January 11, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Remone Jones
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” features a predominantly African American group of people (with some white people and Latin people) in archival footage related to disgraced mogul/entertainer Sean Combs.
Culture Clash: At the time that this documentary was made and released, Combs was facing criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking and was embroiled in several lawsuits accusing him of various sex crimes, including rape.
Culture Audience: “Monster’s Fall” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about celebrities, but this weak documentary just recycles old information.

“Diddy: Monster’s Fall” is nothing but a cheap-looking compilation of archival clips, with no new information. The documentary doesn’t interview anyone directly involved in Sean Combs’ legal problems. It looks like a video made by amateur YouTubers. There are actually better-quality and more informative videos about Combs’ scandals on YouTube that are available for free.
Directed, written and edited by Remone Jones, “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” begins with a montage of news footage about the September 2024 arrest of Sean Combs, a New York City-born business mogul who is most famous for being the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment and being a hip-hop recording artist/producer. Born in 1969, Combs has also been business entrepreneur in fashion, alcoholic drinks, television and other ventures. He has dabbled in being an actor on stage and on screen, including a supporting role as a death-row convict in the 2001 movie “Monster’s Ball.”
Combs has had various nicknames in his career, including Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy and Love. “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” (which clocks in at a brisk 58 minutes) features basic narration from Liam Lincoln in telling Combs’ story in mostly chronological order. People who watch this documentary will probably know already about his rise in the music industry in the 1990s and his various scandals along the way. Combs’ history of violence has been well-documented over the years.
The documentary includes coverage of Combs’ 1990s arrests include the Club New York gun shooting incident in December 1999, when three people were injured. Combs was found not guilty in a 2001 trial, but his rapper protégé Jamal “Shyne” Barrow served nine years in prison for the shooting incident. Combs’ then-girlfriend was arrested with him on the night of the shooting, but she was never charged with any crimes.
Combs also escaped a prison sentence in May 1999, for assaulting Steven Stoute, who was the manager of rapper Nas. Stoute says that Combs and two associates beat up Stoute in his office because Combs was unhappy with Combs’ featured appearance in Nas’ “Hate Me Now” video. Stoute declined to press crimina; charges against Combs after Combs made an apology to him. However, Stoute sued Combs over this incident, and the matter was settled out of court for a reported $500,000 paid to Stoute. Combs pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to one day of anger management.
The lawsuits and criminal charges that began to pile up against Combs in 2023 are listed, including the November 2023 lawsuit that Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura (who was signed to Combs’ Bad Boy record label) that was settled just one day after the lawsuit was filed. Ventura accused Combs of long-term physical and sexual abuse during their on-again/off-again nine-year relationship, which ended in 2018.
Combs initially denied all the accusations in Ventura’s lawsuit, until May 2024, when CNN released a March 2016 security video that was recorded at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The video showed Combs kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel floor hallway after she tried to leave on an elevator. The video matched one of the assaults described in the lawsuit.
In a now-deleted Instagram video posted in May 2024, Combs made a statement about his assault of Ventura, as seen in the hotel security video: “I was fucked up. I mean, I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses.” Combs said that he took “full responsibility” was “not asking for forgiveness” for what happened in the video. He also claimed he went into therapy and rehab after this incident, although he wasn’t specific about for how long and if he ever made an apology to Ventura. Despite admitting this assault, Combs is denying all other accusations against him. He was denied bail in his criminal cases for racketeering and sex trafficking.
A great deal of “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” is literally narrator Lincoln just reading parts of the lawsuits, which are public records and easily accessible. The featured clips from music videos are the bare-minimum, 30-second fair use clips. This documentary is essentially a video version of a Wikipedia page. And the fact that “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” was released for purchase or rental tells you all you need to know that it’s a complete ripoff.
Legacy Distribution released “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” on Prime Video in January 2025.