Netflix Doc Reveals the Real Reason Diddy Envied 2Pac and Biggie, According to Bad Boy Co-Founder
Netflix’s four-part deep dive into Sean Combs uncovers fresh truths and Bad Boy tensions, as co-founder Kirk Burrows details how a growing 2Pac–Biggie alliance shifted the balance of power and rattled the label.
Netflix just dropped a four-part doc, 'Sean Combs: The Reckoning,' and it digs straight into the messiest stuff: power, ego, and who was really calling the shots in the 90s. One thread that stands out comes from Bad Boy Entertainment co-founder Kirk Burrowes, who says the growing friendship between 2Pac and Biggie didn’t just rattle Combs personally — it shook the label’s balance of power.
The power shift Burrowes says he felt
According to Burrowes, 2Pac and Biggie getting close wasn’t just a tabloid headline — it created a lane where two of the biggest stars in rap were building influence outside of Combs’s orbit. And that, he says, did not sit well. In his view, Sean came at the world like a marketer: a strategist, a narrative-shaper. So when artists could command attention and loyalty on sheer talent and charisma, without anyone pulling strings, that triggered some serious envy.
- 2Pac: Burrowes paints Pac as the kind of figure who worried Combs because of pure presence — charisma, fearlessness, a gravitational pull that brought people together. That power by itself is a threat if you like to control the room.
- Biggie: With Biggie leveling up, he wasn’t just Bad Boy’s marquee act — he was becoming the voice of East Coast rap. Burrowes says Combs grew uneasy as Biggie’s platform started to extend beyond the label’s reach, sometimes even overshadowing Combs himself.
- Pac + Biggie together: Their natural bond amplified it all. Burrowes’s read is that the friendship stoked quiet anxieties in Combs about losing influence over the people around him.
To translate Burrowes’s point: when you’re the architect of a brand like Bad Boy, watching your stars build their own centers of gravity — without you — is the nightmare scenario.
Janice Combs fires back at the doc
On the other side, Sean Combs’s mother, Janice Combs, is calling the series out as false and harmful. In a statement to Deadline, she took direct aim at the show’s portrait of her son and their family, including a specific allegation from Burrowes about an incident involving her after the 1991 City College tragedy. She says that claim is patently false and accuses Burrowes of lying.
'I am writing this statement to correct some of the lies presented in the Netflix, Sean Combs: The Reckoning, released on December 2, 2025. These inaccuracies regarding my son Sean’s upbringing and family life is intentionally done to mislead viewers and further harm our reputation.'
She also slammed Netflix for what she calls a salacious promotional push and wants public retractions for the alleged inaccuracies. That’s a strong move — not just a disagreement, but a demand for accountability.
Where this leaves the story
The doc is positioning Combs as a master of image and influence who saw Pac and Big as destabilizing forces once they didn’t need him to amplify their voices. Burrowes’s account adds the behind-the-scenes label politics; Janice Combs’s statement tries to slam the brakes on how the series frames both Sean’s past and the family’s history.
'Sean Combs: The Reckoning' is streaming now on Netflix. What do you make of Burrowes’s version of events vs. Janice Combs’s pushback?