. In that time, the growth of streaming has reshaped the music industry, hip-hop has become the dominant cultural force, and a new generation of R&B prodigies has revived the genre — and also made it more competitive than ever. But while the enthusiastic response to his Vegas residency suggests he could easily coast on nostalgia, Usher isn’t ready to settle into legacy-artist status just yet. “I would call myself ‘seasoned’ more than ‘elder statesman,’ ” he says, smiling.
Usher has also spent the last few years working on his ninth studio album — his third on RCA — which he expects will roll out later in 2021. RCA is, of course, not a bad place to be for an R&B artist — right now, it’s home to next-generation powerhouses like Khalid, SZA, H.E.R., Normani, Doja Cat and Jazmine Sullivan. It’s also where Usher gets to work with longtime friend Mark Pitts, who was named label president in January.
Collectively, those songs are reminiscent of the classic R&B sounds and intimate lyrics on a pair of his career-defining albums,. Some of Usher’s most treasured hits have been the anguished slow jams that felt ripped from his diary, even if they weren’t strictly autobiographical, and Usher has lived a lot of life since his last album, including a divorce from second wife Grace Miguel in 2018.
Listening to the new music, it sounds like you spent a lot of time soul searching and pressing the reset button — like many of us have lately.
Usher Kiwanis Turner