Inside The Reckoning: Diddy, 50 Cent, And the Cost of Culture

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 What happens when power goes unchecked—on the world stage and online? In this episode, we break down Netflix’s The Reckoning, the explosive docuseries on Sean “Diddy” Combs, produced by 50 Cent, and what its allegations reveal about fame, protection, and the real cost of culture. Then we shift to Adin Ross and his recent use—and defense—of the N-word, unpacking how viral creators turn controversy into content and how fandom gets twisted into a pass for harmful language. Two stories, one theme: power without guardrails. 

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
You know, this documentary is about people
being able to tell their truthor tell their version of the
story.
And the only thing I'm you know,I wish we were able to have
Diddy be in the document.
So we could have said somethings that make people
understand why people say thesethings about.

SPEAKER_02 (00:21):
But couldn't he really make you understand?
I mean, we've heard a lot, a lotof things we didn't want to
hear.
You're now tuned to the only onemic podcast, mic drop show.
I'm your host, Car Gerard, andwe've got two stories right now
that's shaking the culture fromtwo completely different worlds.

(00:42):
We got one from hip hop royaltyand one from the wild west of
the live stream influence.
Both raise serious questionsabout power, accountability, and
where we draw the line as aculture.
So let's take this ride, y'all.
We're gonna get into it.
The first one, Sean Comp.
Count Diddy.
His documentary, or thedocumentary I should say about

(01:05):
him, the reckoning is onNetflix.
Dropped a whole bum about thisguy, man.
And this is the uh four-partdocuseries that I'm quite sure
everybody for the past week hashad somebody come up to them and
say, Yo, did you watch it?
Uh, what's your thoughts aboutit?
So if you haven't watched it, soI suggest you prepare yourself

(01:25):
for this one because it's notjust a documentary.
This is like a culturalearthquake.
So let me talk to y'all for aminute.
Have you ever watched somethingand you felt like the weight of
it in your chest?
That's this documentary righthere.
It takes you from Diddy's riseto his power to the allegations
that a lot of people eitherignored or justified or was just
too scared to speak on.

(01:45):
So we're talking formeremployees, childhood friends,
industry insiders, and victimstelling their stories that are
honestly, you know, kind of hardto sit through.
But uh a lot of the victims weretelling, as 50 Cent said in this
intro here, their version ofwhat happened.
So, you know, I'm not here tosay that he did this or this

(02:06):
person might be lying here.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Again, this is their version ofyou know what accounts took
place when dealing with um withDiddy.
So 50 Cent is at the center ofthis thing, right?
So he's not just like commentingfrom the sidelines, but the
executive produced thisdocumentary, and a lot of people

(02:28):
have been like kind of asking,you know, do you think 50 made
this documentary because thetruth needed to come out?
Or was he just, you know, beingking petty on this one, you know
what I mean, and putting agotcha, pushing that gotcha
button on uh Diddy.
So hit me in the comments onthat one, y'all.
Or email me because that's awhole debate by itself, you
know, to see where you know what50 intentions was when putting

(02:52):
this documentary out.
But here's what the doc laysout.
You get, you know, I want to sayaccounts, I'm gonna use the word
accounts from such people asAubrey O'Day, from I think it
was Danity Kane was the group,Capricorn Clark, who was you
know Diddy's first assistant,Kurt Burroughs, who actually

(03:14):
co-founded Bad Boy Rackets withhim, and they all had different
accounts of what it was likedealing with with with Puff, you
know what I mean?
So Kurt Burroughs, and he'ssaying this is a quote from the
documentary, guys, not a quotefrom me.
It says, in regards to uhBiggie's funeral, which was a

(03:35):
big funeral that took place inuh, you know, his hometown of
Best Sti.
And you know, if you all see, ifyou don't know, for the younger
viewers out there who wasn'taround when this actually
happened, you can pull up thefootage on YouTube where they
took the carriage all throughthe neighborhood.
One last ride for Biggie, youknow, and the hood that shaped
him.
It says in our quote from Puff,it says, We're gonna do the

(03:59):
biggest funeral, but Biggie'sgonna have to pay for this
funeral.
Now, they're saying these aren'trumors, and these are the people
who were there.
Again, this show was not there.
So, this is what Kurt Burroughs'account of what happened.
And they said, you know, likethe stories that they told were
real heavy and you know,physically, emotionally,

(04:19):
psychologically heavy on people.
And the bigger question I wantto ask you guys is uh, you know,
as the listener, does thisdocumentary change the way you
see Bad Boy's Legacy?
Now, I've had this discussionwith a few people, and you know,
the same situation that happenedkind of with Bill Cosby is that
you know, do you discountbecause of their personal

(04:42):
things, do you discount the umwhat's the what's the best word
I could say, folks?
The contribution that they havegiven to their their craft, you
know.
Bad boy pretty much shaped a lotof the music that you know you
listen to from you know the 90sera all the way up until now.

(05:04):
Um Puff was at the forefront ofa lot of this stuff.
Um he was the man that kind ofmarketed things.
He knew exactly what it took tosell music, and you know, even
as a businessman, you know, tomove from different, you know,
different areas of theentertainment industry, whether

(05:25):
it be from music to movies totelevision shows to owning
television stations, doing, youknow, deals with liquor brands,
whatever, you know, um clothing,the big thing with clothing,
fashion and all, do you kind ofdisc you know discredit the uh
contributions that he's made?
And you know, everybody's gonnahave opinions on it, and it's

(05:47):
just a question I'm throwing outthere for you guys to, you know,
go back and forth in thecomments about, you know, and
and see where everybody'sopinion is opinion on that is,
you know.
And you know, even the samething with the music, like do
you separate the music from theman?
Because again, if his name isstamped on a lot of the music
that a lot of us grew uplistening to, and some people

(06:10):
still listening to today, canyou listen to that in the same
light?
The same thing that you wouldprobably say about R.
Kelly, you know, do you listento his music in the same way now
than you would prior toeverything that has happened?
So, you know, we gotta behonest.
He wasn't an artist, he was asystem, some say a gatekeeper.

(06:33):
He was someone people couldn'tafford to say no to, I guess.
Um, and the doc forces everybodyto confront what happens when
that person gets too much powerand no one checks him.
And that's what happened in thisparticular situation, and as a
culture, that's something we gotto talk about.
Um, when I say it was hard towatch that documentary, again,

(06:56):
as we've said on this showseveral times, I'm from New
York, born and raised uh fromBrooklyn, not too far from where
Biggie, you know, we all was inthe same kind of uh vicinity.
And I gotta say, like a lot ofstuff these guys like Little Rod
and everybody is saying that hehad them doing, I'm like, folks,

(07:19):
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I'm I'm of a different headspacethese days as I get older and
you know, a little bit wiser.
But back then, I gotta behonest, man, I probably would
have swung on Puff.
I know I probably wouldn't havewalked out of that room in one
piece, but we're gonna establishone thing, you know, like you

(07:39):
dealing with a man on this one.
Um certain things when Ilistened a lot, you know, to
Little Rod's accounts and youknow, some of the stuff that we
already knew, you know, aspeople who grew up with this,
you know, already heard theseaccounts and everything.
It's just that now it's onNetflix is you know, it's it's

(08:02):
public, the whole, you know,public is getting the knowledge,
you know, the knowledge that alot of people might have had
back then, or I should sayknowledge, that's a bad choice
of uh words.
But a lot of the things that wemay have heard um about Puff and
his practices, listen, I youcan't want something that much,
folks, that you're willing toallow someone to humiliate you

(08:25):
to get it.
And a lot of the stuff from themaking a band situation back in
the day and all making peoplewalk for cheesecake and you
know, constantly, you know,critiquing somebody's looks and
things like that, you can't wantsomething that much where you
allow somebody to basically stepall over you to get it.
And this is a you know, this isa prime example of that.

(08:48):
Um in terms of the you know,Capricorn Clark and everybody,
and I'm not even gonna get intothat because, like I said, all
of that is these peopleaccounts, but um, according to
her, you know, in a fit of rage,um he kidnapped her, allegedly,
you know, drove her fifth droveher 15 minutes and said they're

(09:09):
gonna go kill Kid Cuddy.
This is their words, folks, notthe one Mike podcast words.
You can watch the documentaryyourself.
Aubrey O'Day gives her accountof uh you know sexual assault.
And you know, it's it's a it's alot of heavy stuff that's in
that particular documentary.
But again, you watch it.
If you have not, then we cankind of have this discussion on

(09:33):
line on the comments.
Also, guys, I wanted to touch onthis because I'm not too
familiar with this kid.
Um, I don't I'm not on Twitchand all that stuff, gamer stuff.
I'm not a gamer.
Uh haven't owned a gaming systemin years.

(09:54):
I think I the last time I had agaming system, I can't even
remember what I played.
It might have been Batman orsomething, I'm not sure.
But um it's this young guy bythe name of Aiden Ross, right?
And if you haven't, you know,heard what what's been going on
with Aiden Ross, it's you know,him using the N-word, him

(10:14):
admitting to using the N-word,and him trying to justify you
using the N-word, all right?
So this is we dancing right nowin the realm of accountability,
y'all.
And on the influence side of theworld, he he I guess he has some
type of influence and uh, youknow, numbers and all, and he's

(10:34):
up here with these rappers andthings like that.
And I believe that this kid gotinto a space of comfortability
that they shouldn't allow him togo in.
You know what I mean?
I had I had put up a videoduring my diligence on this kid,
and um he was in concert withChief Keefe.
This might have been about twoyears ago, and Chief Keefe

(10:55):
invited him on stage to rapalongside of him, and he's you
know, allowing him to say theN-word, and this is why do we
allow this to even go on?
So again, it goes byaccountability and how
comfortable you allow people to,you know, disrespect you,
disrespect the culture,disrespect the people.

(11:16):
And then, you know, it goes onto the I didn't mean it, and
everybody says it privately,garbage that everybody, you
know, I'm I'm just being honestand all that.
I want y'all to hear from thiskid's own mouth exactly what he
said and how he's trying tojustify his usage of the N-word
guys.
Check this out.

SPEAKER_00 (11:35):
I'm using it in a way where I rap to my favorite
raps rapper's music.
I'm not using it in a way tooffend you.
I would I would never do that toyou.

SPEAKER_02 (11:42):
Alright, so come on, y'all.
Are we gonna really accept thatas a um excuse for you to say
this thing with impunity andnobody says nothing, nobody
checks him.
So, you know, he's 24 years old,he has a massive platform, he
has millions of followers.
Um he's he was on Twitch.

(12:04):
I believe he was banned off ofTwitch.
He collaborated with severalrappers, NBA players, viral
celebrities.
He lives off attention.
But the problem is he's doingthis without any restraints.
Like, for all the the people Iname for you guys that he's
dealing with, nobody's checkinghim.

(12:25):
Now, if they are checking them,folks, and again, I don't keep
up with Twitch and all thisstuff like that.
Let me know in the comments ifyou do, you know, have a few
people that or know of a fewpeople that might have checked
them and everybody because I'veI and again in my diligence I've
heard people who say they knowpeople who know him that says he
does this all the time.
He's not the only one.
It was a kid, and guys, you canagain you can hit me in the

(12:49):
comments with this guy's namethat was on the Breakfast Club.
Pull this up when Just Hilariouswas taking him to task over
that.
You know what I mean?
And I think that these, youknow, little Twitch kids and
whatnot, they get on here andthey get a little bit too
comfortable, all right?
We had a conversation uh sometime ago, and you can pull up an
old episode uh with Dr.

(13:09):
Rob Eichmann uh who wrote thebook.
Um it's called When the HoodComes Off, is uh confronting
racism in the digital age.
And funny enough, we discussedthis topic.
Oh my gosh, it was about a yearago, maybe about a year or so
ago.
We discussed this very sametopic, guys.

(13:30):
I want y'all to check out whathe had to say on the subject.
Dr.
Rob Eichmann.

SPEAKER_05 (13:39):
Man, that that so there are two things in there,
right?
So one is comfort level usingthe N-word.
And I do, I do think so.
I think that some white folksfeel ownership of the word
because of the music that theylove.
Um, you know, I once checkedsomebody for using the N-word
when he was referencing Jay-Z,and he was like, I would never,
I would never censor myself anddisrespect Jay-Z like that.

(14:02):
Are you joking?
Right?
And so it's like, yes, I dothink that the people feel a
license to do that.
And that's something I I I Italk about Kendrick and Vince
Staples uh later on in chaptersix, where I'm going into uh a

(14:23):
regular telling a story ofseeing Kendrick concerts for
everybody relic.
Right?
And he says it four or fivetimes in ten seconds, and just
thousands of people in the crowdsaying it with him and feeling
like they have ownership of thatterm and like where what is so
I'm gonna stop it right there.

SPEAKER_02 (14:42):
So that that's the problem, feeling like you have
ownership of that term.
Now, Shannon Sharp um had a youknow the uh conversations he
normally has with Chad Johnson,and he spoke on this, but I'm
gonna give you guys some contextbecause I'm not gonna play the
whole thing.
But Shannon Sharp was going offon this particular subject, and

(15:05):
he was saying that it's funnyhow you know nobody has a
problem with dropping theN-word, but it's he actually
pointed out two groups of peoplethat people will not, you know,
uh say anything derogatory aboutwithout any backlash.
So we have people who feelcomfortable, you know, basically

(15:27):
openly disrespecting blackpeople, but there's two groups,
you know, uh one being thealphabet community, to be honest
with you, and the other beingthis.

SPEAKER_04 (15:40):
There's another country that has a white and
blue flag with a star on it.
No, it's not, it is not evenclose.
Oh, they own every damn thing.
Exactly.
Yeah, well, I bet why don't yousay something about derogatory
about that?
Why you don't wrap that?
Oh, you want to create content.
You told me your content creatorcreates a protein.

SPEAKER_03 (16:01):
They own they own everything, bro.
You hear me?
Behind it, behind everything,but if you was to peel back the
layers, yeah, man.
I mean I mean leave that alone.

SPEAKER_04 (16:12):
That's all I'm saying.
See, people ain't got peopledon't have no problem saying
that.

SPEAKER_02 (16:19):
But boy, you and I guess what Shannon is saying,
and again, folks who arelistening to this, this is
Shannon Sharp saying it's notthe only one my podcast.
So I guess what Shannon Sharp issaying is that, and you tell me
in the comments, do you agree?
Are we the only people, onlyrace, group of people who nobody

(16:43):
has a problem disrespecting?
And we just pretty much take it.
You know what I mean?
So even when you have this, it'slike we kind of let these guys
hand wave these situations awayby saying stuff like, you know,
uh, you know, I my friends sayit, my favorite rapper says it.

(17:04):
You know, I'm gonna be I'm gonnastand up and admit that I'm I I
said it.
And, you know, does admitting itmake it better, or does it
admitting it just prove you feelentitled to say it?
So it's like, where do you gofrom there?
Like everybody kind of givesthis hand wave of apology on
live or something like that, andpeople keep it pushing.
And you know, you had, you know,in his this kid's situation, you

(17:26):
got millions of kids that watchyou, I guess.
You know, kids that copy you, Iguess.
And that word wasn't just like aslip-up, it was a message.
Let's call it what it is.
And then when you are, you know,put the live stream apology and
the usual I take accountability,you know, stuff like that.
I mean, does it make it better?

(17:47):
Does it make it better?
Now, because of what ShannonSharp just said about these set
of people here, now the internetis going crazy saying, oh, he's
about to get canceled.
I guess to the point where I wasinformed that he took that post
down since then.
I haven't personally seen it.
But if if you see somethingdifferent, folks, let me know in

(18:08):
the comments that he took thepost down.
Look, what goes one way goes theother.
I mean, so do we allow this kidto keep operating the way that
he's operating?
And even just a message to allyou rappers and everybody that
he's running with, he's talkingabout you.
I mean, we kind of don't do theservice by kind of putting it in

(18:30):
the music and things like thatand allowing people to just sing
along with it, like you know,like we sing and it's a
beautiful day in theneighborhood or something.
But the accountability alsofalls on the fact that if this
is something that you want to dofor your culture, then you can't
allow people to feelcomfortable, you know, just
getting up here and just sayingwhatever.

(18:52):
You know, and so um this is justlike following the whole, as you
see, not just with this kid, butwith a lot of these influencers,
that formula of, you know, youmess up, you go viral, you
apologize, then you repeat.
And the bigger issue isinfluencers thrive off that
shock value.
That's what they do.
And saying the wildest thing anddoing the most out-of-pocket

(19:14):
stuff they can possibly doequals controversy, and
controversy equals clicks andviews.
So the real question for all ofus is are we enabling this?
Are we part of the cycle thatkeeps these guys relevant, or
should the influencers withgiant platforms be held to the
same standards that ShannonSharp will be held to for the
comments that he just made here,or anybody who, you know, steps

(19:36):
out of that realm and sayscertain things about certain
individuals and you know, end uplosing their platforms and
things like that.
So let me know what you think.
I want to hear from you, theaudience, on this one.
All right.
You know, the whole puff thingabout you know, 50 doing this
was a service.
Uh 50 said on MS Now, likebasically, if he did not.

(20:00):
Do this.
It wasn't like something, youknow, petty or anything like
that.
Is that if he don't do this,that pays basically people will
think this is acceptable in theculture.
So, what do you think aboutthat?
Like, you know, do you thinkthat he's kind of doing the
right thing by shifting us awayfrom the culture, saying, like,
yeah, we don't accept this?
Also, with this kid, um, youknow, this Aiden kid, do you

(20:23):
think that you know he should beheld to that same standard?
Should his platforms becanceled?
And keep your eye on the ShannonSharp thing, because I want to
see if he's going to get abacklash or if he's going to
have to go in and and tap in anddo the apology tour on his um on
his platform as well.
All right, y'all.
So these are the two stories.
These are the two worlds.

Boy, boils down to one thing: accountability, what we allow, (20:43):
undefined
what we excuse.
What we pass down to the nextgeneration as normal is not
normal, guys.
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(21:04):
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(21:25):
We appreciate you, as always,guys.
As always, we do.
And we encourage you to speakyour truth quietly and clearly.
And listen to others, even thedull and the ignorant, because
they too have their story totell.
So until next time, please keepin mind that if you've never had
to run from the Klu Klutz clan,then you shouldn't have to run
from a black man.
Peace.