I’d like to do something with Michael Buble, Harry Connick Jr., Tim McGraw, Justin Timberlake, and Gwen Stefani.
The beauty about living in Atlanta is that there aren’t too many paparazzi here; you can just relax. And that really works for me and my children.
I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.
Every time you come out with an album or a song, you want to feel like you’re growing a bit in what you are and giving people something that they can feel.
My music is about where I am at the time. In ‘Raymond vs. Raymond,’ I was going through a lot of things, and it came out in my music. My marriage fell apart, and I was suddenly a single father.
I’m a go-hard type. It’s in my DNA. I physically prepare my body as if I’m a trained athlete. After the shows, I sit in an ice tub and do a hot dip, cold dip, and sometimes I sit in a hyperbaric chamber to rejuvenate my energy.
Someday, I’d like to create a fashionable dance shoe.
The best present a man can give a woman is his undivided attention.
I create from a place of passion. It’s like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
I get to see life through rose-colored glasses a lot of the time.
I still believe in love. I believe in marriage.
I’m more for the style than the brand. I don’t go brand shopping; I go detail shopping.
I never hated my father. I would have named my child Usher regardless. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean.
The girls want to see the rips on your stomach – they like that.
You can’t fake being a star. But you can also become a great personality.
Sleeping is forbidden at the age of 22. It’s all work and no play.
You couldn’t find a more stylized boxer than Sugar Ray Leonard.
These days, I try to eat for my blood type when I’m not eating for the fat kid inside me.
I like to release music the way I feel it, as opposed to having a date. The idea of dates, boxes, categories are very scary for me.
When I was 14 years old, I was talking about much more mature things because of the writers that I had at the time. My first album was tied into what the culture was at that moment, which was Jodeci, Al B. Sure, Puff, The Hitmen. I reaped the benefits of being part of Bad Boy’s movement. That was my introduction.
I like to wear things that are daring but also not seem too avant-garde.
In life, you have to go through something to get to something. From that, the inspiration comes having something of substance to talk about; otherwise you’re just considered to be fluff.
In time we grow older, we grow wiser, we grow smarter, and we’re better. And I feel like I’m becoming more seasoned, although I don’t have my salt-and-pepper hair.
The only way you know what it is to be a boxer is to be one.
Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.
I’m not a morning person, but I’ve become one as the result of having kids. The morning is my private time to spend with my boys.
Success is about dedication. You may not be where you want to be or do what you want to do when you’re on the journey. But you’ve got to be willing to have vision and foresight that leads you to an incredible end.
I like a woman who takes care of herself – it says something about the way she’ll care for me.
My idea of artistry has always been ‘try everything until you find out what works.’
Down time is not the name of the game.
I’ve learnt that you are who you are, and in the end, if you don’t believe it, then no one will.
Artistic development made me who I am. Somebody took the time to help me find what it is that works for me as an entertainer and who I am as a music maker.
