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Usher Didn't Pay Strippers with 'U$her Bucks' ... Big Ol' Misunderstanding

The internet is ablaze with fury that Usher allegedly made it rain on strippers with fake ass money -- with his face on it, no less -- but take a breather, because that's not how it went down.

You might have caught wind of this today -- a dancer going by the handle @beel0ove on IG posted photos of three "Usher bucks" that came in $100, $20 and $1 denominations ... all with Mr. Raymond's face in place of the usual dead Presidents.

She posed the question ... "Ladies what would you do if you danced all night for usher and he threw this??" The insinuation was she actually got the bogus cash for services rendered, and called for Usher to be "blasted" for passing the funny money.

She kinda got her wish, based on all the Usher memes out there now -- BUT, turns out there's way more to the story ... according to people directly involved.

For starters, this all happened at Sapphire in Vegas -- and a rep for the club tells TMZ Usher did NOT tip the strippers with this fake money, and actually dished out authentic greenbacks, while also going on to tip the staff at large quite generously.

We're told Usher and co. ended up spending thousands on the dancers (REAL thousands, mind you) and also enjoyed bottle service ... which he definitely didn't cover with these Usher bucks. It goes without saying ... Sapphire tells us they'd love to host him again, anytime.

Now for some more intel on what the hell actually happened here -- sources close to Usher tell us that somebody in his crew (not him) left some stray Usher dollars behind on the stage as a bit of a gag ... both to be joke-y, but to also promote his new Vegas residency.

We've been assured by folks in the singer's camp that he did, in fact, tip the girls who danced for him ... and that the Usher bucks in question weren't used for payment AT ALL.

That begs the question ... was Ms. @beel0ove simply misinformed here, or knowingly trying to make him look bad? It's unclear if she'll stick to her story, but 2 separate parties tell us her version is BS.

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