MAGAZINES

Are you more pop than soul now?

I’m all of that. I can’t be put into a box. Artists who have been an inspiration to me, like Stevie Wonder, did everything. You gotta evolve. The soul is always in, no matter what form it is—R&B, hip-hop, whether I’m singing, dancing, rapping, whatever it may be. Even my gig on Broadway [in Chicago], I brought the soul to that as well.

What was soulful about Raymond v Raymond?

[Long pause] The soul is the passion, the way I sing, how convicted I am in what I’m saying and if you can really tie what I’m saying to a specific occurrence in my life. We all know that I went through what would be perceived as tumultuous situations—having got- ten married, having children. Some of those things, I pull from.

Why were you apprehensive about releasing “OMG”? Will.i.am said your team was iffy about it.

I think maybe because they were skeptics about the evolution of my art: We know Usher to be this one thing. Over the last two years, it’s been questionable, because of personal choices, whether his decisions were on point, and we don’t want to do anything that would move too fast for his demographic. But obviously they changed their mind. At one point in time I, too, felt like “OMG” might not necessarily have went with the overall story, but when I really took a step back and looked at the entire landscape of what this album represents, it is “OMG.”

Was this album an attempt at a career rebound?

Let me tell you something. Here I Stand sold more than Raymond V Raymond. So the perspective is all based off of what? Personal choice? Maybe not understanding the full picture. Maybe not really understanding the artist.

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Tagged as: Celebrity Usher, Mag: Vibe Magazine

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