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Usher
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Usher Raymond IV was born in 1978 in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the age of nine he sang in the church youth choir. The family then moved to Atlanta, where there were more opportunities for young singers. At twelve he became a member of the R&B group NuBeginning, and in 1994, at fifteen, his first album, Usher, was released. The breakthrough came in 1997 with My Way, on which Nice & Slow became his first number one on the American Hot 100.
Music and breakthrough
The third album, 8701, from 2001 yielded, among others, U Remind Me and U Got It Bad. Confessions from 2004 is the best-selling album by a Black artist in the twenty-first century, with the number one hits Yeah!, Burn, Confessions Part II and My Boo. Later came Here I Stand in 2008, with Love in This Club, and Raymond v. Raymond in 2010, with OMG. With these he topped the American chart in three consecutive decades. Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the 2000s.
Influence
Usher is a singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. His music moves from smooth R&B to dance and electronic production, always with a soft, flexible voice. In 2008 he founded the label Raymond-Braun Media Group to guide the career of Justin Bieber, and in 2024 he performed the Super Bowl halftime show. In School of Rock he belongs to the singers who scored hit after hit in the 1990s and 2000s, together with Rihanna.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1994Usher
- 1997My Way
- 20018701
- 2004Confessions
- 2005Rhythm City Volume One: Caught Up (soundtrack)
- 2007In the Mix (soundtrack)
- 2008Here I Stand
- 2010Raymond v Raymond
- 2012Looking 4 Myself
- 2016Hard II Love
- 2018“A”
- 2024COMING HOME
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 6: Fear of a Black PlanetNL Reader