Following the release of “Good Kisser,” I was quickly reminded that, while it has been practically impossible to avoid his music, Usher has ridden the industry’s crests rather than spurred them. 1’s and 18 Top 10’s charting on Billboard’s Hot 100.īut, despite the ubiquity of his music in spin classes, grocery stores, shopping malls, and other venues that are safe spaces for Top 40 radio-did you go anywhere in 2010 without hearing “OMG”?-Usher has skirted the periphery of real cultural impact. Through it all, he has been a consistent purveyor of carefree party anthems and tawdry bedroom fare, with nine No. and more than 65 million globally, making him one of the world’s highest-selling artists. Over seven albums, he has shipped more than 23 million records in the U.S. But, somehow, Usher-known by the nickname Ursher, baby-has managed to stay pretty close to the top for the better part of two decades. The pop landscape is a treacherous one to navigate a nominal glance at the current career status of his protégé, Justin Bieber, suggests that the law of gravity applies to celebrity as it does matter. The arrival of “Good Kisser,” the excellent new single and video heralding his forthcoming eighth album, is a reminder of just why: The song, on which he sings euphemistically and in multiple registers about “lipstick on his leg,” is plain good. Today, 20 years after his debut and at a still-baby-faced 35, he is practically an anomaly, one of the only artists from that era still standing, reputation untarnished. It was the ’90s and as R&B and hip hop made the transition from niche genres to entertainment staples, Usher was an appropriately friendly proposition. Usher, much like a young Chris Brown before he was derailed by an inability to keep his hands to himself or otherwise stay out of trouble, was birthed by the music industry a perfect leading man: cutely dimpled with a voice like honey and moves like a technically trained dancer. He then spends the rest of the track praising one particular set of lips (“You do it so good, you fuck my mind”), setting the scene with lots of specific imagery (“Five in the mornin,’ kush is rollin’ while she’s makin’ steak and eggs / Five in the mornin’, we can only be about to do one thing”) as jazzy keyboards and handclaps roll into the chorus.All the while, Usher Raymond IV grew from middling R&B novelty-the young, preternaturally talented 14-year-old he was on his first, self-titled album, released in 1994-to veritable pop star, pyrotechnic-ed out stadium tours and all. “I done been around the world / I done kissed a lotta girls,” Usher sings at the top. But the Auto-Tune-free “Good Kisser” is a throwback in every sense of the word – from the dusty vinyl pops to the cowbell-heavy percussion to the overall loose vocal delivery (which finds the singer trailing the beat just so, stretching out each line). Usher’s seventh studio album, Looking 4 Myself, was a conscious attempt to explore new musical dimensions, with several tracks pairing his soulful vocal style with bold, modern dance beats. Usher’s Slide Glide and 19 Other Iconic Rock Star Move GIFs It’s one of many seductive boasts on his funky new single, “Good Kisser,” which finds the R&B phenom celebrating the art of the smooch over a nimble, uptempo groove. Usher has “lipstick on (his) leg,” and that’s no accident.
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