Jazmine Hughes
Appearances
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Usher got down on one knee, and he was, what, 13, 14 years old, and allegedly he was singing directly into the adult female employees of that office, into their eyes, holding their hands, doing this crowd work. Exactly. While he was a teen, while he was a kid. And I think I asked him, I was like, how did you know to do that? What did you do? And he was like, oh, I saw it on TV.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Well, we can say what he did learn. I mean, Vanessa, I have your story pulled up right here. Asher says, Puff introduced me to a totally different set of shit, sex specifically. Sex is so hot in the industry, man. God, I wish celebrities still talk like this into a microphone. You say, when he was in New York, he lived at Puffy's house in Scarsdale. Quote, there was always girls around.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
You'd open a door and see somebody doing it or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen. And then he goes on to say that he never busted a nut until he was 19. I don't know. I don't know. Imagine the fact checker being like, excuse me, can you give me some proof that you never came until you were 19 years old?
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
It's sort of like the sexual equivalent of being like, I tried marijuana, but I never inhaled. He's like, I fucked, but I never got to the good part at the end. Okay, Ash, whatever he says. And then obviously he goes on to say that he had three girlfriends at once later in your conversation.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I mean, one characteristic or a detail to know about Usher that showed up both in Vanessa's story and my own is this ideal of fatherhood, right? This idea of fatherhood and having an older man in your life guide you. Usher's father wasn't really in the picture. They sort of have this relationship. But Vanessa, you know, in your story, he mentions that his dad wasn't around. He eschews weddings.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
He eschews commitment because he's a kid. When I talked to him 20 years later, all he wanted to do was talk about being a father. He loves being a father. He loves being a partner. And I believe it was earlier this year at the BET awards, he got some lifetime achievement award. And this was the award ceremony in which his mic cut out.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And then there was all these conspiracy theories that Didi knew the Usher was going to say something, manufactured something, whatever, whatever. Usher has spoken at length about his father and also considering the love he has for his children and for his partnership. He said to me something like, Thinking in plural is something that he's never had to do before, something he takes great pride in.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I think that we can take some of that information and apply it to Justin Bieber. And unfortunately, I think we can apply some of it to Diddy as well, where he just wants a male figure either in his life telling him what to do or someone that he... can be a mentor to before he had his five kids, four kids that he has now.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
right allegedly allegedly allegedly yeah he's in prison he's very much in prison but i will say so with my story again the conceit was that we were on a cute date it was for a summer issue of a magazine supposed to be fun fun fun what do we do with diddy do we look at usher as a perpetrator or as a victim he's definitely a victim i think that is inarguable but
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Do we know if and how he was perpetrating anything? And so my editor and I discussed how to bring this up because of course you never want to re-traumatize or feel as if you're casting blame.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And so on one of my followup calls with Usher, I think I asked him something along the lines of, now that you're a father and you have kids and you look back at your life, considering your stardom started so early, is there anything that you'd want to change? Is there anything you look back on and you regret? And he said no. And I think I pressed him.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I was just like, when you think about your time in New York, your first time living away from your mother, going to flavor camp. I don't know if I used Diddy's name, but I made it very clear that this is who I was talking about. And he said no. He was in step with this nearly ecclesiastical way of speaking that he does. God brought me down the path. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I don't regret a single thing. That's all I could get. Yeah. Wow.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I would ghostwrite this book as long as it came with a whatever. Oh, as long as I could go into the witness protection program because Diddy is everywhere. As long as I get relocated to a beautiful, warm country with a new name and a new identity. Yeah, I would do it. Right.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
They can find me in either New York Magazine or The New Yorker. Thank you so much.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
OK, so the entire conceit of this interview with Usher was that we were going on a date. And I, as I write in the story, I am a lesbian until someone's like, do you want to go on a date with Usher? And on this date, although I was sitting in front of the most handsome man I have ever seen, he was staring truly deep into my eyes.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And I did not realize that my eyes and my pussy were so connected until I met Usher. But then he was just talking about himself. And I was like, oh, my God, Jasmine, you've done it again. You were on a date with a man. Usher is just some guy at the end of the day, at the end of the day. But it was certainly much more controlled than anything that you got from him.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I mean, we sat with his publicist right next to us in a single room. There were no people. second, third, fourth locations. It's such a romantic date when the publicist is sitting right there. When the publicist is there as well as a documentary film crew who records his every movement. And I kept squirming around sort of awkwardly because you know I wasn't wearing a bra.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I was like, you know what, Jazz? Go for it. But then I would turn my head and like hit a boom mic or something. It was very date-like in that it was incredibly awkward. And I hate to say it, he's very swaggy. Or I guess the kids these days would say he has riz. He just turns it on and you are completely entranced. Was that how you felt about him?
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Or was he sort of an annoying, not kid, but a little more sophomoric?
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Because how old was Justin Bieber when you interviewed him?
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
It's so American, but it's also profoundly Atlanta. You were in the club on Saturday, so you can go to church on Sunday. And I recognize this the first time I saw his shows. It was like going to a strip club times 10, just like plucked from heaven. If God is into that shit, then he should go to the Usher concert. Yeah.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I first saw him in concert last year, last November, in Las Vegas, towards the end of the residency. And when I saw him, I wept. Not like I was screaming and crying like the Beatles. I cried like I was in church, like someone was putting hands on me. And I just sat there entranced. Wow.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And at the time of my life, mostly because in addition to Usher, there were also just like dozens of beautiful, scantily clad women roller skating and gyrating and stripping and turning around. And so after like two hours of this fantasia, Usher stops and he just says, I just want to take a second to talk about, you know, everything that's going on in the world right now.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And we are all children of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And none of this would be possible without God. And he like bowed his head and maybe we had a little moment of prayer. And I was like, this is truly the most Atlanta shit ever. Sex, God, plus roller skating. And so it's funny that he's like...
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
He has remained himself at the core, and I'm so glad that your story was right after Confessions, because even though it's been 20 years, it's still the main thing people ask him about, right? Like, we had to talk about Chili, even though, you know, who wants to talk about an ex from 20, 25 years ago?
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
We talked about Lil Jon, because this is the bulk of his catalog, and this continues to be the stuff that people know him for, even though he's continued to make work.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
The first time I got fingered, yeah, I was playing. I'll never forget. Every time. Yeah. I get fingered for the first five years of my life. I hurt little John and Usher. I fully remember being in eighth grade, being at the one party I was allowed to go into. It's so intractable, not just from our adolescence or our puberty, but for first, at least for me, our first brushes with sex.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
Usher is, for me, again, like a card-carrying lesbian. Usher is so sexy. Part of the reason why I think I got this story because my pitch was insane. I think my pitch was like a thousand words long and I was like, I fucking
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
love usher so much i think about him all the time because again he has been my conception of what sex if not even what sex is but when i was first listening to usher i was like he has something to do with sex i know it sounds something like this or it feels something like this
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And so I think that he is a devastatingly attractive man, but I do think the reason why he's coming around a little bit... I don't think we have a lot of triple threats anymore, double threats. People are not great dancers.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I mean, when Normani put out that video for Motivation five years ago, I still think about it every day because it was just like, oh my God, people can sing and dance at the same time, number one. But I also think that Usher, any of this stuff, this sort of like... really macho, misogynist, oh, I hate women, I'm going to make women beg for me.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
I think that Usher represents the opposite of that when we see the rise of incels, where these men are really hating women and sort of taking out all their agita against them. Usher loves women. Usher gets such a boner from the idea that women love him. And he talked to me so much about catering to women and making them feel special.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
And I just, I don't know if there's anybody else offering that up right now.
Infamous
Usher's Confessions (feat. Diddy)
There you go. That's crazy. He still, why Wednesday? I don't know.