I’ll admit it, I was wrong! My bad. Last week, we learned that Usher and Justin Bieber got into a “heated exchange” at Beyonce and Jay-Z’s Oscar after-party. I sort of defended Usher, saying that I didn’t believe that Usher would have started any confrontation, and that Justin was probably the aggressor. I also shrugged off the rumor that the heated exchange was related in any way to Sean Combs, who is currently sitting in prison for only a small fraction of the crimes he committed against women and men. Turns out, Usher has some f–ked up ideas about Sean Combs, and who knows, Combs probably was the reason why Usher and Justin Bieber got into it at an Oscar party.

Usher is speaking out about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ influence. The “OMG” singer addressed the allegations against the music mogul, who is currently serving a 50-month sentence for prostitution-related charges, emphasizing Combs’ impact as a businessman. When asked to play a word association game in a recent interview for Forbes, Usher (born Usher Raymond IV) was asked what came to mind when he heard Combs’ name.

“Legacy,” Usher told the outlet, later adding, “In many ways, I think certain people are prosecuted and maybe not recognized for the greatness that they offer. 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.”

“I’m not saying that every man is perfect,” he continued. “I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws. 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 businessmen, for us as people who have transitioned culture and ideas into something that’s tangible.”

And that impact is something Usher can’t ignore. As he put it, “So many people benefitted from what he created and I acknowledge that.”

Noting that Combs was “a mentor” who reminded him of a “really, really hard teacher,” Usher, 47, said that he was able to learn from him “in real time” as his career was taking off.

Today, he still finds Combs’ influence significant, crediting him with “being able to find ways to monetize culture and create something that was not just Black or white. It was colorless. It was green.”

“That’s who I see that man as,” he explained. “And that’s what I choose to remember. 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.”

[From E! News]

This is so utterly unnecessary from Usher from a PR perspective and moral perspective. Like, just shooting himself in the d–k for no damn reason and letting people know that he doesn’t give a f–k about Combs’ many victims (including poor Cassie, whose bravery is astounding). It reminds me so much of what several of Harvey Weinstein’s collaborators said years ago too, like their biggest f–king concerns were about their artistic legacies being tied to a rampant predator. “Sure, Harvey assaulted, harassed and terrorized hundreds of women over the course of decades, but he produced some good movies too, silver linings!” Don’t play point-counterpoint about this kind of abuse, even when it’s about your guy, the one who mentored you. So is this why Usher and Bieber got into it at Beyonce’s party?

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red, Backgrid.