Story and Images by Todd Williams for Steed Media Service
Illustration by Craig Singleton
Change.
There’s been a lot written and said about change. “The more things change, the more they stay the same”; “the only constant is change”; “a change is gonna come.” Pick whichever cliché you like, but the point remains clear; change is something that every human being will have to reckon with at multiple points in their lives. For superstar Usher, change came in the form of marriage and fatherhood. For his fans, that change was less than ideal. His 2007 marriage to his stylist Tameka Foster, was met with speculation and skepticism from the second the couple announced their engagement. The two have been relatively quiet concerning their relationship — no joint interviews, no cover shots of the wedding — but that has only seemed to fuel the frenzy surrounding their marriage. It’s never easy transitioning from teen heartthrob to serious adult artist, either professionally or personally. The gossip page is littered with the casualties of that reality (hello, Britney) — and Usher has had to weather his fair share of celebrity storms. His very public romances with supermodel Naomi Campbell and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas of TLC fame were constant fixtures in entertainment pages, and everyone seemed to have an opinion regarding his marriage to Tameka Foster last year. The constant scrutiny would cause even the coolest celebrity to crack, and Usher has been decisively straightforward in his refusal to lay out his personal life for public critique. He told Entertainment Weekly in April, “This should be the last time that I have this type of dialogue about my wife or my family, and it’s because I’ve never really had the opportunity to speak … but I really don’t wanna make my business the focus of what this is.’’ However, with an album so rooted in the transition from carefree ladies’ man to husband and father, it’s almost impossible to discuss one without the other.
Eyebrow-raising relationships are nothing new to R&B — legend Marvin Gaye married Berry Gordy’s sister who was 17 years his senior. He followed that relationship with a marriage to Janis Hunter, a woman 17 years younger, whom he began dating when she was just 17. One of Sam Cooke’s best friends, Bobby Womack, shocked fans when he married Cooke’s wife six months after his murder. R. Kelly’s alleged marriage to the late R&B singer Aaliyah when she was 16 remains especially controversial in light of Kelly’s ongoing legal fight against child pornography charges. And the words ‘Michael Jackson weds Lisa Marie Presley’ still cause some people to spontaneous ly break out in hives. Like Gaye, who was inspired by his relationship with Hunter to write his classic 1973 LP Let’s Get It On; Usher’s latest, Here I Stand, is understandably influenced by his relationship with Foster. Here… finds the man who croons about ‘making love in this club,’ also cooing lullabies to his newborn son, and delivering shout-outs to his lady for making him a better man. “You can’t continue to do the same things at 30 or 40 that you did when you were 20,” he says. “Is it still as important to be that hustler [and] that player, as it is being a father, a stand-up man in a monogamous relationship?” If Usher has truly found happiness, why can’t the world be happy for him? Is the fans’ obsession with his marriage just a case of lovesick teenagers jealous that their superstar crush has settled down?
The music business’ ageism can sometimes confine artists in a box. Fans would like to believe that their favorite singers are always available, and since the beginning of teen idol-dom, many have tried to master that slippery slope. Obviously, it’s impossible for singers to remain forever frozen at age 22, churning out club-bangers and raunchy come-ons with the brash cool that comes with youth. Usher has always been able to deliver both — and a better quality than most of his peers, but with marriage and the birth of his son last year, the man born Usher Raymond IV had to have undergone some type of changes. “My goal with every album is to be as in the moment and as honest as I possibly can. I’m 30 years old now, so I’m not the same as I was at 21 or 24,” he says. “My life has definitely been a story over the last two years, but in 20 years, I don’t think people will remember all that.”
Usher admits that contemporary R&B began to lose ground in the early 21st century because it lacked the heart and soul of previous eras, replacing them with overly–glossy productions and love song clichés. “The industry had gone through a transformation; hip-hop had gotten so popular because it was so honest, and R&B was dying because it was losing its substance.”
True, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Talking Book or Let’s Get It On in the R&B albums that have been released in the past few years, but Usher has consistently delivered albums that, while they may not be timeless artistic statements, they are full-fledged albums that demand a listener’s complete attention. Of all the Michael Jackson disciples, (and there are many), Usher seems to share MJ’s late ‘70s, early ‘80s sense of exploration. His pairing with crunk king Lil Jon and Atlanta-based rap star Ludacris on the über-smash “Yeah” was as creatively fearless a combination of styles as when guitar god Eddie Van Halen guested on Jackson’s classic hit “Beat It.”
And it’s not as if the Gloved One is Usher’s only influence. He attributes much of his approach to classic soul singers of the ‘70s. “Singers like Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, Al Green — they were great vocalists with great range, but you always felt that masculinity in their topics and in what they were singing,” he explains. “I wanted to … do things that weren’t easy. I wanted my voice to express that sense of masculinity and to recognize this was a new person — a man who was singing these songs.”
The acceptance of Usher as a grown man might seem inevitable, but fame is much more complicated than that. The public typically doesn’t acknowledge evolution, and as a performer who burst into public consciousness when he was a teen, many have trouble accepting that Usher is an adult capable of charting his own course in life. Fans, bloggers, and assorted talking heads paint Tameka Foster as a gold-digging opportunist, seeking to cash in on a naïve young man’s fame and fortune. But Usher is 30, and has always seemed to prefer women older than he, (both Thomas and Campbell were roughly the same age as Foster). Whether the marriage lasts or not, it’s his life, so it’s his decision. And he’s more than capable of making it; as we all are.
Marriage is only one of three life-changing events that have undoubtedly shaped his outlook. He lost his own father earlier this year — shortly after becoming one himself, and these monumental transitions in his life are reflected in his work. The media and the public may always scrutinize his personal life, and he may have made missteps in his first decade and a half under the glare of the spotlight; but he’s still capable of delivering music that the fans can appreciate. And that’s what connects him to the Cooks, the Gayes and the Jacksons. His life may play out in the tabloids, but his music is why we care in the first place.
