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Gene Deal

Former Diddy bodyguard alleges hip-hop mogul ‘could have’ been involved in Notorious B.I.G.’s death in new doc

By 

Chuck Arnold

Published Jan. 14, 2025, 11:41 a.m. ET

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy | Official Trailer | Peacock Original

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Twenty-eight years after his death at 24, the unsolved murder of the Notorious B.I.G. remains a notorious mystery.

And the new documentary “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” which premieres on Peacock Tuesday, addresses rumors that the disgraced hip-hop mogul might have been involved in the drive-by shooting of his prize rap protégé on March 9, 1997.

“So did he directly have something to do with it? He could have,” says former Diddy bodyguard Gene Deal, who is one of the members of his inner circle interviewed in the doc that arrives as the jailed star — born Sean Combs — awaits his May trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

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Sean “Diddy” Combs signed the Notorious B.I.G. as his first artist on is Bad Boy Records label,Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Deal, who worked for Diddy from 1991 to 2005, was with his then boss and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame rapper the night of his murder after Vibe magazine’s post-Soul Train Awards party in Los Angeles.

In “Making of a Bad Boy,” he claims that Diddy was allegedly acting suspiciously in the days before the murder.

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“The week [in] which Biggie was murdered he was just acting real anxious and trying to get Big at this party,” says Deal. “And [what] was crazy was, Big was telling people he had to be in London. But Puff was telling people, ‘He ain’t going to London’ that whole week.”

Deal recalls being surprised to find out about the Vibe party on the same night.

“I’m sitting up at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and I get a phone call. It’s about 9 o’clock. And they say, ‘Gene, get ready, we going to the Vibe party,’” he shares. “I was like, ‘We going to this party? We don’t have no security!’”

Deal laid out his reasons for thinking that going to the party was a bad idea six months after the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry had escalated with Tupac Shakur’s murder — in which both Diddy and Biggie were rumored to be allegedly involved.

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The Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy performed together on the 1997 hit “Mo Money Mo Problems.”Getty Images

“I say, ‘Yo Puff, I got some intel bruh.’ He said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Yo man, if we go to this party tonight, one of us gon’ get killed. Somebody gon’ die. Because now, we at East Coast-West Coast beef,” says Deal.

“He said, ‘Yo, Gene, I don’t wanna here that s–t.’ … So we all jump in the car.”

Deal details what happened after leaving the Vibe party at the Petersen Automotive Museum and heading to another Soul Train Awards afterparty in two separate cars.

“I was in a car with Puff. Big was in his own car. And the next thing you know you hear, ‘Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!’” he recalls.

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“Many a year, I couldn’t fight back the tears knowing that young man was murdered,’ says former Diddy bodyguard Gene Deal about the drive-by shooting death of the Notorious B.I.G. in 1997.@biggene_52/Instagram

“Many a year,” Deal says, “I couldn’t fight back the tears knowing that young man was murdered.”

The Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy performed together on the 1997 hit “Mo Money Mo Problems.”

“I told them, ‘Whatever y’all do, do not let him go to sleep. Talk to him, keep him up, don’t let him go to sleep. Keep him talking.’”

After Biggie was shot four times while sitting in his GMC Suburban, they told the “Hypnotize” rapper that they were rushing him to the hospital.

“And Big said, ‘Just do it.’ That’s the last thing I heard Big say,” says Deal. “And they said the hospital was two blocks away, and that’s the longest two blocks I ever seen in my life.”

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The new Peacock documentary “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” features interviews with members of his inner circle.PEACOCK

Once they got to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Deal broke it to Diddy that the news was not good.

“So Puff ran out the hospital door and he grabbed my arm. He said, ‘Gene, we gotta pray! We gotta pray! We gotta pray!’” Deal recalls. “And I knocked his hands off of me, I said, ‘Pray for what? That n—a’s dead, bruh.’

“He just was stunned. He just seemed like he had this look in his eye like he couldn’t believe it, that he was dead. He couldn’t believe it.”

“Making of Bad Boy” makes it clear that “Sean Combs has always denied having any involvement in the murders of Christopher Wallace (‘Biggie’) and Tupac.”

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Sean “Diddy” Combs’ rise from an Uptown Records intern to a jailed hip-hop mogul is traced in “Making of a Bad Boy.”Getty Images