Following 'Climax,' singer tells MTV News his latest single 'represents the other side' of Looking for Myself album.
By Jocelyn Vena
<P>Bumping beats, sexy lyrics and <a href="/music/artist/usher/artist.jhtml">Usher</a>'s signature R&B bad-boy swagger can only mean one thing: the singer has once again hooked up with superstar pop producer Max Martin. Their latest collaboration, <a href="/news/articles/1683947/usher-scream.jhtml">"Scream,"</a> picks up where "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" left off back in 2010. </P><P> </P><P>Usher used <i>that</i> track to convince us to go home with him after a dizzying night of partying, and for "Scream," he's got us back at his pad and he's rocking our world, one fist-pumping moment at a time. While he opted to slow it down on <a href="http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/02/16/usher-diplo-climax-love-affair-song">"Climax,"</a> Usher is back to large-scale dance tracks on <a href="/news/articles/1682140/usher-looking-for-myself.jhtml"><i>Looking for Myself</i></a>'s second single. And, he told MTV News, both tracks reflect the sound of the album. </P><P> </P><P><div style="background-color:#000000;width:428px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><iframe src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:764219/cp~vid%3D764219%26instance%3Dmtv%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A764219" width="420" height="236" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div> </P><P> </P><P>"This album has many different views and many different perspectives," he told MTV News while rehearsing for his one-night run as the lead in NYC's off-Broadway spectacle "Fuerza Bruta," which also served as a place for Usher to debut the album ahead of its release. "And me and Max Martin, we've had success together in the past, and this was a record I felt represented the other side of the [album]." </P><P> </P><P>"Scream" and "Climax" truly are polar-opposite tracks. Where "Climax" sears and broods, "Scream" celebrates and dances. Usher is excited for the chance to show all those sides with the two lead singles from the June 12 release. </P><P> </P><P>"Whereas the first song was a little bit more artistic and a little bit more soulful, and it has done everything, it probably exceeded my expectations, I mean, from the moment I was able to give it away. I was able to kind of be reintroduced in a way musically, and thank you to [producer] Diplo, but 'Scream' is really like the next step. It's just in time for summer and the type of experience that I want people to get out of the album." </P><P> </P><P>But the Atlanta-bred singer notes that the album can't be defined just by "Climax" or "Scream." There's a lot there to keep fans tuning in. "It's a ton of other experiences and a ton of other walks ... as I've had this long journey over the last year [and] every bit of what I've experienced I've put into a creative, artistic way," he said. </P><P> </P><P>As for the video, well, that still has to be shot, but he joked that "Fuerza Bruta" might serve as the perfect backdrop for the clip — or maybe not. "We might be shooting it while we're here," he laughed. "This is like a movie set, damn near — sh-- you don't normally see with the launch of an album. This is pretty spectacular." </P><P> </P><P><i>What are you expecting from Usher's next album? Let us know in the comments!</i></p>
Related Artists
With the rise of startups building on top of the collaborative consumption model - that is, where users are buying from and selling directly to other users - there's a growing need for some sort of system to help verify user identities. Although there are others quietly working in this space, today the U.K.-based startup 


?If you don?t have any facts, we?ll just use my opinion.? - Jim Barksdale (former president and CEO of Netscape). Startups are the sum of the decisions made by the people who run them. Should you raise money? Who should you raise money from? What should be your marketing strategy? What are the next features you should build? Who should you hire? Ok.. you get the point. If decisions are so important then it might be worthwhile to think about how to make them better. A lot of research has been done on this subject and you can literally spend years going through the books, papers and the various theories and schools of thought in decision-making. Needless to say, that will probably be a bad decision by itself. Instead, it is more important to understand why data driven decisions work and to instill such a culture in your company.

