In a personal essay for the New York Times, Former Vibe Magazine editor-in-chief Danyel Smith claimed Sean “Diddy” Combs allegedly threatened to see her “dead in the trunk of a car” after the two had a disagreement over his December 1997/January 1998 cover treatment.
Smith said that she and the Bad Boy Records founder had a heated disagreement over his shoot, which was inspired by the poster for the 1978 Warren Beatty film “Heaven Can Wait.”
“Combs wanted to see the Vibe covers before they went to press. It wasn’t our policy to show covers before publication,” recalled Smith. “After I told him no, we heard that he planned to come to our office and force us to show him what we’d chosen — and to make us choose something else if he didn’t like what he saw.”
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When the rapper allegedly called the veteran journalist’s office shortly after, “It was then that Combs told me, as I’ve retold hundreds of times over the years, that he would see me ‘dead in the trunk of a car.’”
“Not missing a beat, I told him he needed to take that threat back.”
According to Smith, he responded, “‘Take what back?’” and offered a “vile laugh” as he told her “‘[Expletive] you.’”
“I know where you are right now. Right on Lexington,” he followed.
After Smith reached out to her attorney and threatened legal action, Combs quickly faxed over an apology.
Smith went on to reveal that the magazine’s servers were stolen from the office not too long after her argument with Combs. And since the completed issue was saved on one of the servers, it was suspected that Diddy’s label was behind the theft.
Vibe managed to salvage the issue, however, thanks to their art director, who had the issue saved on a disk.
Diddy’s team did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Smith’s story comes amid Diddy’s ongoing legal issues as the disgraced music mogul faces several lawsuits from nearly eight different parties charging him with sexual assault and sex trafficking.
Model Adria English is the latest person to hit the “I Need a Girl” rapper with a suit claiming he “groomed” her into sex trafficking.
