Hands down, Usher’s Confessions album is one of the best R&B albums to date, however, the singer believes that the album was also the birth of “toxic R&B.”
During a recent interview, the singer talked about being one of the most successful and best-selling artists and how his third single off of the fourth studio, also named Confessions, was the start of toxicity we have now in R&B.
“The conversation, the music, the entertainment, the dialogue, the energy around it. The toxic R&B of it. ‘Confessions’ was the birth of toxic R&B,” he said.
He continued, “Yo, but by the way, toxic was just being honest. It’s how you choose to say it. Toxic now is like: ‘I’m f***ed up and I’m just saying I’m f***ed up, and that’s it, with no remorse.”
The conversation shifted to Usher being regarded as an icon in R&B music. “When did I become an icon? Could it be a certain number of hit records, number ones? Albums sold, Awards given? Comparisons? Becoming the standard for other artists? I’m trying to figure it out,” he said.
Usher is currently working on his ninth studio album which was supposed to be a follow-up to Confessions but realized that that wasn’t the direction he wanted to go in anymore. “I can’t be who I was. I don’t want to be who I was. I want to be better than what I was.”
He added, “I’m feeling inspired again, to now launch new music and also to continue to keep this phenomenon going. It’s just really been about celebration of entertainment, celebration of the standard that was set by these incredible guys… Prince, Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly.”
Do you think that Confessions started toxic R&B?