So it’s not an awards show per se, but tonight is the night MTV says goodbye to Total Request Live (or TRL as it’s more popularly known). While the right way to send it off would be to play 1/4 of a video, have some obnoxious kid screaming over it, and feature lots of “whooooooooo!”s, they are sending the show off with a 2 1/2 hour special that’s sure to feature some serious star power. I have selflessly decided to sit through this event with my trusty bag of sour cream and onion Ruffles (Frito-Lay, y’all need to pay up). Worst comes to worse, it should be interesting. I will suspend my Jackson alert for this particular event (ironically, just as some video footage of Michael standing on top of a car (relax, it’s from 2001) pops up on the screen).
Tag: Usher
-
Ne-Yo Wants Usher To Focus
The latest from MTV.com is that Usher’s going to drop a new album next year. But what about Here I Stand, which dropped in late May just this year? Personally, I thought the album was above average, but lacked that extra Usher something. Money Mike and I discussed this when we talked about commercial R&B in 2008.
Usher says that Ne-Yo will be a part of the new project and Ne-Yo had a lot to say about Usher’s latest work.
Well, I was one of the first people to tell Usher, personally, that I didn’t think he was focused on the album … on Here I Stand. I don’t think his focus was in the right place. And I’m a dude, and that’s my personal opinion and I’m entitled to it, and he respected that I kept it real with him about that. I think that this time around … It’s not so much that I think Here I Stand was a bad record, it just wasn’t the Usher that we remembered. I mean, that joint [Confessions] right there went 10-15 million worldwide, so it was going to be difficult to come back from that anyway. So I just think he’s gotta get back to what he knows, which is to get out there and make ’em dance — entertain them at the end of the day. Like, it seems like he had a lot to say, almost like he had something to prove with the Here I Stand record. Like a different dude now: ‘I got a family now, and this is who I am.’ As opposed to before, when it was about, ‘I’mma get up and entertain y’all. I’m gonna sing songs that got something to say, but at the same time, I’m gonna entertain y’all.’ And I think he just needs to get back there. And I think that’s where he’ll wind up.To shorten what he said, it sounds to me that he just didn’t think the album was hot, no matter what the themes were. And I think that’s what I was getting at. Musically, Here I Stand was fine. But it wasn’t hot. There wasn’t anything on that record that made you stand up and listen.
But what Ne-Yo didn’t say was that he made the album Usher was striving for. If you haven’t heard to Year Of The Gentleman, check it out. It’s a more maturely written record on the relationships vibe than Usher’s was.
Photo by monstershaq2000 shared via creative commons
-
Sound Dialogue – R&B In 2008
Before these last two months, I had only purchased two albums that would qualify as R&B music, which is my favorite genre. Those albums were the up and down Day26 release and Usher’s latest, which is good, though a bit underwhelming. However, with the release of Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, Raphael Saadiq, and the newly released Evolver from John Legend, R&B is on fire right now. Money Mike and I discussed R&B music in the year 2008 in our latest Sound Dialogue.
GG: What was going on in the early parts of 2008 with R&B music? I’m sure there were a few releases that I missed, but nothing even tempted me to make a purchase. Are there any underdog R&B stories of 2008 that I missed, or was it just a weak first 7 months for R&B?
MM: You and I have sort of different tastes when it comes to R&B. There’s a very specific sound you like, which is the male groups and the male solo artists with a less alternative kind of sound. I like that stuff too, so maybe I should just say that we have similar tastes, but there are some artists I dig that you probably wouldn’t go for. There were a couple of sleepers in the early part of the year. Raheem Devaughn’s album was good, as was Van Hunt’s. But as far as contemporary R&B, things were looking bad until last month.
GG: I guess that’s how I should’ve stated it. Contemporary R&B. Conventional R&B. Whatever you want to call it. But I want to ask you something related. Why hasn’t there been much in the world of female R&B? Or is that another genre that I’m missing out on?
