![]() ![]() ![]() The ability to draft a persuasive narrative around a project is a skill music fans both scrutinize and take for granted, but the greatest pop stars-Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift, Drake-know how to master the art of packaging. He played up the cheating angle and the rumors and was seemingly forthright about the subject of his ex and because it worked, he copied that storytelling formula for his subsequent album releases, albeit with less moving results: For 2008’s Here I Stand, he milked his marriage to Tameka Foster for material, and then he made their divorce fodder for his 2010 album Raymond v. But to be worthy of the Michael Jackson-level prestige he coveted, Usher needed a man-in-the-mirror moment. Everyone in America knew the term “Yeah!” not just as an everyday affirmation but as a club smash. He had the catalog, choreography, angelic falsetto, and winning grin necessary to be a star. Usher understood that much of a great pop album is simply telling a good story. “Nobody knows who the fuck Billie Jean is. “We wanted the media to ask us questions,” the producer told Vibe in 2014, comparing their artistic license to that of Michael Jackson. II,” a saga about creeping and getting another woman pregnant, was based on Dupri’s life, not Usher’s. The album’s most salacious track, “Confessions Pt. A decade later, executive producer Jermaine Dupri said the song was indeed about her but admitted Confessions wasn’t just Usher’s experience, rather a compilation of its male creators’ infractions, promoted as one man’s expunging of sins. He said he co-wrote the album’s core breakup ballad, “Burn,” while he and Chilli were still together. While it was true that he wasn’t entirely sold on marriage, he told Rolling Stone in 2004 that he did once buy Chilli a 10-karat diamond ring and proposed to her in the most R&B way: in the middle of sex. In constructing the narrative around Confessions, Usher omitted certain facts. In 2011, he was given a Freedom Award by the National Civil Rights Museum.But the deception worked on multiple levels. ![]() Additionally, Usher has also acted (in television, in movies, on Broadway), taken an ownership stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, mentored a young Justin Bieber, and worked on both American Idol and The Voice, all while maintaining a steady presence in a variety of philanthropic causes. In late 2018, he celebrated his 40th birthday by releasing “A”, his ninth studio album. 1 singles in three consecutive decades-behind, among others, Michael Jackson. His 2004 album, Confessions, reportedly inspired by his breakup with TLC star Chilli, went not just Platinum but Diamond his 2010 single “OMG” made him only the fifth artist in history to have No. He went on to become one of the most bulletproof figures in pop, capable of straddling club music (2004’s “Yeah!”), ballads (2004’s “Confessions Part II”), boundary-pushing R&B (2012’s “Climax”), and the kind of borderless, big-tent anthems everyone seems to agree on (2008's “Love in This Club”). That performance led almost instantaneously to a deal with LaFace Records, then home to TLC and Toni Braxton, with Usher releasing his self-titled debut album when he was just 15. See him on Star Search, circa 1991, singing Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road,” wading through a sea of admirers (“I was a ham,” he joked later). A pop star who’s hovered in the spotlight for three decades running, with little sign of slowing down.Born Usher Raymond IV in 1978, and raised in Chattanooga and Atlanta, Usher started his career at age 10, making the rounds and honing his craft on Atlanta-area talent shows. It turns out, Usher might be the closest thing we have to Jackson since Jackson himself-a singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and consummate performer whose appeal seems to transcend genre and demographics. “I love you!” Usher replied, pointing back. Usher juked, Jackson followed suit, the two traded moves. Few moments define Usher's career quite like that night in September 2001, when he stood opposite Michael Jackson at a sold-out Madison Square Garden and shared a dance. ![]()
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