Usher‘s 8th opus, ‘Hard II Love,’ may have lived up to its title after all.
Indeed, after gaining mixed review from industry insiders and fans alike (see: thumbs down for “trend-hopping,” “lack of overall theme,” etc.), ‘Hard’ – released September 16th – was predicted to make little impact on the Billboard 200 after a full tracking week.
In fact, analysts projected the project would not only bomb – much like Ush’s ‘Hands of Stone’ movie that preceded it by two weeks – but it would give the Grammy-winning R&B vet the lowest first week sum of his 20 year+ career.
Needless to say, they were right. Tuck in below to find out the official figures Billboard is reporting:
38,000 SPS
28,000 traditional album sales
Chart Position: #5
Via Billboard:
After more than four years since his last release, Usher returns to the Billboard 200 with his new album, Hard II Love. The effort debuts at No. 5 with 38,000 units (28,000 in traditional album sales). It’s his eighth top 10 album, and first set sinceLooking 4 Myself debuted at No. 1 on the June 30, 2012-dated list
🙁
DEAR USHER and MARIAH, two icons. Sit back, sing like it’s confessions or Mimi era and USE your god given talent. YOUR both lazy and not hungry anymore and it shows in YOUR MUSIC, YOUR promotion, take ur ultra rich asses to the local radio station and stop expecting your name to carry a project
Rihanna is still a Heaux
LMAO PREACH
Monica & Tamar numbers, Bye Flusher!
Monica sold 45k thanks b****
Dag I had forgotten that Code Red sold more. That is sad
Monica stands as one of the most relevant r&b singer from the 90’s. I wish RCA knew that. ‘I know’ is a beautiful ballad.
Didn’t Fantasia sell around 25K
The Devil..is Liar..
At any rate…dang Frank O…killed his numbers
Sigh…….??
These numbers aren’t surprising. Usher is stale.
At least usher can get a hit & has a 20+ year career while Ciara only lasted 3 years?
Anti sold 600k in pure sales yet fāggøt?
@tacky,
wow @a cierror fan trying to come for anybody.
I could just sit here and murder the fvck out of you and your fave but cierror isn’t even worth it.
No voice, no star quality, no talent, no great songs (aside from good production), it’s just funny how a fan of that would try to come for anybody else.
A ciara the flop fan has no business calling anybody stale.
#TheGoodiesDoneExpired!
Stop worrying about Ci when you stan for SHITzinger. Stop stalking me høe.
SHITara is the definition of stale, washed up, lame, no potential, boring, dry, and overall just a bad artist.
Just the fact that you stan for cierror is enough for nobody to take your opinions seriously.
I’ll ask you again, because I’m still waiting for an answer. When has Ci-error ever “slayed!”
19k BIOTCH!!
*Chrissy Teigen face*
lol
Can someone HONESTLY answer this question. What is the difference between Usher & Beyonce??????? Both are over 30, have kids, married, & vets in the game. Why does she succeed in media & music. Someone once said on this site “Females are easier to market” So what is it????? Much respect everyone
Beyonce is very forward thinking. She’s always ten steps ahead of her competition. Usher is stagnant and unexciting.
Beyonce has shown growth and Usher just went pop. Beyonce’s music is getting better she is blazing her own trail. Usher didn’t take advantage of his star power honestly.
I agree Beyoncé music is progressing . I’ve been a fan since D.C. But I honestly enjoyed her last 3 albums more than the first 3. Usher’s new album is pretty solid its just marketing he doesn’t know how to outsmart his peers like Beyoncé does. Men usually sale more records than women in most cases so I don’t believe the whole “women are more marketable” thing
40% f@ggys + 40% women +10% guys = Beyonce
20% f@ggys + 15% woman + 1% guys= Usher
I agree with 2bad2bme somewhat. It is all about consumers. Who Beyonce attracts to buy records is different than Usher. Usher tried to be more hip-hop to attract male consumers but it did not work. Beyonce attracts women, gay men, and curious consumers. Usher attracts older women now which corresponds with lower sales since less of them buy albums anymore.
Easy. Beyoncé creates her own lane…usher is a follower.
Who cares, A problem alot of these artists have is transitioning….
–
Message to all “ARTISTS”: Stop getting comfortable!!!!!
A message to your fave perhaps?
This album wasn’t properly promoted. He should have released it a little later for those seasonal sales….
I think he should’ve released around the time of an award show and promote on on the award show & it would’ve been better sales
The album is still amazing make you a believer, tell me , need u , missin u, rivals & bump are hits . Usher doesn’t have much more to prove he’s still the reigning king of R&B this generation . Maybe usher should’ve gotten the VMA vanguard award this year & Rih should’ve gotten it next year because it’s definitely long overdue. That could’ve gave him more sales nobody knew his album was out it’s just lack of promo
This new album is a banger!
Yes it is!!! He has sooo many potential singles on this album. Make U A Believer is my favorite by far tho.
I don’t even believe it’s 38,000 for some reason….
It’s a flop…why people try to find excuses for Usher and for rihanna they make fun of her and calling her a flop ….?
Because usher fans are dumb.
*sighs* yeah let’s do this instead of congradulating this talented man on another album in the top five.nobody sold much.sales are getting worse and worse for a lot of artists.
Define flop because this album is far from that. Album sales just don’t mean anything anymore. Why buy the cow when you get the Milk for free?
Usher fans don’t realize they idol is overrated,washed up and more then that Chris Brown wayyyyyyyy better usher in today pop music.
Damn Ciara sold more
Wow, it’s like EVERYONE is trying to redefine FLOP. First you had “4Closure” then “Chartflop” took it’s place, then “Me. I am Cowriah” overtook that untill “Aunti” came in and broke 460 records and now we have Flusher with his new work that really seems hard to love.
Lol. All these flops making 4 looks like it’s doing 21 numbers. Beyoncé’s decision to not go EDM back in 2011 was her best decision ever (thank God she fired Matthew). Now look, all these pop girls are TRYING to make crticially acclaimed album, (Anti,Joanne and Rise, Glory). But I guess its too late, GP don’t care bout them anymore.
The album isn’t good
U must not have really listened to it. This is the best r&b album of 2016 and one of the best albums of his career.
Oh far from it. More like the most boring r&b album of 2016. Brian McKnight, Dave Hollister, Maxwell, Jaheim, Zayn, Frank Ocean, Silk, Musiq Soulchild, and even Partynextdoor all had much better r&b albums than this mediocre piece of trash right here. And yes I listened to the whole album, only great song was Tell Me. Even S** Love & Pain 2 by Tank was better than this and I didn’t care for that album. Plus Joe and Eric Benet have albums coming in the next two months, and they will be better than this as well. This isn’t even Usher anymore. This is just some guy singing over generic trap beats and trying to compete with his lessers like chrissy brown and bryson tiller.
It was a disappointment. The only song worth listening to is Tell Me. The rest is all trap bs. I’ll stick with My Way, 8701, Confessions and even Here I Stand. This is probably his worst album yet, maybe even worse than looking 4 myself but that’s pushing it. This, l4m, and raymond v. raymond have all been lackluster. I’d rather listen to R Kelly’s “Black Panties”, at least some of the songs were fun to listen to like Cookie. I love to lick the middle like an oreo. This is just a boring mess.
It amazes me that y’all claim to have listened to the whole album but keep referring to it as “trap”. So what song sounded trap to you?
“this is his worst album yet” you are critizing him a bit too much. This album is much ahead than L4M at least. Low selling figures does mean the album is bad. The only thing bad in this album is promotion and lyrics to some extent.
This album is so incredible. I’ve been listening to it on repeat since last week. People need to hear Make You A Believer, Let Me, Bump, Tell Me, Miss You, FWM, and Need You to understand just how dope this album really is. Usher definitely took r&b to another level on this album.
No he his album suck ass.
Maybe the buck ugly cover didn’t help either. Bet he regrets peering Bieber.
I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOVE Usher, but I’m sorry he has not had a WHOLE SOLID album since Confessions…..he’s trying to keep up with today’s music & it’s just not doing it for me. He had songs over the years since Confessions era but not a whole album full good songs. Not too crazy about Hard Love….only like 3 or 4 songs I like.
All told, these are not bad numbers. The industry is different, and Usher didn’t lead with a single to excite his legacy fans. He should have lead with Bump, which would have pulled in his older and younger fans.
His album wasn’t that bad there are some pretty good songs
20 years in the game and selling less than Beyonce.Usher is over.
He been over.
He should never had release crash as the first single that song is horrible not first single worthy.
This is suprising cuz R.Kelly’s ‘The Buffet’ sold more than H2L. Ladies have definitely lost interest in Usher. He should have released the album in december near christmas. This album has good songs but lacks a club banger to sell pathetic for a strong album. Now Usher should leave R.C.A and join Epic records under the guidance of L.A reid
It was an intimate party at Reid’s place, just Beyonce, Jay Z and Usher, the men drinking and smoking weed till dawn. Beyonce and Jay Z were just coming off the hit singles “Single Ladies” and “Empire State of Mind.”
“You know, I’m a little bit disappointed in you,” Jay Z told Usher. “Because you are one of our greats. You are supposed to be right now where Beyonce and I are. Why isn’t that happening?”
Usher shrugged and said it was because he didn’t have “my guy,” meaning Reid.
Worst Album Of The Year