‘I don’t write anything down,’ Love says. By Shaheem Reid Rico Love Photo: MTV News Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native Rico Love came full circle when he got a chance to work with Usher on the singer’s Raymond v. Raymond LP — Rico was signed to Usher’s US Records as a rapper around five years ago. While waiting to release his debut album, Rico showed Ush his other talent — penning R&B songs, which led to him writing one of the premier cuts on Confessions, “Throwback.” Rico started working on his own rap album with producers such as Cool & Dre befored Usher pulled the plug. “I was working on the record, and in the middle of the record Usher decided he wanted to take a step back from the label. He had a lot going on. We understood that. I was left on J. Records and I decided I wasn’t getting a lot of love in the building. I love J. Records, but I don’t think they was recognizing me. So I kind of moved out the building and moved out to L.A. and started focusing on the songwriting. You know me — I just hustled until I got out there and put my money where my mouth was.” Rico’s songwriting breakthrough came in 2008 when he penned “Love Like This” for Natasha Bedingfield’s Pocket of Sunshine album. Through Bedingfield, Love connected with producer Jim Jonsin and moved to Miami. After changing managment, good things started to happen. He was soon working with Pleasure P on The Introduction of Marcus Cooper album and out of those sessions came the Grammy-nominated single “Boyfriend #2.” Work for Jamie Foxx and Beyonc
