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.