Usher addresses Diddy’s “R&B is Dead” statement.
Just recently, Diddy sparked a conversation about the current state of R&B as he posted a tweet saying “Who killed R&B.” The fans responded to Bad Boy’s question, as well as some of the musicians including Chris Brown, Tory Lanez, Kehlani, Summer Walker and Mary J. Blige.
Who killed R&B?
— LOVE (@Diddy) August 17, 2022
Now the legendary Usher also weighs in on the debate during his recent interview with Bevy Smith. “When I hear people say stuff like ‘What happened to R&B?’ or ‘R&B is dead’…it’s not,” he said. “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.”
He 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.”
Mary J. Blige, who also participated in Diddy’s live stream and made the following remarks: “You can’t kill something that’s in our DNA. It’s gonna keep transitioning from generation to generation to generation to generation. They was trying to kill it. Before I say what I’m gonna say, let me just say this: I wanna thank all the radio stations around the country that are playing R&B music and sincerely support it.”
She added: “But, you know, a lot of the radio stations killed it for the same thing that Tank was saying. They ain’t gon’ jump on the bandwagon of whatever the hottest things is — but, let me just say this. We have to keep ourselves alive as R&B singers.”
Check out the conversation below.
