Sean “Diddy” Combs allegedly taunted a female Vibe magazine editor-in-chief and told she would end up “dead in the trunk of a car” after she declined to provide him approval on a cover photo shoot.
Danyel Smith, the ex editor-in-chief of Vibe, wrote an essay detailing never-before-known secrets about the music mogul, additionally threats, intimidation, and menacing misconduct.
In the 1st-person account, Smith expressed her “insidious” interactions with Combs that she said left her fearing for her life — and “broke my brain” — in the wake of the homicides of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.
In 1997, Smith was thrust into a professional nightmare with Combs during preparations for Vibe’s December 1997/January 1998 double matter.
Smith recalled Combs’ insistence on seeing the magazine covers before publication — an unusual request that she refused.
Smith recounted: “It wasn’t our policy to show covers before publication. When I told him no, he threatened me, saying he would see me ‘dead in the trunk of a car.’”
In spite of her request that Combs retract the threat, he allegedly responded, “I know where you are right now. Right on Lexington.”
The magazine’s publication process was further compromised when Combs visited the Vibe offices in New York with two security personnel, where he searched via cubicles and offices.
Vibe’s staff, feeling threatened, worked together to ensure Smith’s safety by shuttling their boss Smith from office to office.
Including to the scandal over the covers, Smith said the servers inside the Vibe office containing crucial elements of the publication were stolen.
Rumors spread that movers from Bad Boy Records, Combs’ own label, might have orchestrated the theft.
“The whole memory had been removed from my mind, like the servers that were stolen from the offices,” Smith said, indicating how deeply the experience had affected her.