The hitmaking singer reminds Diddy that he’s a “beneficiary” of R&B. “There would be no Hip Hop if there were not R&B,” said Usher.
The “Is R&B dead?” conversation isn’t finished just yet. Sean “Diddy” Combs unleashed a beast when he questioned the current state of the genre, but it wasn’t a discussion necessarily launched by the mogul. Music lovers have been debating R&B influence in the industry as compared to its dominating years in the 1980s to 2000s. There are plenty of crooners belting out jams that are deserving of praise, but Diddy didn’t believe that R&B was alive and well. He later clarified his statements, but the backlash was already underway.
In his recent chat with Bevy Smith, Usher touched on the hot topic and joined the ranks of those who don’t believe R&B has breathed its final breath.
Jerritt Clark / Stringer / Getty Images
“When I hear people say stuff like ‘What happened to R&B?’ or ‘R&B is dead’…it’s not. You just don’t understand the basis of it. Matter fact, maybe I need a reminder, an understanding of what it is. How can something come out 20-some-odd years ago, and then all of a sudden have a resurgence in a way that people just wanna talk about it, sing it, enjoy it? That’s because it’s classic. That’s ‘Superstar.’ That’s R&B.”
“That’s what R&B is. R&B is timeless, it ain’t gonna go away,” Usher continued. “So, when I do hear people, even like Puff saying ‘R&B is dead,’ he sounds nuts to me. It sounds crazy, you know, especially knowing he was a pioneer in understanding and beneficiary of it. You know, the source that is R&B created the breath of life that was breathed into Hip Hop.”
“There wouldn’t be—there would be no Hip Hop if there were not R&B. So it’s blasphemous to hear people say anything—especially Hip Hop cats—to say anything about R&B. It’s like, nah, it’s been there. It’s gon’ stay there.”
Listen to Usher with Bevy Smith below.