Usher Talks New Album, Gets Competitive in Fragrance Market

Now that the wedding hype is over, R&B singer Usher is hard at work putting the final tweaks on his yet untitled new album. The album, which has no release date, is Usherâs follow-up to his 2004 multi-platinum disc, Confessions. “I’m on my way,â Usher tells MTV. âI’m actually just about finished. I’ve been working on it all this year amongst all the other things I’ve been doing. It’s been a somewhat tumultuous year for me. But you go through something to get to something. I’m a married man with a baby on the way, you gotta love that. That’s the next major step. A lot of what I plan to offer with this album is kinda standing in this spot. … The king’s back. I ain’t gonna say ‘back,’ I never left.” The untitled set will boost production from Usherâs long time amigo Jermaine Dupri and the production team of Dre & Vidal. Other possible collaborators include Cool & Dre and T-Pain. On another note, Usher launched two fragrances at Macyâs in New Yorkâs Heard Square this week. “I wanted to do something for my female fans as well as my male fans,” he says about the fragrances. “I want to leave everybody feeling right. I wanted to shut it all the way down. I felt the only way to get acclimated into this business is to take into account there are two directions you can go into: male or female. Nowadays entrepreneurships start in any direction. I take notes from great designers like Tommy Hilfiger, Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford. These people were able to fully introduce an entire lifestyle brand. Me, I decided to start with fragrance. Clothing is coming. There are other businesses and other ventures as an entrepreneur you can look forward to. This is the one that will get directly on your skin.” Usher says for the past year and change, he was involved in every facet of the cologne-making process, including the smell and the design of the bottles and boxes. The singer has partnered with Liz Claiborne for his new fragrance. View Photos from Usher’s Fragrance Launch