Diddy’s former Bad Boy Entertainment partner alleges the mogul pushed for an extravagant public funeral for the Notorious B.I.G. — but insisted that the late rapper’s estate cover the costs.
In the newly released Netflix docuseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, Kirk Burrowes recalls Diddy presenting himself as Biggie’s closest friend “in every article and publication,” even though he claims “that wasn’t necessarily true.”
“Sean said, ‘We’re gonna do the biggest funeral for Biggie that New York has ever seen,’” Burrowes said around the 50-minute mark of episode two, 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 took place on March 18, 1997, at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York City. His mother Voletta Wallace, Diddy, Faith Evans, Junior M.A.F.I.A.’s Lil’ Cease, D-Roc, Lil’ Kim, and others were among those who attended.
Burrowes also claimed that before Biggie’s death, the rapper had secured a Rolling Stone cover. He alleged that 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 then allegedly tried to quietly alter Biggie’s newly signed contract after his death to terms “more favorable” to Bad Boy without informing his family. 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.
In the fourth and final episode of the docuseries, Burrowes — who co-founded Bad Boy with Diddy in 1993 — claimed the mogul was “abusive” toward him in “sexually deviant ways.” After his firing, he sued Combs in an effort to recover the 25% ownership of the company he helped build.
However, the case was dismissed in 2006 when appeals court judges ruled the allegations dating back to 1996 were too old to proceed, according to 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 now streaming on Netflix.
