Usher slams Diddy rift

Usher has blasted recent reports he's still fuming after Sean 'P Diddy' Combs snubbed him when he was a teenager.

The Yeah! Singer was widely quoted criticising Combs for failing to offer him financial help when he was an up-and-coming 17-year-old in desperate need of financial aid.

But Usher, now 25, told an audience of students at Newham College in east London that Combs had actually given him a "great introduction" to the music business.

He said: "Actually he (Combs) was very forthcoming - he executively produced my first album.

"I really didn't know which direction to go in as an artist - I signed to a record label at the age of 13 and Puff did my first album.

"It wasn't my most successful album - later on we worked on songs that were more successful as individual artists.

"If anything, he gave me a great introduction in showing me all the benefits of his success at the time."