group from that time.
25:31
you know, Andre Harrell's kind of giving him
25:33
the game, saying, hey, here's how you do this.
25:35
You need to understand that you are the most
25:38
important person, not the artist, that if anything
25:41
is going on, you need to be involved. You need
25:43
to have that type of control because you're the
25:46
person who are navigating what takes place for
25:49
us as a record company. It's not about the artist.
25:51
It's about us. And that kind of goes to show
25:55
the type of you know, mentality that Puff would
25:58
have throughout his entire music career, where
26:01
it's like, no, no, no, we're the show. Like,
26:03
where do people putting things together? Where
26:05
do people putting together these concerts? We're
26:06
doing these studio sessions for you. We're doing
26:09
the producing. We're doing these collabs. And
26:12
it's just an interesting dynamic that, you know,
26:15
he was looking for that father figure all along.
26:17
And, you know, he comes along in the form of
26:19
a powerful record executive in Andre Harrell.
26:24
Yeah. Again, motivated to do something else,
26:31
and he knew what he wanted to do. And again,
26:35
like you say, once he got with Jodeci, he gave
26:38
them the image that we saw on the music videos,
26:42
right? They had the talent for the singing, all
26:45
that. He gave them the, hey, here's what I want
26:48
you to look like, here's what I want you to do,
26:51
here's I want you to present it, right? and again
26:54
he had he had that power and then I don't want
26:57
to skip too far ahead but then of course then
26:59
he moved on to Mary J Blige and did this oh no
27:03
no no not too far ahead at all no Mary J Blige
27:06
he went right in I feel like there's someone
27:08
else we're missing and that was the you know
27:11
like they said the first kind of female that
27:15
no one was really putting out females at that
27:18
point in hip -hop to that level And again, they
27:23
also had a certain beat, a certain sound, and
27:27
that was all puff. Yeah, they gave him a lot
27:33
of credit for for understanding and and I think
27:36
a lot of this comes from the Genesis of you know,
27:38
like you talked about Parties and you know hosting
27:41
parties at Howard and understanding what gets
27:44
crowds going. He was always big on having crowds
27:47
Understand and appreciate what it is. They're
27:49
listening to vibing and having a good time He
27:52
had a really good ear for it. You don't the success
27:55
that he had early wasn't an accident He put the
27:59
time in, and that was actually implied throughout
28:01
the documentary as well, where it's like, no,
28:03
no, no, like he was somebody who did the work.
28:05
Yeah, he might've been an asshole, but he understood
28:09
what it was. He didn't have the talent for it,
28:11
but he had a good ear. And sometimes, especially
28:14
as a record executive, those are the things that
28:16
you need. And, you know, clearly at Uptown, you
28:18
know, those are things that they, you know, that
28:20
they saw in him and allowed him to kind of flourish
28:22
with. You know, so he ends up, you know, getting
28:25
promoted higher up. within getting promoted higher
28:29
up within uptown and he butts heads with people.
28:34
There's a lot of yelling, you know, he would
28:36
do, he would humiliate people publicly. You know,
28:40
he had, he would, you know, kind of go past the
28:43
personal, you know, boundaries that people had
28:45
and, you know, wanting to date such as such as
28:47
girl. I think there was a story about him wanting
28:51
to date Albie Shore's girlfriend at the time.
28:54
Yeah. And that was actually Kim Porter. Kim Porter,
28:57
yes. So she worked the front desk at Uptown.
29:01
And yeah, so he was at the time, yeah, they were
29:03
talking about how, even though I'll be sure at
29:06
the time, he was a star, you know what I mean?
29:10
And Puffy didn't care, you know, like I said,
29:12
he wanted to say, well, I could say that I took
29:14
his girl or his ex -girl or side girl, whatever.
29:20
And he was just like that. Yeah, he wanted to
29:25
be the man and like you said he got promoted
29:27
and Some in fighting but yeah, like I said, you
29:31
know worked his way up and again Maybe he always
29:36
had that mindset of something bigger You know
29:40
what I mean? And I think I think also he was
29:43
He caught him an asshole, but I don't know that
29:47
he had become that yet I think he had kind of
29:49
been fun loving puffy party throwing puffy again
29:53
But then as a lot of people do with more power,
29:57
you kinda change, right? And then I think he
30:00
maybe started to realize that maybe he was bigger
30:02
and should be kinda doing more. Or could be bigger,
30:06
yeah. Yeah, just the contention within the office,
30:09
him trying to be. bigger, a bigger, more brodacious.
30:13
No, I'm the guy. I'm the man. And it's, it's
30:16
an interesting thing. Cause I remember years
30:17
ago where there were stories about, you know,
30:20
him at uptown when he would just show up at the
30:23
office, not wearing a shirt. Like this stuff
30:27
has been like, since like the early 2000s, like,
30:30
like Diddy would just puff would just show up
30:32
at the studio, not wearing, wearing jeans, Tim's
30:36
No shirt and a chain and sunglasses. It just
30:39
walk into, you know, meetings and up, you know
30:42
what I'm saying? That was how he did things.
30:44
So, you know, um, and then obviously that moves
30:46
into the next segment moves into the part where,
30:50
you know, Andre Harrell starts to see kind of
30:52
some of the uncontrollable unpredictability of,
30:56
of Diddy as an executive, even though he's had
30:58
massive success and he's been working great with
31:01
these artists and he's doing a great job and
31:03
he's making a lot of money. um for you know for
31:06
this for for Uptown and you know Andre Harrell's
31:10
just like yeah man like I'm sorry dude like I
31:12
gotta let you go I have to I don't really have
31:14
much of a choice you know and again this is the
31:19
tenacity that somebody like like Sean Combs has
31:23
where he took that He could have used that as
31:25
an opportunity to be defeated, but he used it
31:28
as an opportunity to go and do his own thing.
31:31
There are a lot of people who would have just
31:32
tried to run to another record company, but he's
31:35
like, you know what? No, I'm going to see what
31:36
I can do to put some pieces together and see
31:39
if I can come up with some things on my own.
31:42
Yeah, and he'd always been that way, right? I
31:44
mean, he's again, he's going to take everything
31:48
he learned at Uptown and he was the mindset of,
31:53
okay, I've already learned this. Let me take
31:56
it to that. Let me and then take it and see what
31:58
I can do with it to build my own brand. Yes.
32:03
Yes. No, absolutely. And so, you know, so then
32:07
obviously that's the early stages. You know,
32:09
they talk about him trying to secure funding,
32:12
you know, from other record executives. So that
32:14
way he can kind of launch his own label and secure
32:17
his own artist. And, you know, one of the bigger,
32:20
probably most important things in in Bad Boy's
32:24
career, I'm sorry, throughout the growth of Bad
32:26
Boy as a whole was before he ended up leaving
32:30
Uptown or getting let go from Uptown Records,
32:33
did he? Andre Harrell said, listen man, I'm gonna
32:35
let you go. But at the time they had just brought
32:38
in Biggie, notorious B .I .G., they just brought
32:41
him in as an artist and he had a very slow start.
32:45
But he's like, you know what? I'm gonna let you
32:47
go, but you could take Biggie with you as an
32:49
artist. You know, apparently Puff had done the
32:52
legwork. He did the whatever he needed to do
32:54
to secure Big and get everything up off the ground.
32:58
And he's like, you know what? I'm going to let
32:59
him, let you take him with you. We'll release
33:02
him from uptown and you guys can just go do your
33:04
thing, but you got to get the hell out of here.
33:06
And so this was early in Biggie's career. Didn't
33:10
have, he didn't start off hot. You know, it was
33:12
a really slow start for him, you know, as an
33:14
artist, you know, creating them, you know, the
33:16
mix tapes and demos and stuff. He just hadn't
33:18
popped yet. And, you know, there was kind of
33:22
a dive into kind of the early Bad Boy atmosphere
33:25
where, you know, it shows them throwing a lot
33:28
of parties. You know, again, there's a theme
33:30
here. Throwing parties, puff dancing, guy on
33:33
the microphone wearing the hat. You know, and
33:35
this was before he actually was able to kind
33:38
of take Bad Boy to the level where it was seen
33:41
as legitimate. And that leads into something
33:44
that I know you wanted to get to, which was the
33:47
CCNY basketball game tragedy, which was a massive
33:51
story specifically in New York, just kind of
33:54
how horrific everything went. And there was so
33:57
much footage. But I got a question for you, Kent.
34:00
How much of this did you remember? I'm going
34:03
to be honest. I had no idea about this basketball
34:05
game. It was a big deal, man. Yeah. Yeah, I had
34:10
no idea. I missed it growing up, you know, I
34:13
was probably like 10 years old. So, you know,
34:16
that like you said, this was before he was bad
34:21
boy and puff daddy that we knew that really got
34:25
on the scene. It was it was in 19. It was in
34:27
1991. Yes, it was in 91. So this is pre what
34:31
we what we were introduced to as. as a, as bad
34:37
boy as a record label and brand. This was before
34:40
all of that. And this was along the same lines
34:43
of them throwing parties and having events. And,
34:45
you know, heavy D was heavily involved in some
34:47
of the planning for, you know, the CCNY basketball
34:50
game, but this was mainly put on puff. Like this
34:52
was his event. It was a celebrity basketball
34:55
game, like a charity game, you know, at city
34:58
college. And, you know, he was, you know, you
35:00
know, a promoter and As the documentary unfolds,
35:06
it describes that the event was massively oversold.
35:09
They sold too many tickets at a very low price.
35:12
It was supposed to be really affordable, which
35:14
is what they wanted. But the event was only supposed
35:17
to hold 2 ,500 people, and over 6 ,000 people
35:21
showed up. So do you want to get into some of
35:25
those details? I don't want to take too much
35:27
of your steam. No, I mean, I was just going to
35:29
talk about it because... That as the documentary
35:31
said that kind of put him on the map and famous
35:36
Because the story was out there and like you
35:39
said we missed it I wasn't watching the news
35:41
at 10 years old. So again, he was kind of a no
35:45
-name at the time But behind the scenes like
35:48
you said promoting these parties throwing this
35:50
now he was doing this, you know basketball game
35:53
so, you know ultimately though like nine people
35:55
died they got trampled because They you know
35:59
kind of bum rush the doors people didn't want
36:01
to pay so they wanted to just sneak in without
36:04
paying and then it led to an area where you know,
36:07
it just couldn't hold the people and people got
36:09
trampled and The game never happened. It was
36:12
it. Yeah, so it was a Go ahead. Yeah, it was
36:17
a it was actually it was a it was a stairwell
36:19
So yeah, there was there were you know, there
36:21
were fixed entrances is you know, is any and
36:23
New York buildings are they're built, the architecture
36:26
is built in a specific way, but you know, at
36:29
this particular venue, there was, you know, no
36:32
crowd control to begin with. They had very little
36:35
planning of, you know, how they were going to
36:37
secure the building as a whole. They didn't even
36:38
have security, you know, to be able to handle
36:41
a crowd of that size. But when people found out
36:44
that the venue was sold out, they just started
36:45
pushing their way through. And then it ended
36:48
up pushing their way through down some stairs.
36:51
And when security realized that there were too
36:53
many people trying to get in, they just locked
36:55
the doors. But the stairwell was so pretty much
36:58
like stuffed. So the people who were at the bottom
37:01
of that stairwell literally got trampled to death.
37:04
And I mean, the footage is horrific, man. Like
37:07
there's literally them carrying dead bodies of
37:09
people who have been trampled by hundreds, if
37:12
not thousands of people to death, just trying
37:15
to escape this building because they wanted to
37:17
see a charity basketball game. You know, it was
37:20
The footage was kind of eerie because there was
37:23
a I'd remember hearing some of it But I'd never
37:25
seen any of it and this is you know early 90s
37:29
grainy footage of You know Dougie Fresh and heavy
37:33
D and Shawn combs you there's actually had video
37:36
footage of puff literally walking around the
37:39
venue I mean he looked like he was in shock like
37:42
what the hell just happened like what did I just
37:44
do? Like look, like look at the, on a basketball
37:47
court, that's supposed to be this joyous event
37:50
that's going to raise money for charity. And
37:53
you know, it ended in a complete tragedy. And
37:56
you know, I'll give, you know, credit where it's
37:59
deserved. He, he had a press conference and he
38:02
went out and said all the right things. You know,
38:04
he, he was able to kind of escape that situation
38:07
without facing any serious charges. but um, but
38:11
you know, but like you said, that's kind of his
38:12
introduction into the world where his name is
38:15
associated with something that big, even though
38:17
it was, you know, the result of, you know, the
38:19
death of non innocent people who, who wouldn't
38:22
expect, who weren't expecting to lose their lives
38:24
that day. No, no, kind of crazy actually, like
38:27
one that he, that he came out unscathed. Um,
38:31
I think he blamed the cops and they said they
38:34
didn't do enough. And again, he just, Then he
38:39
just continued to rise at the levels at Uptown
38:43
after this. It was just, it's kind of amazing,
38:46
really, that again. Yeah, super amazing. Yeah.
38:51
And like you said, so nine people passed away
38:54
as a result of this. And probably one of the
38:58
more jarring things about that part of the documentary
39:01
was that I think ultimately at the end, there
39:04
was really no person held accountable. It was
39:07
finger pointing and blame it. And I, and I do
39:09
believe genuinely that this is, it was just a
39:11
terrible accident that happened, but it was an
39:14
accident as a result of poor planning, terrible
39:17
structure, you know, cheap ticket prices, too
39:20
much of a crowd. And he hyped it up so big to
39:24
where more people wanted to come than could even
39:27
be held within that venue as a whole. So, you
39:30
know, it, I don't know it. I had mixed feelings
39:34
about it. I mean, it felt bad. It was horrible.
39:37
And, you know, even in that part of the documentary,
39:39
I'm watching it with my family. We actually pause
39:41
it and had some discussions about these types
39:42
of things. I have some fears when it comes to
39:45
being in large crowds anyway. Yeah. I don't know
39:48
what I would have done in that situation. At
39:50
that point, people just kind of panicked, but
39:52
you're watching them literally carry people who've
39:54
been trampled. You know, 911 calls of, hey, we've
39:58
got dead people here. We need to get, you know,
40:01
we need, you need ambulances here. We need, we
40:03
need police here immediately. You know, it was
40:05
a sad situation and ultimately that's something
40:08
that he was able to use to his advantage to launch
40:11
his career, which, you know, But again, not to
40:14
get too far ahead, it's something that seems
40:16
to be a theme within his life. And, you know,
40:19
I'm pretty sure, you know, we'll get to that
40:21
as well. Yeah, I gave him a little slack back
40:25
then, too, because he was younger and, you know,
40:30
planning that basketball game a little different
40:32
than planning a party. And, you know, again,
40:36
when you have celebrities that are going to be
40:38
there, it's like, of course, people are going
40:40
to want to be there. And like you said, it turned
40:43
out worse. And it's kind of, I guess, who do
40:48
you blame? And at the time, thank God, he's very
40:53
lucky there was no internet back then. And there
40:56
was only news and local news and things like
40:59
that. But yeah, I give him a little slack that
41:04
he was young and it was early in his days of
41:07
planning things like this. and just an unfortunate
41:10
situation. But yeah, again, I'm still shocked
41:14
that no one was held accountable. Yeah, like
41:18
you said, different time, different era. I do
41:21
believe that no one, I don't think anyone involved
41:25
expected something like that to happen. And like
41:29
I said, the footage of him walking around in
41:31
that suit, you know, on the floor with bodies
41:34
strewn about and people panicking, not knowing
41:37
what to do. There's no leadership. There's no
41:40
direction. It's just like you're just stuck in
41:42
the middle of this thing in New York, in New
41:44
York of all places. And, you know, he's at the
41:47
center of it. And, you know, the fan, I mean,
41:49
I can't imagine being a family member or having
41:51
something like that happen. And it's like, oh,
41:54
well, it just happened and they lost their life.
41:56
And, you know, you're scarred forever and there's
41:58
no one to kind of hold the responsibility. But
42:01
that's one of those things that that kind of
42:04
launched his his rising as as a celebrity, as
42:08
a record executive, as the owner of a label.
42:12
And, you know, it, you know, the end of the documentary
42:15
just kind of pushes towards, you know, him in,
42:19
you know, the hotel room again, you know, before
42:21
he gets arrested. and him just kind of thinking,
42:27
I'm in a bad situation. How do I get out of this?
42:32
What do I need to do to get myself out of this
42:35
mess that I got myself into? And it's a theme
42:38
that seems to continue. And I watched the entire
42:42
episode. What did you, how did you feel about
42:48
it as kind of the introduction into a four part
42:51
series like this? I actually thought it was really
42:54
good. You know, I think I'd heard that it was
42:56
kind of slow or not as, but I mean, the first
42:58
episode was pretty good. It was a good, like
43:01
I said, the background, like I said, of his childhood,
43:05
you know, leading up to, you know, getting to
43:08
uptown. And then just kind of, you kind of see
43:11
a pattern of him becoming who he is. when he
43:17
reached the pinnacle of his career. So, you know,
43:20
everything made sense. I mean, you know, they
43:21
tried to lay it out to say, hey, here's a background.
43:24
You know, here's how he grew up. This could have
43:26
influenced him. This could have not influenced
43:28
him. This is kind of why he is what he is. They
43:31
kind of gave you that vision of saying, okay,
43:35
I can see how he did this or I can see this.
43:39
But you got that little dose into, like you said,
43:42
the music industry of him. with Joe to see Mary
43:46
J Blige and then a small taste of like the biggie
43:49
you know. But it was really riveting stuff and
43:52
I enjoyed it myself at the end. I thought that
43:55
it did start off really slow about halfway through
43:58
I'm like you know what man I don't know if this
43:59
is for me. And then it started to pick up some
44:02
steam and started to reveal some things that
44:04
I wouldn't that I've the nostalgia helps, man.
44:07
Got to be honest, when you're playing those hits,
44:09
when you're playing Jodeci standing around outside
44:11
in front of a recording studio singing a cappella,
44:15
it takes me back to a certain place in time where
44:18
it's like, you know what, I think I'm going to
44:19
stick around for another five minutes. And then
44:21
it gets more interesting. So it did have a slow
44:24
lead up, but I'm glad that I stuck it out and
44:26
finished all of episode one. I want to hit on
44:29
some other stuff real quick. And like I said,
44:31
do this however you want. So we talk about 50
44:34
Cent and he may have a little bit of a bias event.
44:39
He may have a grudge with Diddy for whatever
44:43
reasons. But I'll give him credit. A couple things
44:47
though, just to go through the episode again.
44:51
I think some of that backstory, and again, I
44:54
don't use it as an excuse, but I think it showed
44:58
again this could have affected Puff Daddy as
45:01
a kid to made him again the man who he became
45:05
and then it touched on a lot of stuff in that
45:10
first episode to again you're trying to get a
45:14
backstory but also okay I can see how this how
45:18
he became this type of music mogul right I can
45:23
see how he became this person or had this personality,
45:28
you know, all these things. And that even goes
45:31
to the like the video girl who accused him of
45:36
sexual assault. Right. Correct. So that leads
45:41
into all the stuff he's dealing with now. Right.
45:44
That he videoed her and then played it for people
45:48
at parties, you know, or beaten his baby mama
45:52
on the street. And then, you know, so then it's
45:56
like, okay, so then your mind goes to that video
45:58
of Cassie, right? So they plugged in a lot of
46:02
stuff in the first episode, and I know we didn't
46:05
even really touch on those two things, was, again,
46:08
that kind of said, oh, well, yeah, he's doing
46:10
this, he's a hard worker, and I can see how he
46:13
did this, but then he also had this moment. Like,
46:15
as bad as that concert, I mean, the basketball
46:18
game was with the nine deaths, and then you're
46:20
also like, okay, there's this sexual assault.
46:24
There is beaten a woman. Yes, what what? Even
46:29
like hit his mama, right? So Yeah, hold on and
46:33
just be clear. That's a that's a that's a allegation.
46:36
It is allegation that he hit his mom, right?
46:38
Right, right Okay, and all this is it's an allegation
46:40
and and after the tragedy with CCN1 So after
46:45
the deaths, he's the the the story is told that
46:50
he's having a discussion with his mom, and she's
46:53
asking him, hey, are you sure this is a direction
46:57
that you want to go into? Look at what just happened.
47:00
Look at the end results of this. And as a reaction
47:03
to her asking him that, that he put, the allegation
47:06
is that he allegedly put hands on his own mother.
47:10
But it's also, like you said, where it's... That
47:14
that shows the fervor if something like that
47:17
is true It shows that that's the tenacity that
47:20
he has to where he just This is what he wants
47:23
so bad and even if it results in him hurting
47:26
his own mother physically That's the links that
47:29
he's willing to go to again. It was it was a
47:32
it was a blip in the documentary It was mentioned
47:35
and then they moved on but like you said it did
47:37
surface with other sexual assault allegations
47:40
and then hotel footage of him literally dragging
47:44
Cassie through a hotel, you know, hallway. So,
47:47
you know, wearing a towel, by the way. So, you
47:50
know, so yeah, so just to kind of add the full
47:52
context, you know, but I think you're right.
47:54
I think 50, I think 50 actually did him a really
47:56
good service of telling a full story, which is
48:00
what I want in a good documentary. Don't make
48:03
it so secular to where you're just bad guy, bad
48:05
guy, bad guy, bad guy. He's painted a picture
48:08
and a portrait, but ultimately it's 50. he still
48:11
wants him to look bad. He still wants him to
48:14
look bad. Well, yeah, but I mean, yeah, at the
48:16
end of the day, I think that that is true. But
48:18
but again, I think he said he he did do him a
48:22
solid to say maybe this is why he is what he
48:27
is. Right. With no excuses. That's not a just
48:31
no, you know things are what they are You know
48:34
with everybody in life, you know everything that
48:37
happens everything you go for mold you into the
48:39
person Ultimately though you make the decision
48:42
how you want to be Yep, and much like how you
48:46
make the decision how you want to be how you
48:48
want to behave how you want to treat people You
48:50
have to live with the results, which is what
48:53
did he's doing right now he's having to face
48:56
the music, even though he was trying his hardest
48:58
with his attorneys to try to get out of it, clearly
49:01
didn't work out in his favor. No, and unfortunately
49:03
for him, Johnny Cochran is no longer alive. He
49:06
is not. Johnny Cochran is not there. He helped
49:08
him before. Again, it's Diddy. He did. Well,
49:11
here's the thing. Like I said, it's Diddy. It's
49:13
hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank.
49:15
I'm pretty sure the best people available, he
49:17
was able to hire, which goes right back to, I
49:21
think - They ain't Johnny Cochran. Yeah, maybe
49:26
he wanted, you know, the glove doesn't fit type
49:28
of moment. Not for him, man. It's not going to
49:31
happen. Not this time. All right. That's another
49:33
episode of Fanatically Speaking. I am Kent, co
49:37
-host and promoter. I am Log Off, the Log Off
49:40
legend, hater of social media. I'm the co -host
49:43
and producer of the show. So yeah, so that was
49:46
our kind of recap. Episode one, Sean Combs, The
49:50
Reckoning. We're going to go and do episode two.
49:54
We've already watched it. So we'll do an episode
49:56
two that will be out shortly after this episode
49:58
comes out. But same thing. Every episode we tell
50:02
you guys, like, share, review, post, comment.
50:06
Reach out to us. Let us know what you think.
50:08
I'm pretty sure that there's some things that
50:10
maybe we missed, but it's a lot. We didn't want
50:13
to kind of bore you guys with a lot of the detail,
50:17
but there's a lot of interesting things that
50:18
came out in that episode and we wanted to record
50:20
something to talk about it. Kent, you got anything?
50:24
No, I'm out. Like I said, it falls under our
50:28
umbrella of pop culture for being a fan. yeah
50:31
pop culture and again this is our era man i mean
50:34
this is this this is the era of music and and
50:38
hip hop that i know best and so you know this
50:41
was something that i mean that that record label
50:44
as a whole you know played a huge part of my
50:46
childhood and you know unfortunately it had to
50:49
surface in a man you know in a documentary like
50:51
this with you know horrible things taking place,
50:54
but it happened. And, you know, I'm just glad
50:57
to be able to watch it as a form of entertainment
50:59
and, you know, be able to speak and, you know,
51:01
throw some words on there about it. But yeah,
51:04
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, follow us, like,
51:07
share, review. And yeah, man, that's all I got.
51:11
That's it.