Usher says he feels more creative when he’s based in Las Vegas.
In 2019, the “Burn” hitmaker teased his ninth studio album and hinted that it will be a sequel to his 2004 best-seller Confessions.
However, the more he worked on the record, the less interested he became in making a Confessions follow-up and he subsequently hit a creative wall.
“I can’t be who I was. I don’t want to be who I was. I want to be better than what I was,” he explained to GQ. “That might be a problem.”
Usher moved to Las Vegas in 2021 for his first residency, and he found relocating to Sin City, which he saw as a place of renewal and rebirth, helped get his creative juices flowing again.
“Las Vegas is very important because it actually speaks to my career, to be in a place where I can dream, where I can incubate ideas,” the R&B star shared. “A place where I can be creative.”
The “Yeah!” star is currently in the middle of his second Vegas residency, “My Way,” at the Park MGM resort and is working with L.A. Reid, the producer behind his first four albums, on new music for the first time in almost two decades.
Reflecting on their full-circle moment, Usher said, “His system is what created that expectation for me, as a young artist. So now, damn near 25 or some odd years later, we feel inspired to go out and create more artists.”
The duo revealed in the interview that they are starting a new record label together, with Usher being its first artist on the roster.