Landon Buford
Usher Raymond is responsible for numerous hit records such as ‘Yeah, ‘Burn,’ ‘Throwback,’ ‘Superstar,’ and ‘My Way. His other hits include, Superstar, Moving Mountains, Climax, U Got It Bad, Nice & Slow, Lemme See, and You Make Me Wanna.
Speaking of You Make Me, it almost did not come out according to Raymond. During a question and answer in his ‘Usher Party’ room on the Clubhouse app. He, along with Snoop Dogg were asked which one of their hit records almost did not come out.
Jermaine Dupri shard that Usher did not like ‘You Make me Wanna.”
“For the record, Usher did not like ‘You Make me Wanna,” said Dupri.
Raymond also shared that the original beat to his hit record ‘Yeah,’ because its original was the ‘Freek-A-Leek’ beat by Petey Pablo.
“Shakir brought me and I am so happy to have a relationship with Shakir I really miss him. If he didn’t bring me ‘Yeah” my album was professionally solid, but ‘Yeah’ did something else. For the world, I was to speak to at that moment. That tied the entire world into our experience, but it was there is nothing like this in the world. The crazy thing about the record, that nobody knows about this the original version ‘Yeah’ was ‘Freek-A-Leek,” shared Raymond.
“We literally in Magic City at a DJ booth and I am looking over at Keith and I like that is my song that sounds just like Freek-A-Leek. So, I hit Shakir and said your man played me, he gave me a record and he already put on another artist. And he said give me 24 hours and he will turn it around. Then he sent me the new version and that’s what the world got.”
At first Raymond was hesitant to record the single.
“I am one that has always been leery about my hit records because I am so tied to what my story is. I want to tell this story, and I need to make sure people feel it. So, I was going back in forth.”
“I was listening to it and I was like I did not know. The version that Sean Garrett recorded as a demo he sounded like Michael [Jackson] and I was like I don’t want to sing it like that. I played it for KP and he was the one out of everybody that was like, I think you should cut the record and don’t miss the moment.”
The song was co-written by Sean Garrett, Patrick J. Que Smith, Robert McDowell, LRoc, Ludacris, and Lil Jon.
