One of the most explosive moments in Sean Combs: The Reckoning involves friends-turned-rivals Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., both of whom were murdered at the peak of their fame. How their stories intertwine with Sean Combs’ own is detailed by a number of individuals in the documentary, including Tupac’s cousin, William Lesane, former Bad Boy artist Mark Curry, former LAPD detective Greg Kading, and former member of the Mansfield Crips D1. These stories are echoed by Kirk Burrowes, a long-time former colleague and friend of Combs, who took contemporaneous hand-written notes in journals.
“From Day Zero, I wrote everything down, every day, so I could keep track of everything I needed to do,” says Burrowes in the documentary. “I ran all the money, all the budgets for the company, as well as a lot for his personal life, and all that came with it.” Director Alexandria Stapleton says the journals were a goldmine: “He had maybe 30 boxes of those journals. We pulled them out of storage, and one of my producers literally took them to her place, and we just scanned and scanned and scanned and scanned.”
Former Bad Boy Entertainment co founder Kirk Burrowes whose 2025 civil suit against Combs is still pending.
Burrowes’ accounts of his time at Bad Boy Entertainment tell a story of a startling transformation that took place in four short years, beginning and ending with the label’s relationship with The Notorious B.I.G., known as Big or Biggie. Biggie was a rising star at the newly found label, and he’d developed a friendship with Tupac based on mutual respect and admiration.
“Sean was insanely jealous of Biggie and ’Pac’s friendship,” Burrowes says in the documentary. “For Sean, being a marketer — you’re a manipulator. And there’s envy for people who have success [and] fame, with no manipulation.” As Tupac and Biggie’s fame grew, their friendship became complicated with public displays of East vs. West Coast hostility between players from Bad Boy Entertainment and Death Row Records, who Tupac eventually signed with. Tupac was killed in September 1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match. Six months later, Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
The East Coast–West Coast rivalry has become part of hip-hop lore, partially driven by the fact that no arrests were made until 2023, when Duane “Keffe D” Davis — described in the documentary by former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who investigated both murders, as a prominent Crips drug dealer — was indicted for Tupac’s murder. (Davis has pleaded not guilty in that case.)
“It’s really Keffe D and Puffy Combs are the last men standing,” says Kading in the doc. In 2023, investigators offered Keffe D mitigated sentencing if he cooperated with law enforcement during a proffer session, in which any self-incriminating information would not be used against him in a criminal prosecution. During the taped session, which is played in the documentary, Keffe D reveals that a year before Tupac’s murder, Combs allegedly made a general announcement during a party in “a whole room full of Crips” that Combs would give anything for Suge Knight and Tupac’s death. Keffe D also alleges that, in a separate occasion, Combs offered a $1M bounty for their deaths.
Moreover, the proffer session tapes also include audio of Keffe D. describing a compartment that Eric Von “Zip” Martin — described in the documentary as a drug lord from Harlen who Burrowes alleges he was told was Combs’ uncle — had concealed a gun in his car, which Kading says was reportedly driven in from out of town. Burrowes’ journals contain entries during an event that took place a few days before Zip’s arrest in which Combs had requested that they rent cars to travel from New York to Las Vegas to attend the fight — an unusual request, given the distance and inconvenience. Despite being confused about the logistics, Burrowes arranged the rentals and noted the expenses in his journals, which are shown in the documentary.
Burrowes kept hand-written notes while on the job.
A close-up on a page of Burrowes’ notes noting car rentals made in August and September, 1996.
Sean Combs has repeatedly and forcefully denied any involvement in the death of Tupac Shakur. He has never been charged with any crime in connection to the case. At the time of filming, Keffe D is set to stand trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur in 2026. He now claims the proffer was made under duress. No arrests have been made in connection with the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.
“With Sean, sometimes you’re humiliated. Sometimes you’re made an example of. Sometimes violent things happen to you,” he states in the documentary. “Through the years, a lot of bad things happened to good friends.”
The beginning of the end for Burrowes’ time at Bad Boy Entertainment stemmed from Biggie’s contract, which had just been renegotiated shortly before his murder. As described in the documentary and in his civil suit against Combs, Burrowes alleges that Combs wanted the contract to be altered to be more favorable to Bad Boy Entertainment by replacing pages of the signed agreement without anyone else’s knowledge. Burrowes declined; 90 days later, he was fired.
In 2003 Burrowes sued Combs over his affiliation with Bad Boy, and the case was dismissed. In 2025 he filed another suit that remained pending at the time of filming.
Since his firing and the 2003 lawsuit, Burrowes describes an experience in which he struggled to maintain his career. “For 25 years, I was basically blacklisted and banned. Next thing you know — shelters, homelessness,” he says in the doc. Today, Burrowes tells Tudum that despite the battles, he’s been hard at work on TV and film projects, and has a new company, Pop Life Entertainment: “I’m back, stronger than ever, with incredible stories to tell and the infrastructure to make them real.”
Says Burrowes, “This moment, this platform, is something far greater: It is my opportunity to finally speak my truth. Guided and empowered by my Lord and Savior, I remain steadfast. The battle is not over, but neither am I.”
