Huff POST:

We selected 13 of the most bracing lyrics for your enjoyment below. Check out fan reactions to the music below. Looking 4 Myself is out in the United States on Tuesday.

1. "Girl you are my sugar shop, love you like a lollipop / From the bottom to the top, Imma get you wet, raincoat / Let me be your body soap" ("Can't Stop Won't Stop")

2. "I have you like ooh, Baby baby ooh baby baby / Ah-ooh baby baby ooh baby baby" ("Scream")

3. "I CARE! I CARE! For youuuuuu" ("I Care For You")

4. "Hey girl, I'm debating, if I should take you home. Should I take you home?" ("Lemme See")

5. "She say she wanna take her skirt off (be my guest!)" ("Lemme See")

6. "Chanel hoodie on, lookin' like Trayvon Martin, George Zimmer don't want it" (Rick Ross on "Lemme See")

7. "You had me lookin' stupid, but I let it go that way / That booty substituted, guess that made it okay!" ("Twisted")

8. "I see the walls are looking like they might precipitate / Until I'm in so deep, it's up to my waist" ("Dive")

9. "It's raining inside your bed / No parts are dry / Love makes you so wet, your legs, your thighs /And ever since we first met I knew that / I, I knew I was ready baby to take that dive" ("Dive")

10. "I'm just saying that what don't kill only makes you strong" ("Numb") [Ed. note: Come on!]

11. "F--k you out your brain, you'll be smiling when he's done" ("Lessons for the Lover")

12. "Yeah, she took my breath away / On to some fancy ship [s--t?] into another place / Such an expensive trip But she didn’t make me pay for it with my money" ("Sins of My Father")

13. "'Cause if I don't fear the water, and the night don't fear the thief / Here we are, we are, we found euphoria! BASS DROP" ("Euphoria")

^ This is a partial reason I stay away from Usher albums post-Confessions because of stupid shit like this.

Yeah, I used to like his music. After Confessions, his music wasn't as good There was a track he made I liked after Confessions, it was called Play Me. But for whatever reason, never made an album.

"Fuck you out your brain..."?

Well it worked for Tameka but no so much for Chili.

ABeautifulOne said:

You know you struck a nerve when a legend gotta tweet about it... damn Usher.

I really feel like this new album is too soon after Raymond V Raymond. I'm used to his 3 to 4 year breaks followed by his usual takeover. This is also evident in the press he's been doing that he really doesn't care much for the stuff on the album. I wouldn't mind seeing him do some work with Jermaine Dupri because his most memorable work in my opinion was always with him.

ABeautifulOne said:

I really feel like this new album is too soon after Raymond V Raymond. I'm used to his 3 to 4 year breaks followed by his usual takeover. This is also evident in the press he's been doing that he really doesn't care much for the stuff on the album. I wouldn't mind seeing him do some work with Jermaine Dupri because his most memorable work in my opinion was always with him.

I feel this album is all about him doing his pop thing and trying to stay young and relevant. He did have a 2 year break in between albums, but he released the David Guetta song as well as tested a few singles at radio at the end of last year to lead up to this album. They seem to have paid off.

I agree that his most memorable work was with JD, but I don't know if JD is still doing music. I watch his youtube channel from time-to-time and he seems to be concentrating on trying to find the next big star and promoting his dj gigs.

I wish Usher would do a real r&b album again and not try to do the pop/dance thing. Almost any song can make a good dance song, but he is going overboard with this crap.

Fuck an Usher song

I am sick of him, everything past Confessions is just

I'm still mad him & Chilli never had babies. I'm sorry. Random thought. Popped in my head.

Cut him some slack, he didn't write a lot of the cd

aardvark15 said:

Cut him some slack, he didn't write a lot of the cd

That means I'm going 2 be even harder on him. Especially since he didn't write it.

Ova.

musicjunky318 said:

I'm still mad him & Chilli never had babies. I'm sorry. Random thought. Popped in my head.

Shiit Im mad Chilli never had babies with anyone else besides Dallas Austin's corn nut looking ass. She's a top of the line dime. She should have BEEN married with lots of kids. I'm surprised Usher never tried to plant seed in her. For real! He waits until Tameka Foster to get the urge to procreate?

[Edited 6/12/12 16:45pm]

For real though?

When has he been known as an awesome lyricist?

Outrage over nothing.

ABeautifulOne said:

I really feel like this new album is too soon after Raymond V Raymond. I'm used to his 3 to 4 year breaks followed by his usual takeover. This is also evident in the press he's been doing that he really doesn't care much for the stuff on the album. I wouldn't mind seeing him do some work with Jermaine Dupri because his most memorable work in my opinion was always with him.

He seems to like it. lol

Do you think “Climax” is a song that can appeal to everyone? I think that it is a song that the majority of my audience will like. But for my core, if I didn’t catch them with this new sound, at least I caught them with a vocal that felt reminiscent of something I’d done before. Then, singing in falsetto, that was classic. So my older demographic, they remember that. There was something about The Spinners or something about The Temptations that that older audience loved. They love when—I don’t know what
it is, but as a kid doing talent shows, any performer that had the ability to go to his falsetto won the show. It’s crazy.

Was your falsetto something you had to cultivate? I didn’t have to go to my falsetto as a child. I could actually sing that high. So as I got older and went through puberty and started to have a vocal change, I had to find other ways to get up there. That’s how I did it.

Is it effortless now? Now it is, yeah. It was cool, when Diplo first played the beat—he played “Climax” before it was “Climax,” and a girl had written a song over it. Ariel [Rechtshaid, a “Climax” co-writer] and him had me in a corner, they were like, Yo, this is a bit different but I think you’re gonna like it. I think that this is one that you could really dig. So they started playing it, and I said, I don’t like this song, no offense, but I do love the record. I said, Why don’t you let me put some melodies down and find my way? And I instantly went to falsetto and Diplo looked at me like, Wow, that’s dope. For the first time, I recognized that I had a gear that I wasn’t utilizing. I’ve used it in the past but I’d never use my falsetto—as the first single? Never. That was like my homage to Prince. Every album I’d always do like one song that is very Prince-influenced, because he’s a great influence on me musically, especially just kind of being expansive and creating music that represents many different genres. You never could put his music in a specific box. He was just “it,” you know what I mean? So taking that risk, taking that shot, I thought was daring, but I really wanted to put out—I wanted to give my fans a record that they would not expect. I fucking hate that we didn’t have a camera rolling when we created it, because it was so cool how it happened. Redd Stylez [another “Climax” co-writer], myself and Ariel, we just kept talking about it and I kept throwing the melodies. And then we started jotting the lyrics. Second verse I didn’t even give anybody no time to say anything. I said, I got it, I got it. Instantly. It was a little bit of Coldplay that I pulled from.

Was it hard to get your label or anyone on your team onboard with the sound? It was not popular on American airwaves at that point. It was organic in the way it happened. I don’t think anybody suspected it. Once again, high-class problems—I have an audience that is kind of reluctant to accept something new from me because they know what they like. They know what they bought me for. And if you sold a million in a week, then you did something right. If you sold over 13 to 18 million albums, you’ve done something right. So, you know, here you’re stuck or you’re challenged with, man, do I just give them what I know they want or do I try to, once again, change the story and give a grand opening. This is an ever-rolling treadmill that speeds up and the story changes. As you go different places, you’re influenced by different things, you begin to become more conscious of what’s going on around you.

Still, next to all this electronic music, Looking 4 Myself has a very organic sounding track produced by Salaam Remi. How do these things work together in your head? How did this make one unified record? You know what it is? I don’t feel like I’m leaving anything out. Some emotional, some artistic, some expansive, some tech, some about just having a good time, just fun, a bit of nostalgia, all of that. I think it’s my humble beginning, the fact that I was surrounded by people who were creative enough to break the trend, then create the trend. It was Jermaine Dupri, it was L.A. Reid that really set a stage for me to feel comfortable creatively myself because I didn’t recognize that I had enough references to pull from. I just didn’t know yet. So it wasn’t until these last three albums that I began to tell the story the way I really wanted to as a writer and as a producer.

Where do you go to hear new music? Who do you talk to? You should just thank Shazam because everywhere I go, I put it up.

Can I see your Shazam? [At this point Usher pulls out his iPhone and opens up the Shazam app, but instead of showing me the list of songs, he tries to capture the end of the song playing in the restaurant and then puts his phone down.] For real, it’s the new crate. You know how we used to dig through the crates and walk the aisles? Back in the day, right, it was really walking through the aisles, man. Just finding inspiration and the only way you would catch—because you couldn’t pop them open back then.

How do you have time to remain so curious? Because music is that way. It only takes three minutes to make a difference in a lifetime. Three minutes can change a life.

The diversity of your interest in music is— I’m a scholar at this shit, man. You know what it is? I just love it. I really just love music, man. I don’t do it for the business of it, I really just…I love music.

How is your professional relationship with music different now that, as you’re saying, you feel like you get to do whatever you want? What I mean is that an audience is now more receptive to new concepts and ideas. In the past, I think that there was a kind of standard format box created for most styles of music. If you’re R&B, you’re this. If you’re hip-hop, you’re this. If you’re indie, you’re this. If you’re rock, you’re this. And they would not blur the lines, until now. You can put it all together. You can create melting pot experiences through music. Hybrids.

One of my favorite songs of yours, and I feel bad bringing it up it because it was a leak, is “Dat Girl Right There.” Do you remember that song? Rich Harrison [the song’s producer].

He was having such a huge moment when that song was done, just like Lil Jon when you did “Yeah!” Once again, people are not as receptive to a sound because it was crazy to them, it was loud. It sounds new. People are always afraid of what they—it’s like, you’re gonna eventually love what you’re afraid to love. You’ll fall in love with what you fear at some point.

A song that crazy sounding, if you had made it now, do you think it would have come out now? Yeah, I do.

Do you regret that? I regret that somebody leaked it, that’s what I regret.

How does hip-hop play into the music that you make? I feel like if anything, hip-hop is moving closer to your direction than the other way around. When you have producers like 40, producers like Diplo, they understand the history and you always hear a little bit of a homage of the early ’90s in their music. That was kind of like a high point for me as an artist, but also in terms of what was influencing all of us, be it Wu-Tang, be it Bad Boy in the era of Bad Boy, or Death Row, Souls of Mischief or whatever it may be, or Sade, or any of those influences and those people that were very large at that time. All those mixtures work, because here you have the babies of that era that are now creating, and they’re creating based off what they feel.

Why do you have less hip-hop collaborations than a lot of R&B singers? Well, I don’t think as many songs call for it, you know? Whereas now, Drake has made it—well I mean, go back, I made it okay to rap over ballads. So I guess even the creation of artists like Drake, having been an inspiration for those artists, I guess that was my style at one point. And as I begin to create other things and go in other directions, it still was great inspiration for them. So when you hear music like Drake or music that 40 and them create, I feel great about it. I love it and I wanted to participate in it, but I didn’t think that I needed as many features because the music doesn’t call for it. Rick Ross was one on “Lemme See.” I felt like that would complement the record and make it better, and
it was a surprise, you know?

What do you think about the general state of R&B, with the recent success of The Weeknd and The-Dream? Do you feel like they owe you something? I’m pretty sure that I helped to drive the inspiration behind certain things. But I don’t take ownership in it. I’m cool with everybody.

Do you like it? I like it. I think taking ownership is just enjoying it, you know what I’m saying? I think it was cool, the first time Drake performed in Atlanta, he actually performed in the place I got discovered. He throws on—I think it was “Dot Com” or “Seduction.” And I kind of walked out on stage and gave him a pound and the crowd went crazy. They didn’t know I was there. But just like out of respect for me, he’s like, Yo, this is the type of shit I used to listen to when I was coming up, you know, and I used to—this is my jam, this is my shit. And he threw the record on. An impromptu moment, I just walked up and just gave him a pound, cause I thought, you know, respect. You got ATL love. I consider myself an ambassador of the A.

How much do you think that Atlanta’s music scene has influenced you? I’m surprised that you’ve never done anything with anybody from Outkast or Organized Noize. I tried. Not many people know this, that that was the first crew I ran with. Me and Big Boi—it’s some shit I really fucking regret, man. Yeah, Big Boi had reached out to L.A. [Reid] and Kawan Prather [then both at LaFace Records] about getting me on “I Like the Way You Move,” and at the time—I don’t know—I just made a bad decision not to get on the record. Sleepy [Brown] ended up doing the record, but every time I hear it I always say, Damn, that’s a boat missed. He sold me a dog, though.

Who did? Big Boi.

Big Boi sold you a dog? Yeah. I got one of his pits.

smoothcriminal12 said:

For real though?

When has he been known as an awesome lyricist?

Never.

Timmy84 said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

For real though?

When has he been known as an awesome lyricist?

Never.

The only reason he's been successful is because he gives off that MJ and R. Kelly vibe. No not the vibe some people are thinking of, sickos

I cringed at Rick Ross line. I really wish Usher didn't put him on there or change the verse smh. I'm glad I retired from Hip Hop this year

babybugz said:

I cringed at Rick Ross line. I really wish Usher didn't put him on there or change the verse smh. I'm glad I retired from Hip Hop this year

With his Jabba the Hut looking ass.

babybugz said:

I cringed at Rick Ross line. I really wish Usher didn't put him on there or change the verse smh. I'm glad I retired from Hip Hop this year

I hated him for that and I still do. So inappropriate.

The only time i could ever stand Rick Ross... where his verses on Kanye MBDTW. And Rick didn't even write those lol.

Usher has never really wrote any of his songs, but i still think some of his old hits ala U Remind Me, U Got It Bad, Superstar, Burn etc.

Where pretty well written R&B Songs.

But he got them make hits quick writers and now he has songs about.... whatever these are

the lyrics are horrible,but hey....this is todays' music we are talking about there's not alot of deep,profound lyrics in most of today's pop music.

I can't wait until I'm signed.

SoulAlive said:

the lyrics are horrible,but hey....this is todays' music we are talking about there's not alot of deep,profound lyrics in most of today's pop music.

**tries to think of a current pop artist spitting profoundly deep lyrics**

Nope. I got nothing!

HotGritz said:

SoulAlive said:

the lyrics are horrible,but hey....this is todays' music we are talking about there's not alot of deep,profound lyrics in most of today's pop music.

**tries to think of a current pop artist spitting profoundly deep lyrics**

Nope. I got nothing!

"When I'm sittin' with Anna I'm really sittin' with Anna. Ain't a metaphor, punchline, I'm really sittin' with Anna" -Nicki Minaj

Very deep lyrics if you ask me

aardvark15 said:

HotGritz said:

**tries to think of a current pop artist spitting profoundly deep lyrics**

Nope. I got nothing!

"When I'm sittin' with Anna I'm really sittin' with Anna. Ain't a metaphor, punchline, I'm really sittin' with Anna" -Nicki Minaj

Very deep lyrics if you ask me

she's a stupid ho but i lubbs her like a puppy lubbs momma's milk.

HotGritz said:

aardvark15 said:

"When I'm sittin' with Anna I'm really sittin' with Anna. Ain't a metaphor, punchline, I'm really sittin' with Anna" -Nicki Minaj

Very deep lyrics if you ask me

she's a stupid ho but i lubbs her like a puppy lubbs momma's milk.

I'm the same way I still listen to her debut from time to time