Usher appears to hold positive sentiments toward Sean “Diddy” Combs, focusing on the music mogul’s influence on the industry while avoiding direct discussion of his legal troubles.
Speaking in an interview for the Forbes series The Enterprise Zone, the 47-year-old singer-songwriter reflected on the impact the Bad Boy Records founder, 56, has had as a businessman, choosing not to address the crimes he has been convicted of.
“I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer,” Usher remarked. “I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs. My experience was not what the world has seen and how he’s been, you know, misrepresented.”
“I’m not saying that every man is perfect. I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws,” he noted. “But I can’t with any sense of humanity not recognize the valuable contributions that this man made for us as Black entrepreneurs, for us as people who transition culture and ideas into something that’s tangible and becomes a business. So many people benefited from what he created. And I acknowledge that, and that’s why I see him as legacy.”
The eight-time Grammy Award winner went on to describe “Puff” as a mentor figure, likening him to a “really, really hard teacher.”
“I think that the idea of the level of discipline came with that time in business, especially in an era that was trying to prove itself culturally in hip-hop,” he reflected. “Now, you can’t turn on the television and not see the influence of hip-hop. The people who actually made that appropriate and are the forefathers are people like Sean Combs.”
“Not just in the great times that they had, musically, but in the idea of being able to find ways to monetize culture and create something that was not just black or white, it was colorless. It was green,” he continued. “That’s who I see that man as. And that’s what I choose to remember.”
Usher further explained why he continues to “put respect on his [Diddy’s] name,” crediting him for lessons he learned early in his career.
“I realized that, you know, what I learned as a businessman before I even understood what business was came as a result of seeing the incredible things that he was able to do, and the way he positioned himself as a businessman,” Usher shared. “There are trials and tribulations that come with the pressures of success and power. But what we choose to do with it is what I hope that you see with me and hopefully other people that I’m involved with, right?”
In July, Combs was convicted on two counts of transporting individuals to engage in prostitution. He was sentenced to a four-year prison term in October and is currently serving his sentence at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey.
