The turn of the decade has seen R&B veteran Usher receive mix review for his experimentation on the Pop front.
Indeed, despite a number of EDM-flavoured hits like ‘DJ Got Us Falling In Love’ and ‘O.M.G.’, the Grammy-winning crooner’s faithful fanbase have oft-cried foul from fear the heartthrob was “selling out” or abandoning his sonic roots.
Well, if report from top producer Eric Bellinger is anything to go by, supporters of the singer’s more rhythmic offerings needn’t fear as his newest project will see a musical mecca of sorts to his R&B beginnings.
Bellinger’s news comes just a day after Ush took to ‘The Voice’ stage to deliver a cool version of jazz standard ‘The Look of Love’. Take a look at both below:
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What sound is Usher going for this time around?
With his other projects, I think he was like, “Okay. I’m going to do this because I think people may want to hear this.” But, I think this time around, he’s going to do what he wants to do in his heart and that’s R&B, the stuff that got him here in the first place. He’s done so many genres of music and excelled in every area, so now he’s like, “Cool. What’s left for me to do? I’ve done everything. So, I’m going to take it back to R&B, timeless music.”
Considering the current state of R&B, do you think Usher will be able to successfully implement that?
I definitely do. He has always done R&B, even on the last project. We did “What Happened to U.” All of those were R&B, but with a different beat. We were able to experiment on “I Care For You,” with some next level, futuristic, dub step type of music, but still with the touch of smooth R&B within the melodies. [The album] is definitely still very commercial. It’s going to be for the radio and the club. He’s still Usher. He has to lead the pack.
![Eric Bellinger & Elise Neal Question Why Usher's Female-Centric BET Awards Tribute Didn't Have More Men; Mario Weighs In [Videos]](https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mario-eric-bellinger-elise-neal-usher-bet-awards-tribute-beyonce-victoria-thatgrapejuice-monet-chloe-464x260.jpg "Eric Bellinger & Elise Neal Question Why Usher's Female-Centric BET Awards Tribute Didn't Have More Men; Mario Weighs In [Videos].")
I am so ready for new Usher music! I’ve loved every album even Looking 4 Myself was good. I like that he experimented instead of constantly putting out the same type of music. Usher always delivers when it comes promo as well.
My 2013 and 2014 is sorted since i know i’ll be getting new albums from Mariah,Usher,Janet,Celine,Robin Thicke,Justin Timberlake,Gaga,Shakira & Maxwell within these 2 yrs..
Yes amazing! Your picks are so great as usual
he never left R&B! y’all always reaching with y’all headings
I don’t think they listen to Looking For Myself, cause only a few songs few EDM, the rest was Urban, not different than Vs. They just took Scream and ran with it, not seeing the urban side like Let Me See. Poor them cause that’s a good album.
but lemme see wasa love song to women and most of his r&b success has been love songs……. or even break up songs about love…. i like the club stuff but i LOVE the love songs
Burn, confession, u got it bad, climax, daddys home, u make me wanna, u remind me…. i want some love songs.
correction – lemme see was NOT a love song like my fav usher songs
Ok I see. Well you had Dive, lol. I see, it’s a talk that talk album. I gotcha now.
It just goes to show you that’s the way consumers think. The first single is always supposed to be the biggest indicator as to the direction of the album, but most modern artists don’t use that direction, because the creative process is very scrambled now. Take for instance people like Ciara who use first singles as a way to garner fan reaction, and then do it FOUR of five more times over the course of a year…by that time the new material they begin working on is not even cut from the same cloth because it was all done out of sequence.
Usher really distanced himself from R&B fans because “Here I Stand”, “Raymond vs. Raymond”/”Versus”, and “Looking 4 Myself” were very lukewarm records compared to the energy and genius of his previous works. So the quality was not as good, and the way the record was marketed was not in an urban manner. He did that live concert streamed online with a mix of classic his and album cuts and the only new cuts from the album that he did were dance oriented “Scream”, “Numb” and “Euphoria” I believe. I really only liked “What Happened To U” off of that album. Everything else was hit or miss for me. I listened to it for a couple days last summer, and that’s it.
I get you, but the first single was Climax, that was a new school R&B. He just tried to make a new R&B/Pop sound, it was a risk and he took it. Unlike JT that kinda played it safe, the risk was that JT didn’t go the EDM rout, but he stayed in his lane, to me it was too safe. Plus Mirrors has the same beat as Cry Me A River is you listen closely. Back to Usher, Looking wasn’t much different from Vs.
Is Usher the new KING OF POP???
No way. I really don’t even see anybody worthy. Chris is forever ruining his public image and while he was the talent to be the King, he really has another few years before he can assume that crown. Rihanna has tricked our generation into thinking that the Bad image is what’s popping. Justin and Chris are killing themselves trying to be the male versions of her when they don’t realize that her brand is fading and the legacy she is leaving behind is one that is not very worthy of remark.
Usher really needs to return to global prominence consistently in order to rightfully claim that. For new we can call him the Prince of R&B, because R. Kelly is still King in that genre. lol.
No,Michael still on the throne
Michael took his throne with him to Heaven so no one could ever come close to sitting on it.
Good. I would like to be a fan of Usher’s again, but these past 3-4 years has made it very difficult. It doesn’t matter if it was only a few EDM songs on his album, and that the rest was more R&B, because the truth is still that Usher was kissing ass with those dance/pop songs…and his record label promoted them with much more fervor than they did his R&B singles to the point where they overshadowed everything else. “Climax” and “Lemme See” should have both been top 10 Hot 100 hits, but RCA just threw them at the Chitlin Circuit, while showering more promotion to pop cheese like “Scream” and “DJ Got Us Falling In Love”. Plus, real talk: the quality of Usher’s R&B music has been slipping ever since he stopped working with Jermaine Dupri, Jam & Lewis and Brian Michael C**. The “R&B” of Raymond v. Raymond/L4M paled in comparison to the R&B of My Way/8701/Confessions.
I just want Old School ’97-’05 Usher back. I’m totally put off by the Usher who tried to kiss up to that Gaga/Katy Perry crowd. Don’t ever do that again.
I bet Usher said ” I gots to start bac doing R&B/Soul”, cause I’m not going to let Miguel and JT take my spot. Well come on bac Ursher!
I don’t think Usher is thinking about Miguel, but JT’s return probably served as a trigger of sorts, since he came back the same way he went out and was rewarded for it. And I say good. I hope every longstanding R&B act who switched over to dance or considered it looked at JT and reconsiders after seeing his reception.
With surprise hits from acts like Miguel, Tamar JT, Ciara, Robin Thicke over the past 6 months, it seems like the door is cracking open for R&B to make a commercial return. So I say every once hot R&B act who has flopped or underperformed over the past few years (Brandy, Monica, Keyshia Cole, Mariah, Usher, Ashanti, R. Kelly, Mary) should return to the studio NOW and make another album to get in on this possible resurgence.
MJB underperformed… For her standards. Still a successful album.
Mark79 made a good point about the other R&B acts who possibly didn’t achieve commercial success, should get back into the studio and join into the commercial resurgence of R&B.
That’s is an AWESOME IDEA!!! I would be in heaven. And I’m sure most of you will be too…
But let us not forget that these artistes received critical acclaim, just not commercial success. This was because THEY DIDN’T PROMOTE THEIR RESPECTIVE LP’S. OR DIDN’T PROMOTE IN ENOUGH/INTERNATIONALLY.
The resurgence of Justin Timberlake shouldn’t way them back to R&B in any way… Realistically, Justin will always win because he is a white dude and has mass appeal. The red necks in the boondocks will buy his music.(Sad to bring race into it-but fact still remains). PLUS HE PROMOTED HE S*** OUTTA 20/20 EXP.
If they aren’t prepared to do that level of promotion, (even at their own expense) then it doesn’t matter whether the music is R&B or not.
And if you are honest with yourself TWO ELEVEN, NEW LIFE, WOMAN TO WOMAN, LOOKING FOR MYSELF, WRITE ME BACK, LOVE LETTER, AND EVEN MEMOIRS OF AN IMPERFECT ANGEL (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF OBSESSED)was GOOD R&B…
If Bellinger thinks “What Happened to U” and “I Care For You” are the way to go for r&b, then Usher is still way off course.
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