Hello, everyone, and happy Super Bowl Sunday.

In anticipation of tomorrow's halftime performance from The Great Usher, we decided we would

republish our episode from back in September 2022 about Usher with Rahuya Kamer.

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes because Usher is one of my all-time favorite

artists.

And listening back to it and how giddy I was to talk about Usher has been really, really fun. But if you feel like you need a primer on Usher before we get into the Super Bowl, which is obviously going to make Usher a point of conversation over the next few days, weeks, hopefully for a long time. And he has a new record coming out soon. We thought it would be instructive to return to this episode. So without further ado, here is a look back at our

episode from September 2022 on Usher.

Yo, I see you in a minute. But I got something to tell you.

I've talked a bunch on this show about a shifting premium in social media era pop stardom,

from a craft that hinged on showmanship and virtuosity to one that trades in performances of diaristic relatability.

Nowadays, we like our pop stars to at least sell us on the

idea that they're quote unquote just like us. But there was a time period when pop stardom was

proudly otherworldly, where the signature acts of the day sang and danced and put on a show

in a way that we, the layperson, wouldn't dare dream of accessing ourselves. The thrill wasn't, as it so often is these days, about feeling like pop stars shared our

experiences per se.

It was the opposite, knowing that we'd never be that hot or hit that octave or gracefully leap

into a headstand.

That was the fun.

Usher, who dominated the space between classic R&B and TRL era pop

megastardom in the late 90s and early 2000s, stands as one of the last true representatives of

these old school spectacle-driven pop values, a heavenly singer and truly draw-dropping dancer and

performer who delighted with skill and style rather than quote-unquote authenticity

...