50 Cent has long trolled Diddy on social media, especially after CNN’s publication of surveillance video showing Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in 2016.
Now the rapper turned actor and producer has taken it up a notch with his latest project, a Netflix docuseries about Combs.
50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, is a producer on the four-part series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.”
According to the director, Alexandria Stapleton, the project was inspired in part by Ventura. She testified against Combs in a federal sex trafficking trial this year, in which Combs was convicted on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
“Being a woman in the industry, and going through the #MeToo movement — watching giants in music and film go on trial, and to know what their outcomes were … When Cassie dropped her lawsuit, I just thought this could go a million different directions,” Stapleton said. “I wondered how she had the confidence to go out there against a mogul like Sean Combs. As a filmmaker, I instantly knew it was a stress test of whether we’ve changed as a culture, as far as being able to process allegations like this in a fair way.”
But why the bad blood? Here’s a look back at how there came to be animosity between the two men.
A diss track
In 2006, 50 Cent released a diss track “The Bomb,” which featured sounds of gunfire and his allegation that Combs knew the identity of the killer of Christopher Wallace, a rapper known as The Notorious B.I.G., who was both a protégée and best friend to Combs.
Wallace was gunned down in Los Angeles in March 1997 as he and his crew, which included Combs, were traveling in a caravan. Combs was in a different vehicle from the one Wallace was in at the time Wallace was shot.
No one has ever been charged with the murder.
In his diss track, 50 raps, “I guess this means I won’t be invited to the white parties in the Hamptons,” referencing Combs’ famous soirees held in the upscale New York community.
50 Cent has also said he believes Combs is connected to the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Combs called such allegations “nonsense” in a 2016 interview with the syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club.” He has never been charged in connection to either case.
Consistent trolling
Followers of 50 are familiar with his reputation for sharp comments and social media trolling.
The rapper-turned-television-producer has made Combs a frequent target, attacking everything from his music to his age.
Some believed it was mostly marketing, especially given the men’s parallel career tracks and even competing vodkas at one point, Effen Vodka from 50 Cent and Ciroc, which formally partnered with Combs.
But 50 upped his comments after Combs was sued in November 2023 by Ventura, who in a now-settled civil complaint alleged that Combs raped her in 2018 and abused her over the more than decade they were in an off-and-on relationship.
Combs has denied the allegations, but apologized on Sunday for the incident depicted in the surveillance video.
After federal investigators searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, 50 Cent posted on X, “Now it’s not Diddy do it, it’s Diddy done. They don’t come like that unless they got a case.”
Diddy denies there’s beef
Combs was asked about the tension between him and 50 Cent during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” in 2018.
“I don’t have no beef with Fif. He loves me,” Combs said. “Y’all can’t see that he loves me? You really think that’s hate? … You know he loves me.”
He added that he didn’t take the things 50 Cent says about him seriously.
“When he does that it’s like funny to me,” Combs said. “I don’t really take it personal. I know he has a different sense of humor, and he’s just not in my life. We don’t have to never cross paths, and I will never say nothing negative about him, you know, because that’s just not me.”
A son’s defense
Christian Combs, who goes by King Combs, is the 27-year-old son of Diddy. In May 2024 he released a song titled “Pick a Side” in support of his father and taking aim at critics like 50 Cent.
The younger Combs and his brother, Justin, were temporarily handcuffed and detained by authorities during the March 2024 search of their father’s home. Neither was arrested or charged.
Aaron Dyer, Diddy’s attorney, said in a statement to CNN at the time that “there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.”
King Combs appeared to profess his father’s innocence in his track and took a swipe at 50 Cent.
“All that gossip sh*t is whack when all they had was 50 Cent / Who put this city on the map? / Stop lying,” the younger Combs raps.
50 Cent responded with a tongue-in-cheek post on social media.
“I feel so threatened by the things Christian is saying on his record,” he wrote in a since-delated post on Instagram, according to Billboard. “I’m afraid for my life, please don’t hurt me guys.”
