TIMELINE | Usher

With more than 75 million records sold, it might surprise some to know that R&B star Usher ranks as one of the best-selling music artists ever on a global level.

There’s a reason why Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the 2000s, and the RIAA considers Usher as one of the best-selling artists in American music history.

Having toed a line between R&B and pop for more than two decades, he popularized a sparking take on soul-influenced music that took its mainstream cues from Michael Jackson and Prince to deliver a sound that served as the urban pop template for the likes of Justin Timberlake. From his start as a child star, milling around as an underage minor with Sean “Puffy” Combs, to his current status as Justin Bieber’s rep and minority owner for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, he’s as underrated as he is celebrated. His eighth studio album, Flawed, is due this autumn.

1978 to 1992 Usher Terry Raymond IV is born to mother Jonetta Patton and father Usher Raymond III on October 14 in Dallas, TX. His parents end their relationship when Usher is young, due to his father’s heavy drug use; his mother moves him and younger brother James to Chattanooga, TN. Usher loses touch with his father and will have minimal contact with him moving forward.

His mother, a medical technician, becomes a director at St. Elmo Missionary Baptist Church and pushes Usher into performing in the gospel choir in his formative years. Singing in church grooms him for future stardom, he will tell the Washington Post in 1998. As his career takes off, his mother leaves her job to act as his manager.

At age 11, he joins a local R&B quintet dubbed NuBeginning. The group record ten songs and regionally release an album, NuBeginning Featuring Usher Raymond IV. But citing the involvement as “a bad experience,” mother Jonetta pulls him out of the group.

Having demonstrated an aptitude for singing, in 1990 at the age of 12, he tours the local singing competition circuit, drawing the attention of LaFace Records co-founder L.A. Reid.

“I was always the kid that would just sit by the radio at sleepovers,” Usher will tell Vibe magazine in 1998. “Kids would be like, ‘Come play hide and go seek,’ but I’d want to stay up and hear the slow jams on the radio, because they didn’t play those songs during the day.” In 1992, Usher is featured on the TV show Star Search as a national teen champion. After a convincing a cappella rendition of Boyz II Men’s 1992 hit “End of the Road,” a record deal is offered by LaFace Records. “Usher represents the next generation of R&B soul,” Reid would later tell Billboard.

1993 to 1996 Usher signs a recording contract with LaFace and moves to Atlanta, GA to be closer to the label’s headquarters. His first single, “Call Me a Mack,” featured on the soundtrack for the 1993 Tupac Shakur/Janet Jackson vehicle Poetic Justice, is mildly received, landing at number #56 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

There are early concerns about how to best market the cherubic-looking young singer. He experiences minor issues adjusting his singing post-puberty, and loses his voice for a brief period. Slightly doubtful of Usher’s marketability, Reid nonetheless connects Usher and his mother with emerging mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs, of Bad Boy Records fame, who takes him under his wing as his “little brother.” In his mid-teens, Usher moves to New York City to record his debut; he stays at Combs’ house and works with collaborators like DeVante Swing of R&B act Jodeci, and Dave “Jam!” Hall. Combs’ lavish home and lifestyle is an eye-opener for the teenager. “There were always girls around,” he would later tell Rolling Stone.

His self-titled debut, released in 1994, features Combs’ trademark “new jack” hiphop approach to R&B, along with sexually charged lyrics that don’t seem suitable for a 15-year-old. “That whole bad-boy thing, me frowning for the camera — that wasn’t me,” he would later tell People magazine.

The solidly produced album sells a low 500,000 copies. The record wasn’t promoted enough is the opinion of Usher’s mother Jonetta. She notes in a 1998 interview that she didn’t approve of her son hanging around Combs, Biggie Smalls, Craig Mack and the rest of the Bad Boy roster of artists.

“I was young, maybe too young to be talking about making love to a girl, because that wasn’t reality,” Usher will tell Vibe magazine. “That just wasn’t the record that would make them say, ‘I love Usher.’”

1997 to 2000 Although reportedly not a great student, Usher completes high school and releases his second album, My Way, in 1997. Seeking a new direction, L.A. Reid connects Usher with Jermaine Dupri, a producer and owner of the So So Def record label, which features artists such as Missy Elliott, Kris