Usher’s journey to stardom took a pivotal turn at the age of 13 when record executive L.A. Reid signed him on and sent him to live with Sean “Diddy” Combs for his “Puffy Flavour Camp” in 1993.
In his 2016 memoir, Sing To Me: My Story Of Making Music, Finding Magic And Searching For Who’s Next, the music mogul and former X factor judge shared that he was looking for ways to give Usher an “edgier” sound after his 1993 debut single, Call Me a Mack.
“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,” Reid admitted in the memoir.
He continued to write, “I didn’t know whether I was being irresponsible or having an epiphany. I would never be sure flavor camp world until he came back.”
Despite being concerned about the decision, Reid asked Diddy to mentor the young star, hoping to teach him some of the hip-hop swagger that characterised the era.
He ultimately secured Usher’s mother’s permission for the young singer to head to New York for a year.
Reid wrote, “Puffy had done exactly what I wanted him to do for Usher. He gave this little kid a hip-hop-infused R&B sound full of bad boy swagger.”
Reflecting on his time with Diddy, Usher later admitted on The Howard Stern Show in 2016 he encountered some “pretty wild” experiences that he didn’t fully comprehend at the time. Now 45 and a father of four, Usher even adamantly opposed the idea of his own children going to the camp.
