Expanding on The Breakfast Club interview, Usher has spoken further upon the chemistry between him and Alicia Keys and further shares that the performance wasn’t anything harmful and that the three have talked since.
“In no way anything done there should have been viewed as bad or in any way perverted or anything like that,” He says of the two embracing during the performance. “No, it was literally about having fun because of a song that me and Alicia made many years ago. We celebrated because of the legacy of it, and [meant] no disrespect to anybody.”
He was also asked if he had spoken Keys and Swizz Beatz since where he said, “Absolutely! We’ve laughed about it… it’s all love.”
He also touched on the subject of his and Minaj’s VMA performance back in 2014 where he said he was inspired by the Jamaican culture as Usher was seen bumping his head on her back and butt and giving it a smack, to which he says he regrets it.
“It was me playing my bass so I probably would have bumped my shoulder or my hands, you know what I’m saying? I had my bass in my hands so I just kind of bopped off her body a little bit. I think I was reaching a bit when I smacked her though, I shouldn’t have smacked her butt.”
He also acknowledged the recent meme of a Boondocks episode mentioning his name where the character, Riley said: “I mean, I could see if it was a real n—a. If you lost your h-e to T.I., I’d be like, ‘hey, that’s T I.’, But Usher?” where he laughed at the meme that had been circling around.
“The memes is funny, but I guess that’s the truth of the other side of what happens, that’s the Usher effect I guess? I don’t know.”
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After the Super Bowl performance Beatz took to his Instagram to respond to social media comments who felt he should’ve had a problem with Usher.
“Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing !!! y’all don’t see that amazing dress covering the entire stadium ⚡️🚨😂😂😮💨😮💨😮💨😮💨,” Beatz wrote on Instagram. “Tonight’s performance was nothing but amazing with 2 amazing Giants ! Congrats @usher and my love @aliciakeys that song is a classic 🤍 We don’t do negative vibes on this side we make history ✌🏽 Go see GIANTS at @brooklynmuseum it’s open until July blessings 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽.”