As Sean Combs awaited his expected arrest on sex-trafficking charges in September 2024, he asked a videographer to capture what would ultimately become his last days of freedom for some time.

While staying at the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhattan, Mr. Combs was filmed visiting a restaurant in Harlem and talking strategy with his lawyers as his troubles multiplied and the shadow of the impending federal case grew closer.

Now, in a stunning twist, that footage arranged by Mr. Combs has ended up in the hands of a documentary team run by his longtime rival, 50 Cent. “Good Morning America” reported on Monday that it will be included in a four-part series released by Netflix on Tuesday that is slated to detail grievances and abuse allegations against Mr. Combs across decades.

50 Cent — like Mr. Combs, a New York rapper turned branding mogul — has seized numerous opportunities to comment on, and often mock, Mr. Combs’s legal crises over the past two years, as Mr. Combs has faced a federal prosecution and more than 50 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse. But the release of the series, called “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” marks an escalation in what was once a low-stakes beef between two hip-hop luminaries.

Mr. Combs has denied sexually assaulting anyone. In a cease-and-desist letter sent on Monday, lawyers for Mr. Combs demanded that Netflix withdraw the series, contending the footage had been illicitly provided to the streaming service in violation of contractual agreements. The letter asserted that running the footage would be a copyright violation and that it likely contained “privileged communications” between Mr. Combs and his legal counsel.

Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Mr. Combs, said the footage was never authorized for release and included “private moments, pre-indictment material from an unfinished project, and conversations involving legal strategy that were not intended for public viewing.”

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