Usher made a rare comment about Sean “Diddy” Combs, praising the music producer’s legacy — despite his recent scandals.
During a recent interview with Forbes’ The Enterprise Zone, Usher, 47, was asked to do word association and mentioned “legacy” for his Combs, 56, who is currently serving a 50-month prison sentence after being convicted on two prostitution-related charges.
Journalist Jabari Young brought up a 2015 interview where Usher spoke about how he “knew better” than to get distracted by certain things while on tour. Young followed that up by noting that Usher managed to avoid “a lot of the negativity that we obviously know shows up in [Diddy’s] story today.”
Usher later offered a “controversial” take that “we can’t ignore the reality of the history.”
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“In many ways, I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer,” Usher explained. “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.”
While reflecting on their decades-long bond, Usher referred to Combs as “a mentor” who was similar to a “really, really hard teacher” that he was able to learn from “in real time.”
“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 businessmen, for us as people who transition culture and ideas into something that’s tangible and becomes business,” he continued. “So many people benefited from what he created. And I acknowledge that. And that’s why I see him as [a] legacy.”
Usher concluded: “I put respect on his name because I realized that 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 that he positioned himself as a businessman.”
Diddy previously worked as a talent director at Uptown Records before founding his own record label, Bad Boy Records. He worked with major artists including the Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher and more.
Diddy was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution in September 2024. Diddy pleaded not guilty after his arrest and denied all the allegations against him.
According to the indictment, Diddy allegedly hosted “elaborate and produced sex performances” called “freak offs.” The documents claimed that law enforcement officials found “‘freak off’ supplies — including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant” — when they raided Diddy’s Miami and Beverly Hills homes in March 2024 before his arrest.
Prosecutors further alleged in their indictment that Diddy “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct.”
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Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo denied the accusations — some of which dated back to 2009 — after the mogul’s arrest.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Agnifilo told Us Weekly at the time. “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children and working to uplift the Black community.”
Agnifilo added: “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit, Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
In July 2025, a jury found Diddy guilty on two counts of transportation but acquitted him on the more serious charges of trafficking and racketeering. He was subsequently sentenced to 50 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. Diddy was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine.
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