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Usher’s songs reflect family life
Some of Usher’s fans have had a hard time accepting his marriage.
NEW YORK — For more than a decade, Usher’s music has been the soundtrack to a player’s lifestyle.
From singing about casual sex when he was just 15 to detailing the devastating details of an affair on his blockbuster CD “Confessions,” his songs have been filled with sex, passion, romance, partying, and yes, sometimes love — but young love, new love, fleeting love. Lyrics about commitment and enduring relationships were hard to find on his platinum-plus albums.
Until now.
Sure, the first single off his new album may talk about “Love in This Club.” But Usher is newly married and the father of a 7-month-old son. He has moved on from the party scene to the family life, and his new sense of responsibility has spilled over into his music on “Here I Stand,” which comes out today.
“When I started off writing this album, I wasn’t married. I wasn’t engaged, I didn’t have a child,” says Usher, 29. “I wanted to make substance-filled records that are off the beaten path from what is typical. Trends die. Love lives on.
“I wrote about so many tumultuous relationships and issues that I’ve had in relationships and people reacting to it. Let me change the stakes. Let me talk about the pleasures of a relationship.”
For some fans, Usher’s relationship has been hard to accept. He’s had a string of public romances, most notably his three-year relationship with Chilli from TLC. But his connection with his stylist Tameka Foster lit up the blogosphere with negative feedback.
Maybe it was their age difference (at age 37, she’s eight years older), or the fact that Foster had been married before and has three children. When the two wed last year, and she later gave birth to their son, Usher Raymond V, there were plenty of good wishes but not universal joy.
“People are so attracted to drama. That’s easier to take than a story of righteousness,” says Usher, dressed in all denim, looking intense as he sits backstage between rehearsals for his recent appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”
“I’m a guy that decided to marry a woman — a black woman — that wasn’t perfect, that had flaws, that through all in all, she’s been successful on her own. ... and that’s a bad thing. I decided to marry this woman, then I decide to be a father to my child,” he says with a laugh. “And that’s a bad thing. It’s not like I got caught with a gram of coke in my car or speeding or was caught for murder, so why would I be ridiculed, that’s why I don’t understand — that’s the part that is mind-boggling. Why would I be ridiculed for that, even a year later?”
There was also more gossip fodder when Usher dropped his mom-ager, Johnetta Patton, as his manager and replaced her with Benny Medina, who has guided the careers of Diddy, Will Smith and Mariah Carey. Some suggested that Foster pushed Usher’s mom out, but he denies that — or that he “left” his mother at all (she still lives nearby his house in Atlanta).
“Me and my mother are still in a good place have always been but we had our time as it relates to manager and artist, and now it’s more important to be mother and son,” he says strongly. “That matters to me. I took charge of my life and my situation and I dictated to my mother and the world this is what I’m going to do. It’s called taking charge, it’s called being a man — it’s called manning up. It’s called being responsible ... And it ain’t bad. It’s a good thing.”
“Big Jon” Platt, a top music publishing executive who has known Usher since he was a 17-year-old heartthrob, says any backlash is due to people not ready to see him grow up.