Sean “Diddy” Combs
Usher saw ‘strange things’ in his mansion
His statements appear in a new light: Usher (l.) once lived with Sean “Diddy” Combs.
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At 14, Usher spent a year in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ mansion. Previous quotes cast the allegations against Diddy in a new light.
Five sexual assault lawsuits, raids on his properties in Miami and LA: rapper, producer and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs, 54, is currently in the firing line of the American justice system. No wonder a previous interview by R’n’B superstar Usher, 45, according to Daily Mail now causing a stir once again. In the conversation, Usher talks about his time as a 14-year-old in Diddy’s New York mansion. And he talks about “pretty strange” things he experienced back then.
“Trial internship” in Diddy’s realm
The wild 90s: Rap superstars like Sean “Diddy” Combs aka Puff Daddy dominated the international charts. In their shadow, promising talents like Usher were just beginning to emerge. For successful producer and Usher’s label boss Antonio “LA” Reid, 67, it made sense at the time to first send newcomer Usher into an apprenticeship. The location of the “taster internship”: Diddy’s house in New York, where Usher lived for a whole year.
Usher’s year at the “Puffy Flavor Camp”
In August 2016, Usher described what he experienced with and with Diddy in an article Interview with cult presenter Howard Stern, 70. Looking down slightly embarrassed, he first confirms that “LA” Reid sent him to the “Puffy Flavor Camp”. “I lived with Puffy for a year – in the ’90s. Do you understand what that means?” Stern wants to know more: “Does this mean that there were constant women and orgies in Diddy’s apartment?” But Usher first weighs it down: “Not really… It was strange. I had the opportunity to see a few things… I was there to get to know the lifestyle. But I don’t know if I could even understand at the time, what I saw.”
“Some very strange things”
When it comes to women, Stern’s co-host wants to know exactly: “So no women came to you and offered themselves?” And Usher replies: “That’s not what I said. What I said is: Some very strange things happened – and I didn’t always understand them.” Usher also says that other industry superstars came and went from Puffy’s apartment. Specifically, he names stars such as The Notorious BIG, who was murdered in 1997, rapper Lil Kim, 49, or the queens of R’n’B Faith Evans, 50, and Mary J. Blige, 53.
He would ban his own kids from camp time
Did the young Usher have to wash up at Diddy’s or could he stay up and party with the stars until four in the morning, Stern wants to know. “I could join in the party if I wanted to,” says Usher, “in fact, sometimes I stayed up later than they did.” Back in 2004, Usher told Rolling Stone magazine that Diddy had introduced him to a completely different world – especially that of sex. Back then, he says: “There were always girls there. You would open a door and see someone doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen.” After all, Usher wouldn’t send his own children to such a camp: “Absolutely not!” he replies vehemently.