In the late ’90s, Usher rode a sensual stream of hits produced by Jermaine Dupri to stardom before going supernova with Confessions, the 2004 album that transformed the singer into a bad boy. “I don’t feel like I’ve ever been in competition with anyone else,” he says cheerfully. But Usher doesn’t view his career in competitive terms.
His long list of hits also eclipses the catalog of Justin Timberlake, the closest thing he’s had to a true rival. Kelly, and has more number ones than his immediate successor, Chris Brown. He outlasted his immediate predecessor, R. He’s been making music for three decades now, and was at the center of pop music for two of them. He doesn’t look like it, but Usher is 44. I turn around and he’s fleeing the scene like the Hamburglar with two armfuls of goodies, grinning: “You’re going to pass these up?!”
USHER LAS VEGAS FULL
On the way out, we are offered gift bags full of chocolate, which everyone politely declines.Įveryone, that is, but Usher. There is a dinner reservation at Carbone waiting. After about an hour-just long enough for a tipsy woman to ask Usher if he’s seen White Lotus-we retreat to the car. He graciously chats with all of them and poses for selfies. A string of MGM bigwigs-and the MGM bigwigs’ wives and kids and kids’ college friends-catch word that Usher is in the back and quickly arrive to schmooze. Someone gets Usher a drink, and a charcuterie board appears for the rest of us.
We are led to a back room, with a small bar, a few tables, and metallic streamers cheerily, if haphazardly, hanging on the walls. “Let me-I’ll go get someone.” But then Usher smiles at her and she smiles back and that idea of going to get someone slips her mind. “We didn’t know you were coming!” she says.
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