Here’s Madonna and Dennis Rodman on the cover of Vibe magazine for the June/July 1994 issue which was never published, as founder Quincy Jones decided he did not want a caucasian female on the cover of his “urban” magazine at the time.
After the photo shoot, she conducted a 2-hour interview and they hooked up for the first time that day. As Madonna owns the rights to many of her photo shoots since around 1984, a couple of photos from the shoot of Madonna solo later appeared in the official 1995 calendar.
In “The Autobiography of Quincy Jones” (2001), he recalled:
“On an early issue we had a real problem with a cover that had featured the Beastie Boys, whose most recent album had been delayed, and then didn’t perform up to expectations commercially. We were only beginning to find out then how vital covers are to magazines’ success. The next one, which Jon Van Meter had already shot, featured Madonna and Dennis Rodman. I said, ‘Over my dead body, because it makes it look as though we’re pandering, that we’re not sure Vibe can be a black magazine and make it.’ We’d misfired on the Beasties, so I was adamant, though technically Van Meter did not report to me and I had backed off on editorial matters after my initial involvement. It wasn’t about Madonna or Dennis: it was about our not having been around long enough to establish a personality as an urban magazine. Van Meter was furious: he was gone after that…“When I called Madonna as a friend to explain that it wasn’t at all personal, she took it personal and got an attitude about it. She said, ‘Quincy, you and I could change the world together if we wanted to. See you around, pal.’ Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve spoken since. Her publicist Liz Rosenberg then called Liz Smith, and before you knew it there was an item in Liz’s column reporting that ‘Quincy killed the cover because it showed a mixed couple.’ Right. Me, of all people—pleeze!”
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