Usher Discussion

[SHOOTER]

He's probably waiting to capitalize on his time with The Voice.

[Linnethia Monique]

They probably want it to coincide with The Voice finale. Which would be good. That means he will have the whole summer free to do promo and get on the BET Awards and MTV VMAs.

[Agent Yoncé]

Jan 16, 2014 10:51:57 GMT -5 allow that said:

[Jazzy]

Well... Mimi's not the only one.

In the studio with Jermaine Dupri.

[allow that]

Jan 22, 2014 9:35:54 GMT -5 Jazzy said:

Well... Mimi's not the only one.

In the studio with Jermaine Dupri.

^ Me reacting to JD rn.

I guess Usher is quite content with becoming a has-been and/or completely out of touch now. Hopefully it's just a track or two out of respect & loytalty and not the bulk of the album. If Usher doesn't deliver a solid smash or two this time around, he's pretty much over as a contemporary hitmaker. His buzz is on the decline but there's still enough interest where he can strike with the right material, but if this flops he certainly won't be in that position in two years when his next album comes out.

Should be working with Diplo, 40, or maybe even DJ Mustard.

[#LisaRinna]

None of the JD songs he's recorded since Confessions have seen the light of day as singles though. Usher is smarter.

[Deleted]

^What Mario said. L4M was the first time since his debut that Usher didn't work with JD at all. Since this is a supposed return to his r&b roots I would expect it to be like it was for HIS and RvR, one or two JD tracks that don't get released. Heck, at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if he blew the dust off Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a ballad or two.

Do we have confirmation on who else he's been working with, besides Pharrell? I'm sure Rico will be on there and it would be very shocking if he didn't work with Diplo.

[think pink.]

He's been in the studio a lot with JD for this album....

[#LisaRinna]

Jan 22, 2014 14:00:57 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Heck, at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if he blew the dust off Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a ballad or two.

He did it on RvR already boo. They gave him a couple of great tracks too.

[Deleted]

Jan 22, 2014 16:05:39 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Jan 22, 2014 14:00:57 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Heck, at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if he blew the dust off Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a ballad or two.

He did it on RvR already boo. They gave him a couple of great tracks too.

oh yeah, that's why I said that! Mars vs. Venus >>

MvV should have been a single, in fact. Not sure what, if anything, they've been up to lately but J&T still have the magic touch if they can make a song as hot as MvV, IMO. Monstar and Lingerie are two of my fave Usher tracks as well.

[#LisaRinna]

Jan 22, 2014 16:39:32 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Jan 22, 2014 16:05:39 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

He did it on RvR already boo. They gave him a couple of great tracks too.

oh yeah, that's why I said that! Mars vs. Venus >>

MvV should have been a single, in fact. Not sure what, if anything, they've been up to lately but J&T still have the magic touch if they can make a song as hot as MvV, IMO. Monstar and Lingerie are two of my fave Usher tracks as well.

Yasss I loved those songs!

[SHOOTER]

Usher chose Jill Scott to be his contestants' mentor on the upcoming season of The Voice.

[Jay D83]

My baby looks soooo fetch with his haircut! Mohawk no mo'!

[Linnethia Monique]

Feb 5, 2014 21:38:04 GMT -5 Jay D83 said:

My baby looks soooo fetch with his haircut! Mohawk no mo'!

Stop trying to make fetch happen Gretchen.

[#LisaRinna]

Usher better serve with this album. I want superstar Usher back.

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2014 10:52:33 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Usher better serve with this album. I want superstar Usher back.

Maybe the haircut is a start Now that all the unnecessary hair is gone it's kind of frightening how much he still looks like his 2004 self.

[#LisaRinna]

Feb 6, 2014 10:54:04 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Feb 6, 2014 10:52:33 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Usher better serve with this album. I want superstar Usher back.

Maybe the haircut is a start Now that all the unnecessary hair is gone it's kind of frightening how much he still looks like his 2004 self.

I really would love for him to do the Superbowl. He can pull it off, he's an ENTERTAINER.

[Linnethia Monique]

Feb 6, 2014 10:57:33 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Feb 6, 2014 10:54:04 GMT -5 @antigonerising said:

Maybe the haircut is a start Now that all the unnecessary hair is gone it's kind of frightening how much he still looks like his 2004 self.

I really would love for him to do the Superbowl. He can pull it off, he's an ENTERTAINER.

He was my favorite part of the 2010 BEP Super Bowl Performance.

[Live Your Life]

There was some info on a song called "Year of the Horse" in Pharrell's new interview for GQ:

Someone mentioned this Japanese Zen garden in Van Nuys, said Pharrell would like it. And so, on an overcast Tuesday in January in Los Angeles, we are off to look at some meditative trees. We wedge ourselves into an SUV and start driving, Pharrell in the captain’s chair, his cheerful, pixie-cut wife, Helen, beside him. His phone rings almost immediately, the name “Ush”—for Usher—displayed on its screen. They start talking. It is, at first, not at all clear what they’re talking about—just that Pharrell is trying to talk Usher into something preposterous involving horses.

“What I wanted to intimate to you is,” Pharrell is saying, “if the record comes out one month from now, the video comes out two months from now—you’re not late.”

Okay, so: a song, one that Pharrell is apparently producing, “Year of the Horse.” Chinese New Year is next Friday, and Usher’s worried about missing it entirely. But, Pharrell is saying, the Year of the Horse lasts all year! Usher will be fine. Then he listens for a while. “Go and shoot the video,” Pharrell says finally. “That’s the only thing that I beg of you.”

Okay, so: a song and then a video. Usher talks for a bit, and then Pharrell cuts in again. “Look at what happened when Ginuwine did ‘Pony’ and he had the mechanical bull.” Classic music video Pharrell’s talking about here: Ginuwine saunters into a scuzzy roadhouse and commences a sexy, open-shirt routine right there on the stage. Then one of Ginuwine’s lady friends mounts a mechanical bull.

“Now, that was Ginuwine. We’re talking about you, and bringing you to the rodeo world with a record that gives you the license to do that.”

Okay, so: a song and then a video...about the rodeo world?

The ’90s-rap-video god Hype Williams should direct, Pharrell is saying. He talks about the synergy potential, all the different markets and classes and types of Americans that Usher could unite by bringing the gift of Usher into the competitive horse-riding arena. “This is a time for everyday people!” Pharrell says.

You can tell Usher is unsure there on the other end of the line, for reasons that seem pretty sensible, actually. But this is what Pharrell does. He is a cloud boxer. He is a genius of capitalism. He’s spent the past two decades selling you things you didn’t think you wanted but turned out to want very much. Very likely he once persuaded you to attempt a trucker hat, or a kickflip, or the music of No Doubt. His catalog could play literal hours before reaching a song you hadn’t heard before. He is one of the two or three most successful producers of our time, a man who makes hits out of sinister pockets of silence and bits of other people’s songs and cell-phone ringtones and the golden sounds of the ’70s. The composer Hans Zimmer will later tell me a story about working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, composing in a room with Pharrell and Johnny Marr, and watching Pharrell write an entire song on his cell phone in five minutes. Zimmer and Marr were just sitting there, arguing about chord changes, Zimmer says, “and by the time we’re finished, he’s written a fully formed song.”

On the phone with Usher, Pharrell is building to a kind of crescendo. “Let’s speak metaphorically through the rodeo world!” he says, urgently. “I f**king held a lamb in a Robin Thicke video. And people were into it!”

[think pink.]

Feb 5, 2014 21:26:37 GMT -5 SHOOTER said:

Usher chose Jill Scott to be his contestants' mentor on the upcoming season of The Voice.

He is lookin' goooooood!

[Live Your Life]

[Glove Slap]

Dr. Luke? Again?

This isn't what he needs right now. He should be hitting up Diplo & Pharell.

[Queen of Insomnia.]

@ Dr. Luke.
I almost lost interest in this album. His last album performed poorly for a reason, but it seems he didn't learn anything. Shame...

[Jay D83]

Mar 24, 2014 11:41:54 GMT -5 Queen of Insomnia. said:

@ Dr. Luke.
I almost lost interest in this album. His last album performed poorly for a reason, but it seems he didn't learn anything. Shame...

Dr. Luke is such a dick.

[think pink.]

Mar 24, 2014 10:49:27 GMT -5 Live Your Life said:

whhhhyyyy



I will not accept this Usher!

[Deleted]

meh. even I don't want Dr. Luke and I've defended pop Usher to the ends of the earth and back. and Juicy J is on it. wtf is that even going to sound like? i want to hear year of the horse, not dark horse redux. (well ok that is a little bit of a lie, i love dark horse, i just don't like the idea of usher settling for katy perry leftovers.)

in dr. luke's very minor defense, Usher's never actually worked with him before right? so it's possible that Usher can still pull off a pop smash, just not the pop that he got from the likes of Swedish House Mafia or a Luke-less Max Martin and Shellback. dark horse has a trap beat - and is actually getting some urban/rhythmic play b/c of said urban-flavored production - so something leaning in that direction could work for usher. all the side eyes if katy can get a pass for it and usher can't.

[Deleted]

You would think a ***I'M RACIST*** got a hint last time around. Look Usher you were one of the biggest by making R&B music that had crossover potential and NOW as we sit here that's the exact type of music that's working for r&b stars. Leave Dr Luke, Swedish mafia, Guetta or whatever else that isn't good for your or mines health and go back to being Usher.

Everybody wanna be something they aint.

[#LisaRinna]

If it doesn't sound like Mike WiLL did that beat, we don't want to Dr. Luke.

[Deleted]

after a few minutes to marinate on why this is bothering me, i've pinpointed my advance concerns about this Dr. Luke collaboration:

1. the production will probably be urban leaning, like that of dark horse. dr. luke has found a new sound and is going to run with it as much as he can, b/c that is what he does.
2. but because dr. luke's name is so synonymous with big pop hits, usher will quickly be judged under a more critical eye from his r&b fans, and probably won't get nearly the urban love that dark horse is getting even if usher's song isn't notably more pop than dark horse is.
3. if the song underperforms by whatever standard we're holding him to, people will blame him for not 'learning his lesson' or staying away from big pop producers
4. meanwhile, dark horse is currently #24 on urban with a 450 bullet, to say nothing of how urban gobbled up royals, but no one will acknowledge the hypocrisy
5. i will be pissed, and probably the only person who actually likes the song


that said, my hope is that it will be as hot as dark horse is, but without blatantly sounding like a dark horse repeat, and that the general public will respond favorably.

[SHOOTER]

Confessions turned 10 yesterday.

www.middlechildpromotions.com/10-years-after-confessions/