Usher opens up about why he has no negative feelings toward Diddy

All I'm going to say is... that's highly suspicious. Usher Raymond offering respect to Sean “Diddy” Combs like it's a participation trophy at a family birthday party raises some serious eyebrows.

In a recent interview with "Forbes’ The Enterprise Zone", the ever‑smooth singer, Usher, 47, attempted to explain why he still has a great amount of respect for the man the world can’t seem to quit.

Diddy, 56, who is currently serving a 50‑month sentence after being convicted on prostitution‑related charges that have people, at best, confused and, at worst, permanently calling for justice tours.

During the conversation, senior writer Jabari Young tried some casual word association with Usher about influential people in his life. When it came to Diddy, Usher didn’t go with “creative force”, didn’t pick “mentor”, didn’t sigh and whisper “yikes”. No. Usher said one word: “Legacy”.

Now hold up. I know what you’re thinking, legacy? Really? After everything? Usher then referenced an old interview from around 2015 where he said he “knew better” than to get distracted by certain things while on tour.

Young pushed back gently, noting Usher had seemingly avoided “a lot of the negativity that we obviously know shows up in [Diddy’s] story today.”

And here’s where things get interesting. Usher didn’t flinch. He doubled down. His admittedly “controversial” take was that “we can’t ignore the reality of history”.

But here’s the part that has my eyebrow permanently raised: “In many ways, I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognised for the greatness that they offer,” Usher said.

“I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world has seen and how he’s been misrepresented.”

When Usher was a teenager, Diddy played a significant role in his rise to stardom.

After discovering him, Diddy worked with the young R&B singer as a producer and mentor during the early stages of his career, including having Usher live with him in New York for about a year when he was around 13 or 14.

Usher has spoken in past interviews about seeing “very curious things” while living in Combs’ home, suggesting that the environment was intense and exposed him to adult behaviour at a young age. 

In interviews from the mid‑2000s and in a resurfaced Howard Stern clip, Usher acknowledged that being around Combs exposed him to aspects of the music industry lifestyle, including parties and adult situations that he “didn’t necessarily understand at the time.”

He has also stated he wouldn’t send his own children into that environment.

Yet we're going with the word, legacy? Okay.