The 50 Cent Diddy Documentary Alleges That Diddy Is Responsible for Biggie's Death

The deaths of The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, and Tupac Shakur in the late 1990s fundamentally transformed the future of hip-hop and also led to a flood of theories about who was actually responsible for each of their deaths. Sean "Diddy" Combs, who has been in the news more recently because of his s-x trafficking trial, knew both men, and some think he was involved in one or both of their murders.

A new documentary on Diddy from 50 Cent has only further inflamed questions about whether he played a role in Biggie's death. Here's what we know.

Diddy has long denied having any involvement in Biggie's death, and he has never been criminally charged with having any role in Biggie's death. Publicly, Diddy has always suggested that Biggie was a close friend and that he misses him.

“There were so many rumors [about the shootings] and things for years,” he explained to Today in 2017. “I was more concerned with the well-being of my artists, and also myself and my family. “

Biggie's death remains unsolved. He was shot in March of 1997 in a drive-by shooting at a red light in Los Angeles, and there has long been speculation that someone was hired to kill him in retaliation for the death of Shakur a year earlier.

“I remember that night that, number-one, [Biggie] was supposed to go to London on the redeye,” Diddy said. “He talked me out of going to London, and he just wanted to hang out with me one night."

"We’d just finished the album. We’d been through so much with the whole East-West thing. We just wanted a night for us to relax. To be honest, it didn’t work out like that," he continued.

“We’re human beings. [The East Coast-West Coast rivalry] had spun out of control,” he admitted. “To be honest, me and him knew there was that chance [for violence], but you always want to think of the better. You want everything to work out, and it didn’t work out.”

Although none of the new interview footage suggests that Diddy took out hits on either Biggie or Tupac (whose murder is also unsolved), Sean Combs: The Reckoning suggests that Diddy was one of the chief executives responsible for building up the feud between East and West Side rappers that Biggie and Tupac became the faces of.

While the rivalry is perceived as having been between the artists, these interviews suggest that the executives were the ones really fanning the flames, leading to an environment where hits were being taken out.

In response, Combs's team released a statement saying, "Netflix's so-called 'documentary' is a shameful hit piece." Combs spokesperson Juda Engelmayer also told USA TODAY that the rapper's legal team would not be commenting "on individual claims being repeated in the documentary."

The documentary does not claim that Diddy played a direct role in the deaths of either Tupac or Biggie.