Usher once dropped a bombshell about how his career was affected when he got caught up in Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmond’s beef back in the day.
The singer got candid in a 2017 interview with The Roots’ drummer, Questlove, on his Pandora radio show, Questlove Supreme, Ebony Magazine reported how Usher dished about his musical journey, personal and love life and how singer Tevin Campbell ended up receiving songs that were originally meant for him, ILOSM reports.
Usher: “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…”
“Can We Talk” ended up being the biggest song of Tevin’s career.
The R&B crooner also dished about his relationship with his mother, who for years served as his manager until he fired her.
Usher: “I’m a grown man in theory because I’ve always been the man of the house…I’ve elected to be the provider of the family even though my mother is the protector…she crippled me a little bit for a minute because my focus wasn’t, had nothing to do with business. Had everything to do with art and I thank her for that because I wouldn’t of established the focus that I have now…if I was always kind of trying to figure out who’s trying to take the money, where the money’s coming from, I would’ve been petty…I would have lost sight of what the goal was…”
Elsewhere in the interview, Usher revealed that his biggest regret was denying a young Chris Brown
Usher: “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.”
And when it comes to his ex-wife, Tameka Raymond, and why he stayed in the marriage for so long, Usher had this to say: “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…”
