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Biography"Teen pop" is a term so broad it's practically useless -- as if 13-year-olds and 19-year-olds have identical fantasy needs from their idols. Like a driver's license, the heavy breathing Usher Raymond is best reserved for the older girls. And like a driver's license, Usher spirits those girls far away from the security of parental supervision. Sure he's got a song called "Nice and Slow," but lines...
"Teen pop" is a term so broad it's practically useless -- as if 13-year-olds and 19-year-olds have identical fantasy needs from their idols. Like a driver's license, the heavy breathing Usher Raymond is best reserved for the older girls. And like a driver's license, Usher spirits those girls far away from the security of parental supervision. Sure he's got a song called "Nice and Slow," but lines such as "I got plans/To put my hands/In places I ain't never seen" suggest that he has quite an elastic definition for both "nice" and "slow."

Since producer Puff Daddy didn't know what to make of him, Usher falls flat -- Bad Boy on autopilot. But My Way is a persona coming into his own, ushered, if you will, by Jermaine Dupri. "U Make Me Wanna," with its yearning for "a new relationship," would be an unusually considered cheating song even by Nashville standards. Dupri's combo of hi-hat titters and Isley-styled acoustic guitar arpeggios can wear a little thin over 10 tracks, especially with guest raps from Lil' Kim and JD himself bogging down the proceedings, but this was the work of a major up-and-comer.

But when it came to following up My Way, Usher did take it nice and slow -- except for a live album (which, since you can't hear a pelvic thrust, is less redundant than useless), he was mostly silent for four years. And then a Napster leak led Arista to delay the album All About U, which was released, with new tracks, as 8701 on, well, 8-7-01. The lead single, "U Remind Me," nails a particular romantic problem -- trying not to fall for someone who reminds you of your ex -- but it does so in a self-serving way disguised as sensitivity. Let's hope the little girls set him straight on that. While they're at it, they could let him know he has the worst case of cutesy pronounitis since Prince at his heights -- eight U's in 15 songs, if you count "U-Turn." It all came together on Confessions -- by now Usher had grown a personality and a famous ex-girlfriend (Chilli of TLC) whom he could allude to on record. The jumpy, Lil Jon–produced "Yeah" became a Godzilla-sized hit, and Usher was now the biggest male R&B singer on the scene. (KEITH HARRIS/NATHAN BRACKETT)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide