With a career that spans more than 20 years, Usher has sold 75 million records worldwide, affording him the title of the of one of the best selling musicians of all time.
Despite the dismal sales and the lack of resonating singles of the crooner’s last set, ‘Hard II Love,‘ he still maintains his status as one of the R&B fathers who has inspired the current young crooners like Trey Songz, August Alsina, and Chris Brown.
During a recent visit to the Pandora radio show ‘Questlove Supreme,’ Mr. Raymond opened up about some intriguing details about his career, music, love, and life. Check out the excerpts below.
On signing with L.A. Reid and Babyface during their feud:
‘When I first signed to LaFace Records, I wanted to do an album with Babyface and LA Reid, right? I signed specifically for that reason. So LA Reid wanted Babyface to work on me and they were going through, you know, a lot of drama at the time. They were kinda severing their ties…he got mad…And he built an entire album for me, and he gave the whole album to somebody else…Tevin Campbell! ‘Can We Talk’…was my song…’
On his regret of not collaborating with young Chris Brown:
‘So there’s one thing in my career that I definitely regret, one thing. And to this day I battle with it which is why I always show support of this artist whenever he asks…So his manager comes in…They show him to me…I was working on an album at this time, they wanted him to perform on this album…I was like okay cool…Then I went to my team and they was like ‘I don’t think you should work with this artist’…Then he left…Chris Brown.’
On his first marriage with Tameka Foster:
‘That marriage and that relationship was gonna come to an end…but it served a purpose in my life…And no matter what my mother was attempting to tell me, and a lot of people were trying to tell me about that, I think a lot of it had to do with my lack thereof a father…I did not want to be a person who would just roll out.’
On social issues and the current social climate:
‘If we really want to begin to remedy some of the issues we have, we gotta be more disciplined ourselves to be people who share our information…I ain’t just talking about mentoring people in your company. Or because it’s a company duty and responsibility to do that shit. No, find people to mentor and talk to them. Bring them together. Create groups, talk to them as a collective because you got insight and offer that.’
Usher always tends to have a cool perspective, which makes reads like this intriguing.
Hopefully, his new music, whenever it arrives, delivers.
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