Usher defends R&B against Diddy’s claims the genre is ‘dead’
Usher, the R&B megastar isn’t having the slander against R&B.
Diddy has been causing major conversation the past couple of days, all with one tweet. “Who killed R&B?” the music mogul tweeted out.
This quickly caused a firestorm online. Lots of people replied, letting him know they disagreed and even mentioned some of their favorite artists who they felt were keeping it alive.
There were also several artists, particularly those who fall under the R&B category, who spoke out. Atlanta’s own, Usher, made sure to make his feelings known. “When I hear people say stuff like, ‘What happened to R&B?’ or ‘R&B is dead,’ it’s not,” Usher said. “You just don’t understand the basis of It. Maybe I need a reminder or 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 wasn’t the only thing Usher had to say. “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 and beneficiary of it. You know, the source that is R&B created the breath of life that was breathed into hip-hop. 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. Like nah, it’s been there. It’s gon’ stay there,” Usher said.
Seeing all of the conversations he caused online, Diddy hopped on Instagram live and started interacting with fans and fellow musicians alike.
It’s been a few days since all of this transpired and Diddy took to Twitter to clarify the point of his initial question was not to disrespect anyone. “This conversation was out of love and me purposely wanting to bring attention to R&B!”
Sounds like the masses believe R&B is alive and well.
About the Author
Vicky Ro is the Entertainment Reporter for Access Atlanta. When it comes to the latest in music, film, reality television (and all things entertainment), you can count on Vicky to keep you up to date! Vicky's goal is to create fun and informative content that everyone can enjoy - from a casual entertainment consumer to the pop culture obsessed!
