Usher Defends Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Legacy
This story is about sexual harassment.
As you may know, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Usher go way back.
Usher was introduced to Combs at a young age in the early 1990s when he first signed a record deal. Combs – who is nine years older than Usher – mentored the R&B star and produced his self-titled debut album in 1994.
In the past, Usher has spoken about the year he spent living with Combs in New York City when he was just 13 years old, saying more than once that he saw “amazing things happen” during that time.
“I got a chance to see other things. I went there to see a way of life — and I saw it,” he told Howard Stern in 2016. “I don’t know if I can have fun and understand what I’m watching.
Since then, more has come to light about Diddy’s alleged behavior. Beginning in late 2023, the mogul was hit with multiple allegations of rape, assault, and harassment that spanned 20 years. He denied these allegations. In September 2024, she was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, fraud and transportation for prostitution.
Less than a year later, in July 2025, he was found guilty of two counts of transportation for the purpose of prostitution. He was acquitted of the most serious charges. The former rapper is currently incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey, serving a 50-month sentence.
Now, Usher has opened up about his decades-long relationship with Combs — and explained why he has “nothing bad to say” about his disgraced former mentor.
In a new interview of Enterprise ZoneForbes senior writer Jabari Young played a word match with Usher, and when he said “Sean Combs,” the R&B singer’s one-word response was: “Legacy.”
This prompted Jabari to bring up an interview Usher did around 2015, where he said he “knew better” than to be distracted by certain things that happened in NYC when he was young, saying: “I could have gotten into a lot of things, but I had a plan, I was focused on it.”
Regarding Combs, Jabari used these quotes to show that Usher was able to avoid “a lot of bad things that we obviously know are coming [Diddy’s] the story today,” which prompted Usher to clarify his stance on everything that has happened.
“This may be controversial … we cannot ignore the fact of history,” he began. “In many ways, I think certain people are persecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they have to offer.”
“I have nothing bad to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world saw and how he spoke badly,” he said.
Delivering a speech about “not all people are perfect,” Usher said he could not, “with any sense of humanity,” ignore Combs’ “legacy” and “priceless contributions” to business and culture, saying: “There are a lot of people who benefited from what he created. And I accept that. And that’s why I see him as a legacy.”
When asked specifically about the “time” he spent with Combs as his “mentor,” Usher went on to praise the rapper’s cultural influence and compared him to a “real, really, tough teacher” that he learned from “in real time.”
“That’s what I see that man is, and that’s what I choose to remember,” he explained. “I put respect in his name because I realized that what I learned as a businessman, before I even understood what business is, happened because of seeing the amazing things he was able to do and the way he positioned himself as a businessman.”
