In this episode, Natalie and Vanessa sit down with Jazmine Hughes, celebrated writer and cultural commentator, to dive into her deep admiration for R&B legend Usher, plus the questions around his relationship with Diddy. From "Yeah!" to Confessions and beyond, Jazmine unpacks Usher's enduring impact on music, pop culture, and Diddy's current legal troubles. Click ‘Subscribe’ at the top of the Infamous show page on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. To connect with Infamous's creative team, plus access behind the scenes content, join the community at Campsidemedia.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
This episode contains candid and explicit conversations about sex. So if you're listening with children around, you may want to wait until later.
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From Sony Music Entertainment and Campsite Media, this is Infamous. I'm Natalie Robomed. And I'm Vanessa Gregoriotis. So when I was growing up, one singer really soundtracked my middle school existence. Usher. Whether it was Yeah or My Boo or Confessions Part Two, Usher was everywhere in the early 2000s.
You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing his silky smooth tenor crooning over an R&B beat. Usher's music was this stomach-churning mix of sex and love and longing, one that made you feel something somewhere.
Since then, Usher's never quite topped the peak of his 2004 album, Confessions, but he's since come back around in our culture as a nostalgia act, first with a Las Vegas residency, and then as the halftime performer at the Super Bowl.
The National Football League welcomes you to the Apple Music Super Bowl 58 Halftime Show.
The Apple Music Administration advises the following performances rated U may cause singing, dancing, sweating, gyrating, and possible relationship issues.
But there's a dark speck on his lover boy image, one that's pretty uncomfortable to talk about. And that's the fact that when he was a teenager, Usher was sent to live with Diddy to learn about the music business. And ever since Diddy's indictment on sex trafficking charges in September 2024, Usher's connection to Diddy has been back in the spotlight.
Now, to be clear, Usher has not been accused of anything in relation to the Diddy case. Diddy himself has denied all accusations against him and pleaded not guilty. He's currently in jail in New York after being denied bail. But Vanessa herself actually wrote the first major profile of Usher in which he discussed his relationship with Diddy.
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Chapter 2: How did Usher's relationship with Diddy influence his career?
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.
I don't regret a single thing. That's all I could get. Yeah. Wow.
And that may be the way that he has metabolized it.
Yeah.
Right? Those were hard times, man. He said to me, these were the hardest times of my motherfucking life. There I am. I'm in New York. I just got to... got a deal, right? Like I got a man up and deal by myself, by myself, 14 or 15 years old. So it may be that's how he metabolized it.
And I don't know, when we were, you know, talking about doing this interview, Natalie said, there's only a few weeks before Usher gets canceled.
Well, we need to be explicit. He's not been accused of anything as it relates to Diddy. And we'll see. But I think what they're undeniably is, is that there's something tainting this, lover boy image now. This connection with Diddy brings a darkness, a dark cloud that's really hard for his positive, light, sexy, holy R&B to shine through.
And yet they did book him for the brought into these questions, but then also focus on what happened after he was the age of majority. But look, right now, all of this that we're talking about, it's only speculation. Usher himself has said, the day that I decide to write a book and tell my story and show the world what I've been through and the things I've seen, you're going to be blown away.
So I think maybe we just have to wait to that day. My God, I think Jasmine would maybe ghostwrite this book.
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