'There would be no hip-hop if there were not R&B,' the singer tells SiriusXM's Bevy Smith.
The King of R&B has spoken! On Monday, Usher called into SiriusXM's Bevelations, where he spoke out about the recent internet discourse over whether R&B music is dead.
Sean "Diddy" Combs kicked off the conversation via Twitter and Instagram live sessions where he posed the question, "Who killed R&B?"
Usher, who graciously accepted the King of R&B title during his chat with host Bevy Smith, adamantly stated that he is "not here for that" kind of conversation.
"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," the 43-year-old explained. "Matter fact, 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."
He added, "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."
Diddy later clarified that the point of bringing up the topic wasn't to disrespect any artists but to call attention to the genre and hopefully bring more "love, vulnerability, and support" to it.
"It's been 3 days of the debate...This is the clarity of the message...It's not disrespect to anybody," he wrote in a series of tweets. "This conversation was out of love and me purposely wanting to bring attention to R&B! It was something that I saw the effect of the Hip hop and R&B balance."
"This message is that R&B game needs more love, vulnerability, support!!" he concluded.
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