“The media wasn’t completely sold on Usher and Usher’s interest inside and outside of the music,” Jermaine Dupri, the singer’s frequent collaborator, told Billboard in 2014. “‘How do we make him ...

The song they came up with was a monster, indeed. “Yeah!” hit the streets on Jan. 24, 2004, and by Feb. 28, it took the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100, setting up shop like it had signed a lease. If you ...

There was a time when the hip-hop industry was committed to the East Coast and West Coast’s longstanding war over sonic dominance. For most, the genre was always powered by two sounds: from the East, ...