The truе reason music mogul L.A. Reid sent Usher to live with Diddy at just 15 years old has comе to light
Music mogul L.A. Reid sent a teenage Usher to live with Sean “Diddy” Combs, despite admitting he had concerns about being “irresponsible” in doing so.
Reid signed Usher to LaFace Records in 1993 when the singer was just 14. Although they released his debut single, Call Me a Mack, Reid struggled to find a follow-up track that felt “compelling enough” to release.
Hoping to give Usher an “edgy” appeal, Reid turned to his friend, P. Diddy—then known as Puffy—for guidance. In his 2016 memoir, Reid recalled asking, “Can you take this kid and teach him your swagger? Give him some of your flavor?” As part of this plan, Usher was sent to New York for what Reid described as a ‘Puffy Flavour Camp.’
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Usher later admitted that his time with Diddy exposed him to “pretty wild” experiences he didn’t fully understand at the time. He also shared that he would never allow his own children to go through the same thing.
Meanwhile, Diddy is currently facing charges related to rackеteering conspiracy, sеx trafficking, and transporting individuals for prоstitution.
Diddy has denied the charges against him and consistently maintained his innocence, with his trial set to begin in May next year. His relationship with Usher has come under renewed scrutiny amid these allegations.
In his memoir, L.A. Reid shared that he first met Diddy the same year he signed Usher. Impressed by Diddy’s musical talent, Reid introduced him to Clive Davis to ensure he had the resources to establish Bad Boy Records.
In his book Sing To Me: My Story Of Making Music, Finding Magic And Searching For Who’s Next, Reid wrote: “Although Usher was just 15, nothing about him felt juvenile. I handed him over to the wildest party guy in the country at a time when I still needed his mother’s permission. Usher ended up spending nearly a year in New York.”
Reid admitted he was unsure whether sending Usher to Diddy was a stroke of genius or recklessness: “I didn’t know if I was being irresponsible or having an еpiphany. I wouldn’t know if the flavor camp worked until Usher returned.”
Usher reflected on his time with Diddy during a 2016 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, saying, “I saw things … but I don’t know if I could fully comprehend or indulge in what I was witnessing.”
“It was quite wild. It was crazy. There were some very unusual things happening, and I didn’t completely understand it,” Usher recalled. When asked if he would ever send his own children to ‘Puffy Flavor Camp,’ he emphatically replied, “Hеll no!” In a 2004 interview with Rolling Stone, Usher stated that Diddy exposed him to “a totally different set of s**т—specifically, sеx.”
After a year at ‘Puffy Flavor Camp,’ Diddy met with Reid to share Usher’s album. Reid described the moment: “Puffy walked in shirtlеss, like he owned the world, popped a cassette into my stereo, pressed play, and immediately started dancing around the room as the music played.” Reid noted, “Puffy had done exactly what I hoped he would for Usher. He infused this young artist’s R&B sound with a hip-hop vibe full of bad boy swagger.”
