Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Tries to Sway Judge with 11-Minute, Hollywood-Style Documentary at Sentencing

Along with multiple exhibits and letters, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs submitted an eleven minute, 31-second, documentary style video about his life to the judge at his sentencing hearing on Friday, October 3.

In the slickly edited footage, the music mogul, 55, is seen playing with his kids, working in the studio, basking in praise from his friends, receiving the BET Lifetime Achievement Award from Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds in 2022, and traveling around his hometown of New York City meeting fans.

The video then goes on to include extensive footage of Combs training for the New York City marathon in 2003, which he ran to benefit children’s charities — at one point urging kids that it’s not “cool” to “hang on the corner with your friends” —  as well as his inspiring speeches to students at his Harlem charter schools, urging them to reach for their dreams.

“What I want to do with my freedom is, you know, make sure that I can make change,” he says of his philanthropic work.

Archival footage of New York City itself — throughout the years that he lived there — is juxtaposed with the rapper talking about realizing his dreams, and employees talking about how much he’s done for the world.

“Know that you mean something to people,” says one gushing friend. “That you live somewhere in people’s hearts. You inspire, you energize. And you’ve left that for the rest of the existence of this planet.”

In one scene, he even spoon-feeds his mother, Janice Combs, while she lies in a hospital bed.

The video continues with footage of his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter’s 2018 funeral and Combs crying at her grave. “Today now I’m a full-time dad, and I’m going to be there for you through everything,” he tells his kids.

Combs is father to sons Quincy, 34, Justin, 31, and Christian, 27, daughter Chance, 19, twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie, 18, and daughter Love, 2.

His children give their testimonials about how much they love him over shots of Combs with them, as the music crescendos.

“In order for me to get into heaven, I’m not going to get into heaven [because I had] 20 hit records,” Combs says at the end. “They’re going to say, ‘Come on in heaven, you was a nice person.”

“I have read all the material and read the letters and greatly appreciate those,” U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian told the court before handing down sentencing on Combs, who was found guilty on charges of transportation of former girlfriends for prostitution.