VIBE’s Former Top Editor Danyel Smith Claims Diddy Threatened, Stalked Her Over Magazine Cover

Sean “Diddy” Combs and Danyel Smith, Editor-In-Chief of Vibe Magazine pictured in 2006. | Source: Carley Margolis / Getty

More troubling accusations against disgraced hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs are coming to light. This time around, he is accused of sending death threats against a former Editor-In-Chief at VIBE Magazine.

In a personal essay for The New York Times Magazine published on July 12, Danyel Smith wrote about choosing Combs as the cover star of VIBE’s December/January 1997 issue. The intended split covers would feature different themes: “one with heavenly signifiers and another with hellish ones.” The shoot was inspired by the 1978 film, Heaven Can Wait.

Smith claims that after the shoot, Combs requested to see the covers, which was against the magazine’s policy. After denying his request, Smith heard that the rapper “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.”

Fearing Combs’ actions, Smith said that VIBE employees made a plan to keep her safe. Sure enough, Combs entered the office with security guards, asking the receptionist about her whereabouts. Smith narrowly escaped into a taxi with the proofs of the covers.

Combs allegedly called the office the next day. This time, he issued a threat to Smith, she wrote.

“He wanted to see the covers. I was still on message: It’s not what we do,” recalled Smith. “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.”

When Smith threatened to call her lawyer if he didn’t take the threat back, she claims Combs told her, “I know where you are right now. Right on Lexington.”

Smith did receive a faxed apology from Combs two hours later after she called her lawyer. But the story doesn’t end there.

Shortly after the incident, someone (allegedly employees from Combs’ Bad Boy Records) stole the magazine’s servers, including the server that held the entire issue. Despite the efforts, the issue went to press (thanks to the mag’s art director holding it on a disk).

This marks the latest accusation against Combs since last fall, when ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura sued him for domestic abuse (corroborated by surveillance footage of the rapper assaulting her in 2016).

Combs, via his reps, refused to comment on Smith’s claims.

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