“I didn’t want my music to be biased by what I was going through in my personal life or corner myself with a specific sound from there or New York,” says Usher, who eventually settled in Las Vegas. “We said, ‘We’ve got to get the guys wanting to be him and the girls wanting to do him.’ That was our approach.”Īfter meeting just before Christmas 2008 to begin laying the groundwork for the album, the next thing Pitts and a still-married Usher did was get out of his hometown of Atlanta. Raymond” was never envisioned as a contemporary take on Marvin Gaye’s 1979 marriage-rending epic, “Here My Dear.” It was more about “we’ve got to get this old-man shit off you you’ve got to have some fun,” says Mark Pitts, who A&R’d the project and is president of black music for Jive Label Group. “Now you hear him boldly breaking out on the singles ‘Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)’ and ‘Lil Freak.’ There’s an in-your-face cockiness, but in an ‘I’m free’ kind of way.”ĭespite a title that echoes the confrontational heading of a divorce filing, “Raymond Vs. ” ‘Here’ was a transitional album that got him from the Usher we knew through his tumultuous marriage and divorce,” Williams says. With three tracks simultaneously climbing the R&B and pop charts and the recent hire of a new manager, industry veteran and AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips, can the 31-year-old divorced father of two recapture his swagger? Lamonda Williams, director of video on demand for Music Choice, believes that Usher is primed to capture the base he lost. While “Here” eventually became a platinum seller (1.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan), fans’ response to its more serious, mature tone paled in comparison to Usher’s previous multiplatinum hallmarks, “8701” (4.7 million) and “Confessions” (9.7 million). Raymond.” It’s the often-delayed follow-up to his 2007 album, “Here I Stand”-and the first since his much-publicized marriage to Tameka Foster ended in divorce.

Now all eyes are on Usher as the March 30 release date approaches for “Raymond Vs.

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