Usher on His Greatest Hits

(and Biggest Misconceptions)

- By Craig Jenkins

USHER RAYMOND'S viral NPR Tiny Desk settled what needed no debate. The Atlanta R&B veteran with the golden falsetto and stellar dance moves hasn't lost luster as a performer in the quarter-century since he spelled his name in 1997's "Nice and Slow." His catalogue is timeless and Teflon: nine No. 1 songs, platinum-selling hits in three different decades, a diamond-certified classic in 2004's Confessions. And yet Usher's meteoric career has often confounded audiences-first as a 14-year-old singing about mature themes, then when he married hip-hop production, and later EDM, with raw emotion. As he begins a new Las Vegas residency, one that venerates every stage of his trendsetting, Usher is garrulous and also unafraid to say he revolutionized some shit.

Most enduring memory of recording 1994's Usher with Diddy

I arrived different, the same way Aaliyah and Brandy did. I wasn't intended to make music that was just for kids. The culture, how we were moving and living, was different. Now, I can't necessarily say those songs were as successful as my future records, but I think Puffy was toying with something that was creating a new frontier. He pulled all of the strings: Al B. Sure!, Kyle West, Faith Evans. I had Jodeci singing background vocals on the first single, "Can U Get Wit It." It felt good to be welcomed by the guys who were running hip-hop and R&B. But that wasn't traditionally how you launched an R&B artist. Puff was trying to break the mold. All the people I work with are trying to do something that hasn't been done before.

Biggest musical inspirations