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R&B legend Usher recently sat down with Questlove for Pandora to dish on his long standing career, his past marriage, a major song that was supposed to be his but was given to another artist, and more.
The singer says that when he first got signed and was working with LA Reid and Babyface, his album was crafted and ready to go, then things took a turn for the worst with the relationship between Face and LA and they ultimately parted ways as we know.
As a result, many of the songs Usher recorded, were given to other artist. One of those songs was ‘Can We Talk.’ which went to Tevin Campbell.
He also dishes on how his team told him not to work with Chris Brown early on, and he says this is his biggest career regret. Get into the highlights below via Ebony.
Artist in the middle: The L.A. Reid and Babyface feud that left Usher without an album…
“…when I first signed to LaFace Records, I wanted to do an album with Babyface and LA Reid, right? I signed specifically for that reason. So LA Reid wanted Babyface to work on me and they were going through, you know, a lot of drama at the time. They were kinda severing their ties…he got mad…And he built an entire album for me, and he gave the whole album to somebody else…Tevin Campbell! ‘Can We Talk’…was my song…”
The Confession: Usher on his one career regret…
“So there’s one thing in my career that I definitely regret, one thing. And to this day I battle with it which is why I always show support of this artist whenever he asks…So his manager comes in…They show him to me…I was working on an album at this time, they wanted him to perform on this album…I was like okay cool…Then I went to my team and they was like ‘I don’t think you should work with this artist’…Then he left…Chris Brown.”
Old Flame: Usher addresses his first marriage to Tameka Raymond.
“…that marriage and that relationship was gonna come to an end…but it served a purpose in my life…And no matter what my mother was attempting to tell me, and a lot of people were trying to tell me about that, I think a lot of it had to do with my lack thereof a father…I did not want to be a person who would just roll out…”
Who knew!?
