A friend of Usher’s has denied reports that he is feuding with former protege Justin Bieber.
Rumours began circulating that the pair reportedly got into an altercation while attending Beyoncé and Jay-Z‘s Oscars after-party earlier this month.
According to TMZ, there was an incident in which Usher reportedly approached Bieber with “energy and anger”, leading to a “heated exchange” that some even suggested resulted in a fist fight between the two artists.
TMZ were clear that no authorities were involved and there has been no confirmation from either artist’s camp about an altercation.
Usher remains yet to respond to the rumours, but his friend Da Brat recently appeared on The Rickey Smiley Show and addressed the story herself.
“I spoke to Usher, and he said this is an exaggeration of conversation,” she said. “He’s been nothing but supportive of plenty of issues that Justin Bieber has had throughout the years, and y’all can actually check the records for all that he has done. Justin is on his own journey, dealing with his own reality that he’s created. Usher wishes him nothing but the best, and they have no hostility towards each other.
“They definitely love each other. People just take things out of context when they see something, and they run with it. And I’m just here to say that is not the issue. They are definitely cool with each other, and they have love, and they support each other…”
“I mean, they had a conversation. Nobody heard the conversation, but the two of them, people just take it and twist it and turn it around. But I’m letting you know that everything is OK between them and there is no hostility.”
Usher and Bieber’s relationship goes back a long way – with the ‘Yeah!’ star entering into a partnership with Scooter Braun in 2008 to sign Bieber to their joint label Raymond Braun Media Group.
They later collaborated on tracks like ‘First Dance’ and the ‘Somebody To Love’ remix, with Usher continuing to serve as a mentor.
Bieber reportedly declined an offer to appear during Usher’s 2024 Super Bowl halftime show and he unfollowed Usher on social media the following year, suggesting that there had been a divergence between the two.
In other news, Usher has claimed disgraced mogul Diddy has been “misrepresented”, adding he has nothing “negative” to say towards his former mentor.
In October 2025, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was sentenced to four years and two months in prison following his conviction on federal prostitution-related charges. Days later, Combs filed an appeal to challenge his conviction and sentence, to which he still awaits response.
Now, Usher has spoken about his time living with the Bad Boy Records founder while he recorded his 1994 debut album. In an interview with Forbes, Usher said: “I don’t have anything negative to say about Sean Combs because my experience was not what the world has seen, and how he’s been misrepresented.”
Acknowledging that his persepctive might be “controversial”, he went on to add: “I’m not saying that every man is perfect. I’m not saying that all of us don’t have flaws. But I can’t with any sense of humanity not recognise the valuable contributions that this man made for us as Black entrepreneurs, for us as businessmen, for us as people who have transitioned culture and ideas into something that’s tangible. So many people benefitted from what he created and I acknowledge that.”