Music mogul who sent Usher to live with Diddy shared the real reason why he arranged it
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Brian Stukes/WireImage/Getty Images
While Usher is now a household name in the music industry, he was once a up and coming star needed some help finding his sound.
At the age of 14, Usher was signed to the LaFace record label, which was headed by former X Factor judge L.A. Reid at the time.
Just a few years prior to being signed in 1994, fellow hip-hop star Sean 'Diddy' Combs had been signed by Uptown Records.
Diddy is nine years older than 'Burn' hitmaker Usher, and with this in mind and him already having a few more years experience in the music industry, Reid decided to ship Usher off to New York.
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Usher has previously discussed what it was like being so young and having attended the notorious 'Puffy Flavor Camp' - a so-called mentorship program run by Diddy.
Speaking to Howard Stern back in 2016, he explained that he'd lived with the 'I'll Be Missing You' hitmaker for a year.
During this time, Usher claimed that he'd 'saw some things', however, he remained schtum on what the things were.
"It was curious. I got the chance to see some things," Usher shared to Stern. "I went there to see the lifestyle. And I saw it. I don't know if I could indulge and understand really what I was I looking it."
Usher's interview resurfaced in recent months in light of the allegations Diddy is facing.
The rapper is currently behind bars in New York, where he'll remain until his trial starts in May 2025.
In his 2016 memoir titled Sing To Me: My Story Of Making Music, Finding Magic And Searching For Who's Next, Reid addressed the topic.
In it, Reid said he wanted Usher to sound 'edgier', so sent him Diddy's way.
"Usher was fifteen years old, but nothing about him ever seemed juvenile," he wrote, as per MailOnline.
"I was turning him over to the wildest party guy in the country at an age when I still needed to get his mother's permission, but he went to New York for almost a year.
"I didn't know whether I was being irresponsible or having an epiphany. I would never be sure flavor camp worked until he came back."
But Reid seemingly got what he wanted and apparently the 'camp' gave Usher the traits he'd hoped for.
"Puffy had done exactly what I wanted him to do for Usher," he recalled. "He gave this little kid a hip-hop-infused R&B sound full of bad boy swagger."