Usher Reveals Plans For Super Bowl Halftime Show, Talks Reputation, Preserving Legacy + More

Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.

Everybody's the j n V. Charlamagne the God. We are the Breakfast Club.

We got Laura La Rosa hanging out with us this morning, our special guest co host, and we.

Got the Icon on the line right now, ladies and gentlemen.

Ussha, Hey, are you feeling brother man, I'm feeling up right now, feeling blessed, Feeling blessed.

Congratulations super Bowl halftime show. I feel like the culture collectively was calling for this.

Yep. I feel like we've been saying this for months.

Thank you, man, affirmations do come true, right, Thank you guys for wanting it for me. Thanks for each and every person that prayed. You know what I'm saying, and so too, you know, just talked about it. Maybe it was just putting it in the air that you know, the Super Bowl would decide to come to Vegas because I was there.

I'm sure.

For real, man, I have you know, have heard, you know, the conversations and the idea that you know I would be able to play the Super Bowl.

So now it's the reality.

Crazy jay Z calls me at what six o'clock in the morning, I'm barely just waking up, just the first news I get of the day. He's like, Yo, this is your Michael moment, this is your magic moment.

I'm like, are you serious? He's like yeah. So I look over at Jim. I'm like, yo, it's Jay's telling me I got it no way. And in the background you hear way it was. It was so gangster. You know what I'm saying, How.

Long have you known this is going to happen? Because you said so? Ja just called you or you knew this is in the air.

J call. When I first got the news, I was in Atlanta.

Yo, the craziest part man, trying to oldest you know what I'm saying, and not tell my kids.

Who were also too on me, like Dad, you should play the super Bowl. I'm telling you who I need to call? You know what I mean? They online asking or talking to you. I'm like, hey, man, just maybe pray about it.

You know what I'm saying, Like if you put it, put it in the eighth you know what I'm saying, Maybe to come back. I'm knowing, but I can't tell them, you know. So it was about a week and I have of just holding that secret. It felt like I felt like, you know, like I was having a conversation in the war room and you can't tell the rest of the world what's.

Going on now. That was on your bucket list, you said.

It has always been on my bucket list.

Yeah, since Michael, I bet you, since you saw Michael Jackson do it back in the day.

Absolutely, He's the one who, Yo, by the way, Michael wa has you know, paved the way for all of us, you know what I'm saying.

To be able to see what he did with this moment.

Starts it and then to understand what Prince did with this moment ignites it.

To notice. So many legendary artists.

Have been in that position, from you know what I'm saying, you Two, Coldplay, you know, Beyonce Brunoma. So many incredible artists have been able to service that moment, you know. And I really do feel like I'm built for this. I feel like the music catalog that I've been able

I think it was. It was perfectly time. I'm a praying man, you know, I mean, and I actually I put this up in the air.

I prayed about it, and if it was intended to happen, then it would.

Find its way to me. And it did.

And I'm not going to disappoint I'll.

Tell you that much.

Did you go to Vegas starting with Lovers and Friends and then going into the residency saying like, Okay, if we do all this now that it's here, the super Bowl is going to be next? Like was that like a like you kind of you put that out there knowing that this would come concept type of thing. Not that you needed it, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, no affirmations like literally deciding that.

I was going to move in a certain way to take like some sense of ownership of a space. You know, I feel like in the past being able to do that in Atlanta, Like, yeah, I'm originally from Chattan, New lu Tennessee, but I was raised in Atlanta. Atlanta raised the artist that I am Atlanta raised, the man that I am Atlanta raised, the person and the creative that I am, and.

I was able to do that in Las Vegas.

So I started with a residency, opening a show when we were just coming out of the pandemic, the first show to open in the world, not just the United States of America, but Yo, we were coming out of a pandemic and people were afraid.

YO.

Bringing that energy back in that started it, and then staying in Las Vegas a long long enough for them to decide, Okay, We're going to have the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. So I'm like, I'm staying here.

I brought my festival, you know, Lovers and Ferns to Vegas.

I was like, I'm staying here. I'm gonna put my flag down here. This is my new space, this is my home. I feel like I get to do all of the things that I've always wanted to do and progress and just be creative. And since then, there's just been more and more things that have just really work to my benefit.

But again, I'm a praying man, and.

I appreciate the fact that God has allowed this to happen. I appreciate each and every person that I know said a prayer for me. I can tell you my grandmother before she passed, she said a prayer. And this is a very strong praying woman. So I know that my grandmother, she's in heaven.

She gonna have the best seat in the house, being able to look down and see this happen.

My nanny gonna they're gonna be up there, My Grandpapa's gonna be up there looking at this and join it.

They got the best seats in the house.

Now you got the difficult task. Now, because now this's the difficult task. You got two things. Now, you got to bring Atlanta to the super Bowl. So do you bring roller skates? Do you bring strip club? Do you bring cars? And then you got so many records into thirteen minutes?

Are you bringing the stripper from the Vegas the one that comes down in like claps and I don't know her name the show?

Are you bringing her a s I might walk for.

Let me tell you something. You know what I do in Vegas, So listen. It ain't nothing with the lights, baby, And that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna bring the lights. We're gonna bring the lights out. I can't give you too much. I'll tell you this.

The ideas that are swarming.

You know, you obviously know all the people that I work with in my life and my career musically, you know the people that I respect and have collaborated with.

I'm thinking of all of that.

I'm thinking of making certain that the world understands the legacy that is my career, not just the moment, but the legacy, the connection, the ideas, and the nuance.

You know what I'm saying. If it is a little bit of what Atlanta is.

If it's a lot of bit of what my life has been in terms of my experience, but I'm playing the hits and I'm gonna definitely bring something that's gonna leave you.

It's gonna leave you shocked.

You're gonna remember this moment, remember for the positivity.

You're gonna remember this moment for the idea and the history.

You're gonna remember this moment for all of the people that I feel like I stand on the shoulders off. You're gonna remember this moment for the fact that it inspired me to see them have their moment and now I'm gonna have mine.

Tell us, tell us the meaning of the commercial lecture and why it was important for you to tap into your younger self like that.

Younger, Yeah, what what you're talking about? Man, I'm still here.

You definitely not you definitely not agent. But that was that was that was the younger version of us.

Now you'll have to so by the way, you know, we went around and around about how we would approach it. Another really great benefit is the twentieth anniversary and celebration of Confessions, So it would be a great opportunity to take a little bit of something that people would instantly identify with and play with it.

And I felt like.

The social engagement because it really, it really was fun after something that I saw my.

Fans engage using, you know, using it for me, and.

I'm like, Yo, this is something that I think is going to activate the world, and also to it to continue to engage them because I want other people to do it as well, you know, I want other people to do their own versions of that conversation.

You know what I'm saying why Dionne and Kim.

I mean, I think that you know, the dynamic of who I am and what I have offered is span wide.

I think that you know Dione and what he represents as a story that has continuously continued to dig himself from where.

He is being.

Rather it was health, or rather it was life, or rather it was the pivot of being an amazing athlete.

And then becoming a coach.

I felt like there was a story there to be told and I wanted to support that, and I wanted him to do it. I had to ask if he would do it, and he volunteered and say, yeah, I would love to be a part of that.

I felt like it was for the culture in that way.

Kim Kim is a good friend, and I felt like it would definitely be fun. Marshawn Lynch was just once again another fun moment for the culture, you know what I'm saying. And O'dale Beckham, you know what I'm saying. It was just a matter of just continuing to keep the right energy and all the right people. There were a ton of things that I've talked about and a ton of things that are gonna happen any given Sunday that leads up to the actual big Sunday performance.

So it ain't done. You're gonna see more. I actually, you know, pre ordered and put on pre order my album.

So there's a lot of a lot of levels to what I'm doing with this entire moment.

Between now and February.

Eleventh, right now, there were the dating rumors with you and Kim Kardashian because she came to the show so many times, and people were like, what the heck is going on? You weren't afraid to lean into that. You know, I got it, I mean because when I saw it, I said, oh, this is smart, Like I thought you were playing into that whole. Like people were like, how did this friendship even come about? Why does she keep going to the show.

Well, if you listen to it, basically she told you I've seen the show two times and that's why she could give the news because she actually knows. But nah, it's a great show man. Vegas has brought out a lot of people, not just Kim. Shit were talking about Halle Barry, you know what I'm saying. We're talking about Zendia, We're talking about you know, Gabrielle Union, who was in the house last night here in Paris.

You know what I'm saying. This thing is about good energy. This thing is about.

Making certain that people celebrate that legacy every night. And I'm happy, you know that our friendship allowed her to be a part of it and that.

We do something fun and social. You know.

I don't know if you heard, but you know, Charlemagne and I actually going out to Vegas to see your show now coming in October, not to Cather, but we're going to see it. And we joked on the air that says, if you sing to our women, we're gonna grab the other hand.

We all singing together, all of.

Us, all we would come to five heart beats, the three heart beats, that's what we're going for.

Let's go on three one. So I got nothing, but.

You know, brings up a good pointments to steal your girl. You're not gonna be able to steal anybody's girl from the super Bowl stage.

You don't know that because you won't be that close to the crowd.

So how do you plan to terrorize people's relationship to the Super Bowl's.

I think you gave me the phrase the domestic terrorists. I think you did.

Yeah, so who coined the phrase? Oh my god, you you're crazy man.

It's gonna be a night.

By the way, my Vegas residency is specifically what it is, and my performance at the super Bowl was specific.

Be what it is.

But I will tell you I'm not missus still your girl.

You know what I'm saying. That's Trae songs. I'm the guy who tells you don't leave.

You don't leave your girl around me.

You should come with your girl. You know what I'm saying. There's no guilt.

You don't.

You don't.

You don't feel bad at all when you see like the Keky Palmer situations unfold. Like, there's no guilt whatsoever.

What would the guilty that I actually had a great show.

It's fun, but like it just casts so well.

You haven't seen my show yet, Okay, No, actually I did first.

I was there.

I think it was the second show you did. Shout out to your team.

I said it was a different experience.

I said it was an amazing experience. I tell everybody that your show is amazing. I know it's all fun, but I'm just saying there's so much that stemmed from that. Once it happened with Kiki, I'm like, dang, Like does she get like, hey you good call? After like what happens?

No, I mean not only did we get a good good call, we shot a video too in that idea with good attention.

Yeah, it was it was.

It was to bring good attention to it, good intention and attention. I think that we live in a sensational time. We live very two D. You know what I'm saying.

Life is one D, two D, three D, and I think we live in a two D space. So the idea of what.

This is man was just about fun and just enjoying you know, that moment and not missing it because you.

Gotta stop, you gotta stop. They did a whole Boondocks episode about you. Okay, don't you know.

They did that way before I was in Vegas, Just so.

Clear a reputation you've been doing this.

It's a it's a good thing. Though it's good, it's good. You don't want to keep huge relationships live.

You know what I'm saying. You gotta do your part. You know what I'm saying, do your parts?

Fro think that's why we grabbing your hand when you start singing. When we get out there, I'm too.

Thank you for telling me. I now know exactly who I'm singing to.

Now they're gonna come with just then too.

In a circle, Diddy and JD is supposed to do this versus right now.

You work with Diddy, You work with JD. How do you stand on that? And are we ever gonna get an usher versus?

It is not?

You know what, I've said this a million times. There's only like two maybe three people's catalogs you can't do nothing with, and Usher is one of them.

Russia got nuclear weapons.

You brushed by it earlier when you were just like, oh my musical catalog. Nah, bro, your catalog is different. You got nuclear weapons, can't. There's only one person I think could even stand there with you.

Mary J.

Blinde.

And that's it. That's it, that's it, that's.

It, shopman. I appreciate your votive confidence. Bro, I do Yeah, I got words. Let me just say and Diddy my brothers, you know what I'm saying.

And I think that entire the whole process is about the celebration of legacy. We got two of men together who have contributed something incredible to my life as an artist. So I'm celebrating both of them. You know what I'm saying. I don't have a dog in the fight. I just know you got two dogs getting ready to fight.

That's what I know.

You know you said you said something.

We introduced you at the iHeart Living Black Thing, yep, And we introduced you, and you was like, yo, man, I kind of want y'all to do that over because y'all introduced me and said I worked with a lot of icons, and you was like, but I am an icon, And I said.

To myself, Yo, he's right, Yeah, absolutely.

And I remember having a conversation with Dream and me and Dream were just talking about how we got to preserve certain people's legacies.

How as an.

Icon, because you are you're a musical icon, undisputed, how do we preserve legacies like yourself while y'all are still active. I don't want to wait until you pass and then everybody's celebrating you, Like, how do we do that while you're still here?

This might come off biasedly, you know what I'm saying, But I'm gonna try to do it without thinking of myself. I think that we have to celebrate. I think there's something about you know, R and B artists. It's just rock artists versus even hip hop artists that is easily disregarded. When you think about Chuck Berry, you think about you know, Little Richard, you think of our Domino Fast, think about

I got it all wrong. But William Hank Williams, we remember Patsy Klein. We remember these significant artists for what they contributed.

But how easily you could just disregard or Winn and Fire or either an amazing b artists who really paved the way, by the way for all genres of music, because before was popping.

R and B was really the leader.

Rhythm and blues was absolutely the dictator for how all of those arres are set up that might be real sophisticated.

So the short of it is, YO, don't forget.

People who put the weights and don't want to compare oh to new, because the new is only inspired by has done before did it? Who did was R and B artists who did it? So you preserved it concern that you don't create comparisons by getting the R and B artists that paved the way. Then make certain that people listen your music is not linear.

It's there's so many different levels.

I ain't gonna ever woke up this morning so le breaking the Angelo bro I wrome up this morning celebrating phillies.

You know what I'm saying, beyond.

Worried, like listening to a levels of music and making certain that our young most what I'm saying girls, they understand. So this is where it came from. Like doing this you know on how it's flipped. It actually explains to where the song came from. And the TikTok the other day due to the.

Carl girl and she lived to what is the song and.

He getting ready for you know the original that right here is the reality of where we live. And if we don't have that dialogue with the kids to help them understand, like, yo, ain't no comparison, the people who pay pay is that is what it is. You're walking in the shadows and the steps of the people who paved the way. So don't don't get to that place where you can easily disart this art because they might not necessarily be as relevant.

Yeah.

By the way, we don't sell records no more bread, you know what I'm saying, Like check yours. You know what I'm saying, Look at what they were who sold records like Michael.

Jackson, nobody, nobody stream shit.

That's cool, But who stole records? You know what I'm saying. And and being able to sell physical copies like that, especially in this genre, it don't happen.

Who's a record like Confessions?

Hey, that's a diamond album.

Who's saw a record black professionals?

Now? But I'm not here to pop my call. I'm just talking about for real, legacy needs to be preserved.

Everybody, by the way, in R and B is always trying to, you know, really figure out who's the king. But I focused my my focus is really on a kingdom, you know what I'm saying, and making certain that we remember R and B artists the same way that hip hop is remembered and hip hop is preserved, not just because of the songs that were created but also to the fashion.

Look at what a Mary is doing. Just you know what I'm saying.

With with hip hop, you see most death and taylib quality.

You're like, yo, who that if you were a kid, Yo, they're giving you culture.

They speaking through the clothes, Kanye and them, Sean Puffy Khan creating you know that culture fat form, which is you know Russell Simmons. It became something more than just the music. It became a culture. Fuck being a king, I want a kingdom, you know what I'm saying. It's time for us to be able to lift.

That R and B movement up just as much.

That's why you come to Vegas and that sophistication is out there, That skate is there, that entertainment is there because that's R and B, and you don't get that every day. That ain't gonna be something that everybody gets, but it creates a conversation that I think is odd. You know what I'm saying When I hear that comparison, it's funny, especially for people who.

Have done things that nobody else has done.

But it's also to misinform me because the new kids, they actually think, oh yeah, if I.

Have this amount of streams or this amount.

Of like looks and likes love that that was a part of building that legacy.

Don't matter. Them likes and that love. It don't equate, you know what I'm saying.

So that's why I don't like it. And it's no disrespect that these guys are great. You can't compare a Weekend to a Michael Jackson, you know what I'm saying. You can't compare Chris Brown to an Usher.

They're great. Don't get me wrong. Those guys are great.

They do what they do with y'all just came up in a whole different era. People had to actually go to the record store, but they buy albums.

The craftsman shit. Like when I came to your show in Vegas and I've seen you before this, but I remember when I left the show, I was just thinking, like I don't know if I've ever been to a show of any artists in my time right now that I left feeling the way that I did, like the detail that you take with like the performance, the song, the serenading the crowd, like even before that went viral, Like I was just like, I don't know if people, if artists do like my artists that I know are

Well, thank god that me and La Red just decided to start a label. Mega is gonna make some new ones.

You know.

You look at what he and Baby Face did with the Face Records, and obviously what you know he and I even did with artists like Justin Justin Bieber. So it's like, all right, we coming together and that artist development. It does matter to be able to understand and make certain that people remember that entertainment matters.

It's always been the most important part of who I am.

But I think that, you know, there is a way to bridge the gap because I ain't gonna discredit the artists who are you killing it?

You know what I'm saying, because they have a following.

But we just do things in a different time and it doesn't it's not fair to discredit those amazing artists Philip Bailey, those amazing singers, you know, amazing jazz and all of these different levels of music. It might seem odd to slow down and listen to these songs, but it's really up to y'all as the curators to get them to pay attention to it.

Maybe you come up with the factor of the day.

Maybe y'all start saying, yo, call in callers and tell me what this sample is. And then before you know it, people are being informed. You create new connection to preserve our legacies, not mine, but the legacy of the things that have assisted us.

You know what I mean.

Babies were born to these songs, me story moments that we've had, to these records. You know how many amazing things that track our lives in these songs.

How easily we can just throw them away and move to the next chapter.

Na, man, you gotta you gotta keep it in, keep it inform your audience.

You know what I'm.

Saying, sensationalize it.

You know what I'm saying. We got to have a little bit of thirst trap there.

But I'm just saying, for real, you know what I'm saying, Let's let's let's let's let's be real here.

You know what I'm saying.

I agree with everything you're saying. And that's why, you know, we got to be intentional to about celebrating. I think a lot of times, especially as men, you're like, oh man, you dick riding. It's easy to make jokes, it's easy to even critique something when you don't like it, but it's it's for whatever reason.

It's hard to be like, nah, that's that dude, right there?

An intimate intimate conversations are intended for intimate spaces where you have a broadcasting space.

What you say becomes the law.

Right, There's many conversations of debate of who's the illis MC or the best rapper or the best dancer and the barbershop or even in the private confines of your house, but not everybody understands how to process that, and it just then instigates conversation and things that are not really about preserving real work and real artistry.

Man, now we're talking to us. He's over in Paris doing his residency in Paris. I was gonna ask, so, this is your first album where it's almost you're not on a major label, it's almost like you're part of it. This is like almost you're independent where you're putting everything behind this one.

Right, Yeah, Gamma, Larry Jackson's effort, you know, it far exceeds just me. There's many other artists that are going to come but me in La We started a label under Gamma called Mega and it's the beginning of, you know, the continuation of our legacy, the beginning of the continuation of our legacy.

You know.

And it's called Coming Home the next album. Why coming Home?

Why the name coming Home?

I mean, there's ultimately been several things that make me feel like I'm coming home, not even a place, but just a feeling, me reconnecting with La me coming home into a space of comfort. Rather it's Las Vegas, or rather it's just the home that is Atlanta and the.

Home that I'm building there.

The coming home of becoming a better man, a better man to my woman, a better man to my family, a better man to you know, the world, and the story that I choose to tell that don't make me perfect. And I'm not getting ready to you know, you know, just change the narrative. I'm going to be honest about some of the things that I've gone through to create these songs, which I always have kept it honest in

When I spent time in Ghana and I.

Went to the original spaces where slaves were brought.

In off the ships.

Something about that made me reignite coming home to our original home, the motherland, And all of those things started to sneak their way into my music. Or rather it was the algorithms of the song, or the rhythm and beat of what was going on with you know, I'm a piano and and afro beats. All of those things begin to instigate my creativity. So I'm coming home in all of those ways.

All right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, Usher, we.

Look forward to see icon, the icon known as Usher. That's right, okay, who should always be celebrated.

That's right, all right.

And it's a beautiful thing to see you at your Las Vegas residency.

And it's gonna be a beautiful thing to see you at the.

Super Bowl halftime show, reminding people why you are indeed, Usher ring.

I can't wait to see the skates at the super Bowl.

That's gonna be dope. I just want to tell charloaee one thing. The Cowboys are not gonna be in the super Bowl. So I just want to just clear that right now, Just clear that right now.

Well I don't know if they are now, but Usher will be that.

She will be. Ladies and gentlemen, I know Usher will be there. That's right. We appreciate you for joining us.

Thank you, my brother.

Absolutely, I'm so happy that I was able to give y'all this news.

First, I want you to know I selected y'all because I fuck with y'all.

Okay, just know that we appreciate your, ladies and gentlemen, love back to you.

Sure it's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning.

Breakfast Club.

Mhm.