Sean Combs Says Lil Rod Stole Footage Later Used in Netflix’s ‘The Reckoning’

Promotional artwork for Netflix’s four-part documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.” Sean “Diddy” Combs has filed counterclaims against producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, alleging Jones stole documentary footage that was later used in the series. Netflix and director Alexandria Stapleton have said the production obtained its footage legally and had the necessary rights. (Courtesy Netflix)

The Bad Boy founder alleges Rodney Jones took computer drives during a 2022 St. Barts trip and later sold the footage. Netflix says the documentary obtained its material legally and had the necessary rights.

Sean “Diddy” Combs spent months saying footage in Netflix’s documentary about him had been taken without permission.

He is now making that accusation in court — against the producer who sued him first.

Combs filed counterclaims Tuesday against Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones in their existing federal case in Manhattan, alleging Jones took computer drives containing footage intended for a Combs documentary and later sold or supplied material that appeared in Netflix’s “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” the four-part series executiv ise produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The filing does not amount to a new lawsuit against Netflix or Jackson. Jones is the opposing party in Combs’ counterclaims.

That distinction is especially important because the counterclaims allege Jones sold the footage to “Netflix, Inc., West Tower Road, LLC, and/or Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson,” according to the filing. The wording does not establish that Jackson personally bought or received the material.

Combs’ account centers on a December 2022 trip to St. Barts, where Jones was among several people documenting Combs and his entourage.

According to the counterclaims, Jones was expected to stay in a staff villa but instead remained aboard a yacht, at times sleeping on couches. Combs alleges Jones later entered another videographer’s workspace while that person was away and took external computer drives containing footage being shot for Combs’ own documentary.

“Mr. Jones devised a plan to exploit the trust provided to him by Mr. Combs,” the filing alleges, according to TheWrap, which said it obtained and reviewed the counterclaims.

Combs further alleges that Jones copied footage without authorization, concealed the drives during the trip and eventually sold the material for use in “The Reckoning.” His attorneys say Combs did not learn about the alleged theft until December 2025, when material he believed belonged to his documentary appeared in the Netflix series.

The filing also alleges Jones remains in possession of the drives.

There is one notable point on which Netflix’s own account and Combs’ lawsuit overlap: Jones supplied footage to the filmmakers.

Netflix said in a December article about “The Reckoning” that Jones appeared in the fourth episode and provided filmmakers with footage from his 13 months working alongside Combs.

What the two sides sharply dispute is whether Jones had the right to provide it.

When Combs objected to the documentary before its release, director Alexandria Stapleton said the production had obtained the footage legally and had the necessary rights. Netflix also said footage used in the series had been legally obtained.

Neither statement resolves the ownership question now raised in court.

Combs’ counterclaims also accuse Jones of defamation over statements he made during his interview in “The Reckoning.” According to the filing, Combs disputes Jones’ assertions that Combs directed him to obtain sex workers and that Jones was unknowingly given drugs.

Those accusations echo claims Jones made when he sued Combs in February 2024.

Jones, a producer and videographer who worked extensively on Combs’ 2023 album “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” sought $30 million and alleged Combs sexually assaulted and harassed him, drugged him, threatened him and coerced him into encounters involving sex workers while Jones worked and traveled with him. Combs has denied Jones’ allegations.

Jones worked on nine tracks from “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” which was released Sept. 15, 2023.

His lawsuit has already been substantially narrowed, but some of its central claims remain alive.

In March 2025, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed Jones’ civil racketeering claims, finding that Jones had not adequately tied the alleged racketeering activity to his claimed business or property losses. Oetken also dismissed Jones’ breach-of-contract and emotional-distress claims.

The judge, however, declined to dismiss Jones’ sexual-assault claim against Combs. Oetken wrote that Jones had alleged sufficiently specific instances of unwanted sexual contact for the claim to proceed at that stage of the case.

Jones also was permitted to proceed with a federal trafficking claim against Combs and former chief of staff Kristina Khorram, as well as premises-liability claims. A trafficking claim against Combs Global was dismissed.

Those rulings were not findings that Jones’ allegations were true. On a motion to dismiss, the court was deciding whether the allegations were legally sufficient to continue toward later stages of the case.

Now Combs is asking the court to consider allegations of his own.

Combs is seeking damages under claims involving computer fraud, conversion, unfair competition, unjust enrichment and defamation. He also wants the computer drives and footage returned and any retained copies destroyed.

Jones had not publicly answered the counterclaims as of Thursday morning. 

Combs, 56, is serving a 50-month federal prison sentence at Fort Dix, New Jersey. A Manhattan jury last year convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges. His appeal was argued before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

The civil dispute with Jones now runs in both directions.

Jones continues to accuse Combs of sexual misconduct and trafficking-related conduct that Combs denies. Combs, in turn, accuses Jones of stealing documentary material, distributing it without authorization and making defamatory statements.

And footage used to tell the story in a Netflix documentary is now at the center of a court fight over who owned it and who had the right to distribute it.

Nine Years After Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux Recorded it, ‘Prolific’ is Ready

The cover of “Prolific,” the collaborative album from Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux, due Aug. 14, 2026. Hussle selected the photograph used for the artwork while the pair were working on the project in 2017. (All Money In/Out The Blue/Atlantic Records)

Posthumous albums often come with an unavoidable question: How much of what listeners are hearing did the artist actually choose?

“Prolific,” the new Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux album arriving Friday, comes with an unusually clear answer.

Hussle and Rideaux recorded the music together during an intensive three-month stretch in 2017, nearly two years before Hussle’s death. They also sequenced the project during his lifetime, and Hussle personally selected the photograph that became its cover, according to a Los Angeles Times interview published Wednesday with Rideaux and Hussle’s older brother, Samiel “Blacc Sam” Asghedom.

The 15-track “Prolific” is scheduled for release Aug. 14 by All Money In & Out The Blue Records under exclusive license to Atlantic Recording Corp. The date falls one day before what would have been Hussle’s 41st birthday.

For Hussle’s family, the long delay was intentional.

Asghedom, his brother’s longtime business partner and estate administrator, told the Times that people began pressing the family to release unreleased Nipsey music after the rapper’s death in 2019.

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He resisted.

“When we drop the music, we gotta feel like it’s the right time,” Asghedom told the newspaper.

The distinction matters because “Prolific” is not being presented as an album constructed years later from unrelated Nipsey verses.

Its foundation was already there.

Hussle and Rideaux began working together in 2016 after Hussle heard Rideaux’s music and invited the younger South Los Angeles artist to his studio. Two songs from that early session appeared on Hussle’s “Slauson Boy 2,” and the partnership grew into their 2017 collaborative mixtape “No Pressure.”

That same year, Hussle rented NoName Studios in Tarzana where he and Rideaux effectively moved in for about 90 days.

They slept there. They showered there. Producers and engineers rotated through. Music was made constantly.

During those sessions, the pair worked on “No Pressure” and the body of music that would eventually become “Prolific.” Rideaux described the atmosphere to the Times as part frat house, part summer camp, with the studio operating around the clock.

That history also requires one important qualification.

Although the recordings and sequencing date to Hussle’s lifetime, Asghedom has previously estimated that the project was about 80% finished when his brother died. The team later did finishing work using unreleased verses and other music Hussle had already recorded with Rideaux.

That is different from saying nothing was touched after 2019.

It is also different from constructing a new album around orphaned vocals.

Asghedom has repeatedly drawn that distinction, describing “Prolific” as a project Hussle deliberately created with Rideaux rather than a collection assembled by the estate after his death.

Even the artwork predates the tragedy.

Hussle chose a blue-tinted photograph showing him and Rideaux with friends at the Hollywood Roosevelt, a hotel they frequented while making the project. The album carried another name during the original sessions; the team later settled on “Prolific,” taking the title from the word Hussle famously had tattooed on his right temple.

The completed track list also reaches well beyond the two Los Angeles rappers.

Guests include Cardi B, Ty Dolla $ign, Leon Thomas, James Fauntleroy, Buddy and BH. The 15-song album includes the previously released “Reckless” featuring Static Major, “Sacrifices” featuring Fauntleroy, “All Summer” featuring BH and “I Just Wanna Know” with Cardi B and Ty Dolla $ign.

Several producers involved with “Prolific” also worked on Hussle’s 2018 major-label debut, “Victory Lap,” including Mike & Keys and Larrance “Rance 1500” Dopson.

Musically, Rideaux told the Times that “Prolific” is more vulnerable and experimental than “No Pressure.” Relationships play a larger role in the subject matter, and the production sometimes moves beyond the West Coast palette most closely associated with Hussle. One song, “Miami Off the Plane,” uses a Caribbean riddim-inspired beat, a sound Rideaux said neither artist had previously explored.

The experimentation adds another dimension to music Hussle was making as he prepared for the breakthrough that would come with “Victory Lap.”

Hussle, born Ermias Asghedom, was fatally shot outside his Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles on March 31, 2019. He was 33.

By then, “Victory Lap” had transformed years of independent momentum into mainstream recognition. The album earned a Grammy nomination for best rap album, and Hussle won two Grammys posthumously in 2020: best rap performance for “Racks in the Middle” and best melodic rap performance for his appearance on DJ Khaled’s “Higher.”

Recordings featuring Hussle have surfaced since his death, including his 2021 collaboration with Jay-Z, “What It Feels Like,” from “Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album.” But his estate has been notably restrained about turning his unreleased recordings into a full posthumous project.

That restraint is part of what makes “Prolific” notable.

Rather than rushing an album into the market while attention surrounding Hussle’s death was at its peak, his family waited more than seven years — and nearly nine years after the sessions themselves — before deciding this particular body of work was ready to be heard.

Rideaux, now 33 himself, told the Times he understands that releasing music involving an artist as revered as Hussle invites scrutiny. He also made clear that carrying forward what his mentor began has become inseparable from his own career.

The album arrives Friday, Aug. 14.

One day later, Nipsey Hussle would have turned 41.

After years of saying no to pressure for a posthumous album, his family is finally saying yes to one Hussle had already helped shape.

Faith Evans Loses Key Ruling in Fight With Biggie’s Former Manager Wayne Barrow

A Delaware Court of Chancery opinion issued Aug. 7, 2026, opens with a reference to the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ten Crack Commandments” before ruling for Wayne Barrow on claims involving the Voletta Wallace trust’s membership and distributions from Notorious B.I.G., LLC. (Delaware Court of Chancery)

The Notorious B.I.G.’s famous warning about mixing family and business has found its way into a Delaware courtroom, this time in a fight over the company created to protect his legacy.

A Delaware judge has ruled that a trust established by Biggie’s late mother, Voletta Wallace, is a full member of Notorious B.I.G., LLC, handing the rapper’s former manager Wayne Barrow a significant
victory in his dispute with Biggie’s widow, Faith Evans.

Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick granted partial summary judgment Friday, Aug. 7, in favor of Barrow, who is the sole trustee of the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust. The ruling also dismissed a
counterclaim by Evans and the company that sought a declaration that the trust was not a member.

That distinction carries real financial consequences. McCormick ruled that the trust qualifies as a permitted transferee under the company’s operating agreement and is entitled to the membership and distribution rights that belonged to Voletta Wallace.

The judge opened her 16-page opinion by invoking Biggie’s 1997 song “Ten Crack Commandments” and its warning against mixing relatives and business. She then noted that Wallace and Evans ultimately did exactly that when they formed Notorious B.I.G., LLC in 2007 to manage intellectual property belonging to Christopher Wallace, better known as Biggie Smalls.

The structure behind the dispute is more complicated than a simple fight over who “owns Biggie.”

Voletta Wallace and Evans each held 50% of the membership units in Notorious B.I.G., LLC under a 2023 operating agreement. Each also assigned half of her distribution interest to one of Biggie’s children — Ty’anna Wallace and Christopher Jordan “C.J.” Wallace. The arrangement left Voletta, Evans, Ty’anna and C.J. each entitled to 25% of company distributions, according to the court.

The agreement specifically listed the Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust as a party permitted to receive membership units.

That became crucial after Voletta Wallace amended her estate documents Feb. 6, 2025, just weeks before her death. The amendment removed C.J. Wallace and longtime friend Carol Sampson as successor trustees and left Barrow as the trust’s sole successor trustee. A related change to Wallace’s will made Barrow the sole executor of her estate.

Wallace died Feb. 21, 2025. Barrow formally accepted his appointment as trustee the following month.

Evans then became the sole manager of Notorious B.I.G., LLC. According to the court record, she stopped making distributions to the trust and disputed whether the trust remained a member of the company after Wallace’s amendments.

Barrow sued in Delaware Chancery Court in July 2025.

At the center of the case was a seemingly technical question with large consequences: Did changing the terms and trustees of Voletta Wallace’s trust transform it into something different from the trust specifically named in the company agreement?

McCormick said no.

The judge found that amending a trust does not create an entirely new legal entity. Because the same Voletta Wallace Revocable Trust remained in existence, it remained a permitted transferee under the LLC agreement.

The court also rejected Evans’ objection to a written consent Barrow signed in December 2025 assuming Wallace’s rights and obligations under the company agreement.

The operating agreement required such an instrument to be “reasonably satisfactory” to the company manager. McCormick found that Barrow’s consent met that standard objectively, regardless of whether Evans personally approved it.

The ruling, therefore, grants Barrow summary judgment on his claims that the trust is a member of Notorious B.I.G., LLC and is entitled to distributions.

Barrow’s attorney, Jay W. Freiberg, called the decision “a total victory in a dispute that never should have happened” in a statement to Rolling Stone. He said Wallace wanted Barrow to help steward her son’s legacy after her death.

An attorney for Evans did not immediately respond to a request for comment from People following the ruling.

The stakes surrounding Biggie’s intellectual property have increased substantially in recent years.

In March 2025, Primary Wave Music announced a partnership with the Notorious B.I.G. estate. The Wall Street Journal reported that Primary Wave acquired a 50% interest in an estate valued at more than $200 million. Primary Wave has since described its relationship with the estate as encompassing publishing, master recordings, film and television rights, name and likeness rights, brand management and archival material.

The Delaware decision does not, however, end every dispute over Wallace’s estate plan.

C.J. Wallace filed a separate case in Pennsylvania Orphans’ Court in February challenging his grandmother’s decision to remove him as a trustee and executor. His petition alleges that Barrow exerted undue influence over Voletta Wallace and had conflicts with her heirs. Those allegations have not been decided.

Evans and Notorious B.I.G., LLC had asked McCormick to put the Delaware case on hold until the Pennsylvania challenge was resolved. She refused, finding that Barrow currently has legal authority to act for the trust unless a Pennsylvania court orders otherwise.

McCormick also stressed that the Pennsylvania case does not change the separate Delaware question of whether the trust itself is a member of Notorious B.I.G., LLC. Under both versions of Voletta Wallace’s estate plan, her membership units passed into the trust.

That makes Friday’s ruling important but narrower than some headlines about the dispute suggest.

It does not decide C.J. Wallace’s allegations about the circumstances surrounding his grandmother’s final estate changes. Nor does it hand Barrow sole control of Biggie’s catalog; Evans remains manager of the LLC.

What it does establish is that the Voletta Wallace trust cannot simply be treated as an outsider to the company. It has membership rights, and it is entitled to its distributions.