It may not come when you want, but oh is it right on time.
Much of last year saw Usher searching high and low for a hit of some variety, yet it’s finally manifested at the top of 2015.
Details below…
The track, ‘I Don’t Mind’ featuring Juicy J, was oddly premiered last June but was seemingly left in limbo while the singer re-evaluated the campaign for the scrapped draft of his eighth album, ‘UR’.
Then, just after announcing his well-received tour,‘The UR Experience’, the song was re-sent to radio and released digitally.
In the time since, it’s been climbing steadily and has this week hit #1 on the Rhythmic radio format and climbed to an impressive #25 on Pop. Paired with its impressive run on iTunes, the cut now sits at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The feat sees the club cut become the star’s most successful single since 2012’s ‘Scream’, easily besting the performance of any of his recent efforts such as ‘Good Kisser’ and ‘She Came To Give It To You’ which peaked at #65 and #89 respectively.
Needless to say, it’s a much needed turn-around for his project and sets up a solid foundation to spring from when he’s really ready to hit the promo trail.
Saying that, we’d actually prefer that he lets the song become a quiet hit on its own accord without any additional push. Why, you may wonder? Well, from where we’re sitting, ‘I Don’t Mind’ is the type of cheap generic hit that every artist needs at some point to get them from “A” to “B”. Judged on the merit of what it is, we feel the song is beneath Usher, but at the same time understand that there’s a game that needs to be played to ensure his longevity. Put simply, there’s no doubt the likes of ‘Good Kisser’ and ‘She Came’ are much better than this, however sometimes it’s important to give the masses what they want rather than what an artists thinks they should have. Just our two cents.
In any case, Ush isn’t letting the success of the song have him resting on his laurels. He hit the studio this week to continue working on his LP with longtime collaborator Jermaine Dupri, who shared the shot below…