(Alicia Keys also got a songwriting credit on “My Boo,” but that came later.) If I’d been blessed and/or cursed with the first name Adonis, I would’ve done the exact same thing. It’s a 6.) Adonis Shropshire was usually credited as just plain Adonis. Diddy’s hits “I Need A Girl (Part One)” and “ I Need A Girl (Part Two),” the former of which featured Usher. One of them was Manuel Seal, a regular Dupri collaborator who’d co-written a bunch of hits, including Usher’s “ Nice & Slow” and “ U Remind Me.”Īdonis Shropshire, the other “My Boo” co-writer, had been middle-school buddies with Usher in Chattanooga, and he’d moved to Atlanta and worked on tracks from artists like Jennifer Lopez, B2K, and Beyoncé. Usher and his regular collaborator Jermaine Dupri co-wrote “My Boo” with two other writers from that whole Atlanta R&B orbit. Instead, this particular “My Boo” started out as a potential Confessions track. Usher and Alicia Keys’ “My Boo” has nothing to do with Ghost Town DJ’s. The special edition of Confessions became the canonical version, and one of its bonus tracks, a duet with another crossover-friendly R&B singer, became the album’s fourth #1 hit. The ploy worked so well that it eventually became standard practice for most big pop albums. The Confessions reissue had a few remixes and bonus tracks, and it was almost transparently pitched as a way to sell more copies of Confessions to people who’d already bought the album in the first place. Earlier that month, Usher released the “special edition” of Confessions, the blockbuster album that had come out seven months earlier and dominated the Hot 100 all year. The day after that Jay-Z show, Usher extended his chart winning streak. He was in a rare zone, a zone that few pop stars will ever touch. By putting in a quick surprise performance, Usher could rescue a big night that could’ve collapsed into chaos without him. I tell this story not just because I love the lore surrounding A-list rap beefs but to illustrate something. (Kelly later admitted that he probably hadn’t seen any guns in the crowd.) Kelly then sued Jay, and Jay countersued and made fun of the lawsuit on the remix to a song that’ll soon appear in this column. The next day, Jay went on Hot 97 and clowned Kelly for being “insecure,” claiming that Kelly was freaking out because Jay was steadily getting bigger crowd reactions. That’s an upgrade.Īt one point, Kelly tried to return to the stage, and someone in Jay-Z’s camp pepper-sprayed Kelly and his entourage. Kelly, and they got to see Usher instead. Usher sang his own no-frills mini-set, and I can’t imagine anyone in that crowd going home sad. At the time, I remember reading stories about Usher running backstage, downloading a few MP3s of his own songs, burning them onto a CD, handing the CD to Jay’s DJ, and running out onstage. Jay also told the crowd, “I got a couple of people.” One of those people was Usher, who’d gone to the show as a spectator. Kelly and that he had enough hits to finish the show himself. This shit is over.” Then he dropped his mic and walked offstage.Īfter a confusing few minutes that easily could’ve ended in a riot, Jay-Z told the crowd that he didn’t need R. Kelly told the crowd, “Two people were waving guns at me. The show was set up for Jay and Kelly to trade off mini-sets throughout the night, coming together as a duo at the end. In late October of 2004, a month in, their tour came to Madison Square Garden - a homecoming for Jay in the exact same spot where he’d held his farewell show. Kelly bailed on a couple of shows, blaming problems with the lighting. Kelly came out with Unfinished Business, their second collaborative album, and they headed out on a co-headlining tour. Less than a year after the release of The Black Album, Jay-Z and R. He secured himself an office job as the head of Def Jam Recordings. He played a farewell show at Madison Square Garden, with his fake jersey ascending into the real rafters. He released his retirement LP The Black Album. At that moment, there was nothing that Usher couldn’t pull off. Just before his last run on the top of the charts, Usher found himself faced with the unexpected task of entertaining an unhappy arena crowd, saving another superstar’s night. In the 2004 calendar year, Usher spent a grand total of 28 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - 54% of the year. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.Įveryone loves a winner.
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