USHER on Apple Music (2024)

Confessions (Expanded Edition)

100 Best Albums One of the more effective ways of mining your memory for years past is by associating specific times with the artists and albums that best soundtracked them. And if you have a distinct memory of 2004, then you remember how inescapable USHER’s fourth studio album Confessions was for the entirety of that year. This was Usher Raymond in his final form: No longer a boyish heartthrob under the tutelage of top producers that doubled as mentors, he’d finally reached his artistic prime. 8701, his previous album, offered the first accounts of adult feelings around romance and the maintenance of relationships. In those depictions, even when he did take accountability, he was typically in the position of the wounded counterpart. But the scandals he admitted to in Confessions were soap-opera-worthy, with a solid block of songs chronicling the progression of one story.The album’s title track tells an enthralling tale in which USHER comes to terms with the fact that he has to admit to his infidelity—a side chick across the country. The song’s sequel, “Confessions, Pt. II” (a ubiquitous single) ramps up the drama when he finds out the woman he’s been cheating with is three months pregnant. The story’s closing, “Burn,” finds him mourning the relationship he obliterated.And as affecting of a trilogy as that was, there are massive hits at every corner of Confessions. “Yeah!” with Lil Jon and Ludacris encapsulates the playful, hard-hitting feeling of Atlanta’s scene at the time. “My Boo” with Alicia Keys is one of defining duets of the 2000s, and “Superstar” is a masterfully executed tribute to a lover. Looking back at its impact and depth, Confessions has achieved a status that few albums in the 21st century can live up to, but its influence is evident in how many have tried.

8701

After spending the ’90s as one of the country’s top teenage R&B sweethearts, full of uncompromising hormones and temptation, USHER reemerged in 2001 with his third studio album, 8701—his first artistic offering as a non-teenager. And with that new milestone came music that detailed the experiences of a young man who was starting to see the ups and downs of the prospective love that he’d passionately sought out up to this point.The album’s lead single “U Remind Me,” with its fluttering chords, finds USHER mesmerized by a potential lover, but her similarities to an ex that broke his heart sours his attraction. Over faint acoustic guitar, “U Got It Bad” captures the tension of a topsy-turvy love where petty, explosive arguments turn into longing for resolution. USHER’s conviction in moments like these suggests that he’s pulling from a real place, but the album isn’t just delightful because he’s more seasoned in terms of heartache.Some of 8701’s marquee moments place you squarely in the center of an intensely lit dance floor, hazy from sweat and mist. “I Don’t Know,” for instance, features a barrage of intergalactic synths from The Neptunes while Diddy offers some conversational swaggering, and USHER’s angelic falsetto adds dimension; it’s the kind of song that you run back a few times to focus on a different element of its DNA. The swing and funk interwoven into the production of “Good Ol’ Ghetto” channels the butter-smooth personas of Southern heavyweights of the day like 8Ball & MJG or UGK. More than any of his albums before it, 8701 framed an USHER for the future, an artist who’d developed all the necessary tools during his early years but was now ready to crystallize those into something full-proof.

My Way (25th Anniversary Edition)

USHER entered public consciousness in the early ’90s as a smooth, baby-faced teenager whose lack of vocal bass didn’t quite match up with the sexual undertones of his music. His 1994 self-titled debut was foundational in furthering Combs’ development of a new R&B sound that took production cues from hip-hop—but much of the album felt like an artist figuring out his sound in real time. When he returned three years later with a deeper voice, a jawline that was no longer boyishly round, and musical direction from Atlanta producer extraordinaire Jermaine Dupri, the Usher Raymond we’ve grown to know and adore was introduced to the world. His sophom*ore album, My Way, traded those overtly hip-hop beats from The Hitmen for more fitting silky arrangements from Dupri and R&B maestro Babyface, which made a world of difference.“After that first album, I really decided that I wanted to do things my way,” USHER told Apple Music’s Estelle in 2022, and he found the inspiration and validation to do so in the form of—who else?—Frank Sinatra. “Hearing him tell his story, hearing him express how, ‘Hey, listen, good, bad, or whatever it might be, I did it my way.’ To me, that's where I was in my life at the age of 16, 17. It was almost like the permission that I needed. So I was like, ‘I want to name this album My Way. I want to have something that I can say I'm proud of.’”On the album’s lead track “You Make Me Wanna…” USHER convincingly built on the soul music tradition of bellowing out to a prospective lover who makes you reconsider the lackluster relationship you’re currently enduring—a concept he landed on after being stymied by a Dupri beat. “Me and my homie were playing basketball outside,” he said. “I had a Jeep back then, so I would crank the record up, playing out in the middle of the street, and would just listen to this track over and over and over again, like, ‘Yo, what do you think this is making you feel?’ He's like, ‘I don't know. I ain't never heard nothing like this. This sh*t is crazy.’ So I came back to the studio. I was like, ‘Yo, after about three days of listening, I don't know what I want to talk about.’ And then the more we just hung out, kicked it at the studio, he overheard a conversation I was having with this chick—and I'm in a relationship. I'm a scum guy.”“Slow Jam,” a cover of a song that Babyface wrote for Midnight Star in the ’80s, recruited another teenage R&B phenom in Monica for a sultry ballad. And a Lil’ Kim appearance on “Just Like Me” provided USHER with useful grit. A sweet falsetto, guitar strums that acted as ad libs, and dramatic heavy breathing helped “Nice & Slow” effectively melt the hearts of teenage girls through Walkman headphones and radio speakers—but maybe its most seductive move was USHER spelling out his name. “I was really looking for something to introduce myself,” he said. “So I was like, ‘I want a song that's going to spell my name out: They call me U-S-H-E-R R-A-Y-M-O-N-D.’ That was like Snoop's ‘Snoop Dogg’ or Eminem's ‘My Name Is.’ For me, it was my introduction to the world over an R&B classic record that people celebrate all over the world.”All throughout My Way, it became clear that he was more than the potential that was teased a few years prior. Now with proven juggernauts in his corner, USHER was becoming the model for a young star in the genre—clean-cut, a big smile, designer goggles co*cked to the side of his head, and a voice that resonated with Black youth. More than two decades after USHER found his voice, he had a clear sense of what the album meant, not just to him personally, but to pop music in general. “R&B assists us in all of these other areas, whether it became authentic hip-hop, or rock ’n’ roll, or any of it,” he said. “My version of it is a combination of those things. If you hear a rock guitar in a song, that doesn't make it a rock song, that makes it a rock solo. If you hear a rap in a song, that doesn't make it a rap song, that makes it a song that has new arms and connects with a bigger audience. So My Way gave me that opportunity to spread my wings and also to explore some things that I was inspired by.”

COMING HOME (Expanded Edition)

2024

"A"

2018

Hard II Love

2016

Looking 4 Myself (Expanded Edition)

2012

Raymond v Raymond (Expanded Edition)

2010

Here I Stand

2008

Confessions (Expanded Edition)

2004

USHER Essentials

A pop star in his third decade of dominance.

USHER Video Essentials

The R&B loverman has the slickest moves.

My Road to Halftime

USHER shares the songs that are getting him hyped ahead of halftime.

Set List: USHER’s Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show

Studio versions of all the songs USHER performed at Super Bowl LVIII.

Inspired by USHER

He made them wanna…

USHER: Fitness+ Spotlight

Set it off with a tireless force in pop and R&B.

A-Town Girl (feat. Latto) - Single

2024

Cold Blooded - Single

2024

Coming Home - Single

2024

Ruin

2024

Risk It All (From the Original Motion Picture “The Color Purple”) - Single

2023

Standing Next to You (Usher Remix) - Single

2023

Good Good (Jax Jones Midnight Snacks Remix) [feat. 21 Savage] - Single

2023

iTunes Festival: London 2012

2012

Live

1999

12" Masters - The Essential Mixes: Usher

2010

Muni Long

Good Love (feat. Usher) - Single

City Girls

Justin Bieber

Too Much (feat. Usher) [Alle Farben Remix] - Single

Marshmello, Imanbek & Alle Farben

Too Much (feat. Usher) - Single

Marshmello & Imanbek

Chris Brown

Rico Love

No. 95: USHER’S Confessions

The masterpiece that took ATL music and culture global.

USHER: The Zane Lowe Interview

The R&B icon talks to Zane about COMING HOME.

Barry Lather breaks down USHER’s superstar legacy.

Live From Super Bowl LVIII

Zane Lowe, Nadeska, Dotty, and guests in Las Vegas.

Danyel Smith examines Black artists' impact on pop music.

USHER

The team celebrates the release of “Ruin.”

Jermaine Dupri talks USHER's early R&B music.