If you were wondering why Usher is running around like a horny bachelor on new songs like "Hey Daddy" and "Lil' Freak," wonder no more. Apparently, singing about monogamy, marriage, dedication and fatherhood is "old man shit" that Usher and record label would rather shed. In an interview with Billboard.com, Usher's A&R Mark Pitts said that "Raymond v. Raymond" is all about shedding the heavy, introspective aforementioned grown man stuff from his last album, "Here I Stand," in favor of light, sex-driven material. Material with which Usher can use to compete with the Trey "I Invented Sex" Songzes of the world, no doubt. Source: Billboard.com
It was more about "we've got to get this old-man shit off you; you've got to have some fun," says Mark Pitts, who A&R'd the project and is president of black music for Jive Label Group. "We said, 'We've got to get the guys wanting to be him and the girls wanting to do him.' That was our approach."
Mr. Pitts has it wrong. Usher is a 31-year-old divorcé and father of two. Many of his fans have been with him for over 12 years and they, like him, are in their late 20s-early 30s. The sexual heartthrob approach that Pitts is talking about is great at launching a young, new artist, and it already worked for Usher with "My Way." But we're on Usher's sixth studio album, at some point he has to evolve and branch out a little. "Here I Stand" didn't perform at the level that "Confessions" did, but that's by no means any reason to retreat musically to immature bachelorhood. Maxwell has proven that grown men can not only make great music that people will want to listen to, but also, as "Bad Habit" proves, make a song sexy without descending into cheap vulgarity like Usher does on "Lil' Freak": If you fu**in with me / Really fu**ing with me you let her put her hands in your pants / be my little freak. With lyrics this desperate and lazy, you have to wonder if the concept of poetry has escaped Usher completely.
Even if Usher manages to score a cheap hit with "Lil' Freak" or "Hey Daddy," it does nothing to further his position as a successor to the throne of his idol Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson had huge hits, but he also grew as an artist on each project, tackling subjects such as the environment, social injustice and abuse in his music. There will always be some randy, young pup on the come-up who'll use sexually explicit lyrics to draw attention to themselves, so Usher shouldn't feel pressured to try to outsex or out-bachelor anyone. Inevitably, as he continues to age, he'll just lose out at that game to the youngin's.
Usher needs to focus on making authentic, quality music about love and life from the perspective of a man who's experienced a lot of both. That doesn't mean the music has to be stale or geriatric, but there needs to be more to Usher than just the bump and grind.
