![]() This one girl reminds Usher of a girl that he used to know, and that’s what caught his eye in the first place. ![]() That’s not because Usher is an unfeeling asshole who ditches women immediately after bedding them. Usher spends the entire song telling a girl that he can’t get involved with her. “U Remind Me” is structured as one long breakup letter - a breakup that happens before a relationship even really begins. Usher didn’t have a role in writing “U Remind Me,” but the song couldn’t be any more perfect for his whole sensitive-player persona. So we had to make a nice guy but not too nice.” “U Remind Me,” the lead single from Usher’s 2001 album 8701, is nowhere near Usher’s best song, but it might be the track where Usher walked that line most expertly. Writing about 1998’s “ Nice & Slow,” Usher’s first #1 hit, I noted something that the songwriter Manuel Seal said about Usher’s whole positioning strategy: “We didn’t want too good a guy like Michael Jackson, and we didn’t want too bad a guy like Bobby Brown. In his early years, Usher perfected the art of melancholy flirting. ![]() I’m pretty sure Usher Raymond IV has had more success with the sensitive-player archetype than any other artist in the long history of American popular music. ![]() The sensitive player has to convince you that he means what he says. The sensitive player is a role, a pose, but it’s a pose that can’t be halfassed. If he leans too hard into the player side, nobody will buy his sensitivity. If he’s too sensitive, he can’t be a player anymore. But then, when the sensitive player gets that love, he has to backpedal right away, to remove himself from any messy feelings-based entanglements. He has to make himself hugely desirable to any women in the immediate vicinity, but he can’t make himself emotionally available to those women. The sensitive player is soft and wounded and approachable, but he can’t be locked down. If you’re going to be a sensitive player, you need to walk a very thin line. R&B siren Faith Evans opened the night in a Lakers jersey and jeans, performing selections from her catalog, including “You Gets No Love,” “I Love You,” and “Burnin’ Up,” her new release.In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. He wrapped his performance with a heartfelt rendition of “One Mic,” his current single. ![]() And while Nas verbally attacked Kelly in March when he performed his anti-Jay-Z record “Ether” in Los Angeles, the Queensbride artist refrained from mentioning Kelly this time. Kelly music bed he previously swapped for a Sade track. Nas hyped the crowd during his run, skimming through his classics, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” “If I Ruled The World,” “You Owe Me,” “Hate Me Now,” and “Oochie Wally.” When performing “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” he used the R. “U Got It Bad” featured impressive robotic dance moves, and Usher added excitement during a Michael Jackson-influenced segment that sent the charismatic singer on a scavenger hunt for rhinestone-laced shoes, jacket, and glasses. Diddy collaboration “I Need A Girl.”Īfter apologizing because he was about to get a “little freaky,” Usher performed “I Need A Girl,” and pulled a woman from the audience on stage, offering her a present (lingerie, thong, and condom), an Usher T-shirt, and his chain and medallion. The 90-minute set included theatrical, well-choreographed, and sometimes risque performances of his staple hits “Nice & Slow,” “My Way,” “You Make Me Wanna,” “U Remind Me,” and the P. R&B singer Usher included a tribute to deceased celebrities during his headlining set Saturday (May 18) at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, California, which also included performances from Nas and Faith Evans.īefore closing his show, Usher said he wanted to sing a song for all of the people who have “come and gone and paved the way.” He sang Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” as a big screen monitor scrolled the names of Kurt Cobain, Eazy-E, Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G., George Harrison, Aaliyah, and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. ![]()
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