Rising star and local rapper London Dior was heading home from the recording studio early Monday morning when the car she was traveling in collided with a second vehicle in the intersection of Suitland Parkway and Forestville Road.
According to US. Park Police, the driver of the second vehicle is recovering but the three occupants of the other car were killed instantly when that car erupted into flames.
Family members say 21-year-old Dasia Reds, who went by the stage name London Dior, was traveling with her boyfriend and another male friend.
"I'm still messed up over it, it hasn't hit me yet," said Miguel Thomas.
Miguel, or Vursa, runs Versus Visualz. He not only produced London Dior's music videos, he discovered the rapper when she was just 14 years old and a student at Duke Ellington University. He is more than her manager.
"I'm her brother. I'm putting a tribute together for her and my brother is helping me out because there I just have so much of her; from her very first performance (at 16 years old), to her biggest show (opening for Rick Ross a few weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio), to us just chillin' and rapping," he said.
He scrolls through scores of pictures and videos, including some silly home videos, of the group as he reminisces about his friend, her legacy, and her art.
"She had a few different trends at first until she started to really come into her own," Thomas remembered. "She was like a rose that blossomed but it didn't just blossom one color, it had a lot of different colors in it because whoever she was with she would make them shine."
He said the relationship she had with her mother was like none other.
"It was more than just mother-daughter, they were best friends and when they were together it was magical. Where she came from, it was no walk in the park, so she always wanted to help her mother, sister, and her father; like when she made it she wanted to bring everybody with her. She accomplished a lot in her career and was just at the cusp of getting out of here, when it was taken away," he said.
