Diddy’s former Bad Boy Entertainment partner claims the mogul pushed for a lavish public funeral for the Notorious B.I.G. but allegedly insisted the late rapper’s estate foot the bill.
In the newly-released Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Kirk Burrowes recalled that Diddy publicly positioned himself as Biggie's closest friend “in every article and publication” even though he claimed "that wasn't necessarily true."
“Sean said, ‘We're gonna do the biggest funeral for Biggie that New York has ever seen,’” Burrowes said near the 50-minute mark in the series’ second episode, titled "What Goes Down Must Come Up.” “We start to put that together, he starts to see the price. He says, ‘We're gonna do the biggest funeral, but Biggie's gonna have to pay for this funeral.’
“He was gonna make the funeral be a recoupable charge to Biggie in death,” he continued. “Sean doing a big show looks good on him. But he's not gonna tell the world that Biggie was gonna pay for it.”
Biggie’s funeral was held on March 18, 1997 at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York City. In addition to his mother Voletta Walace and Diddy, stars like Faith Evans, Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s Lil’ Cease, D-Roc, Lil Kim, and others were in attendance.
Burrowes continued with claims that before Biggie was killed, he had secured a Rolling Stone cover. However, he claims Diddy called demanding, "Pull that cover. I need to be on the cover. My solo album is coming in July, No Way Out, and I need to amp that up."
According to Burrowes, Combs also allegedly tried to secretly alter Biggie's newly signed contract after his death to terms "more favorable" to Bad Boy without notifying his family, and when Burrowes refused, he says he was fired 90 days later.
“You've abused everyone and used most everyone. There are horror stories like this all throughout,” he said.
On the fourth and final episode of the docuseries, Burrowes, who co-founded Bad Boy with Diddy in 1993, claimed the mogul was “abusive” to him in “sexually deviant ways.” After being fired, he sued Combs to recover the 25% ownership of the company he helped create.
The case was ultimately thrown out in 2006 after appeals-court judges found that the allegations, dating to 1996, were too old for the case to move forward, per The New York Post.
"I did not succeed and then I was banished from the business. For twenty five years, I was basically blacklisted and banned. Next thing you know: shelters, homelessness,” Burrowes said.
Sean Combs: The Reckoning is streaming now on Netflix.