Atlanta’s own Usher has another sticky situation on his hands. According to TMZ, Darshelle Jones-Rakestraw, who is claiming to be Usher’s wife, was admitted to a psych ward. Raymond spotted Rakestraw on…
Already squaring off against ex-wife Tameka Foster in court, Usher appears to be facing a new problem with a new woman. The artist has obtained a temporary restraining order against Darshelle Jones-Rakestraw , claiming she’s living in a dream world where Usher is her husband. In court documents, Usher alleges that Darshelle appeared at his home in Georgia, pounding on the front door until police were called to the property. She then left the area, only to return the next day and tell cops that she was married to Usher and simply misplaced her keys. At this time, Darshelle was arrested. Darshelle Jones-Rakestraw Defends Self Against Usher Allegations In the above video, however, Darshelle denies all charges and says Usher has been giving her money for a long time, while also promising to help with her music career. She plans to file a defamation charges against Usher.
POSTED: Usher discusses giving Justin Bieber advice and reveals that he has unbearable gas. Originally posted here: POSTED: Usher Gives Justin Bieber Advice, But Says He Doesn't …
Singer’s seventh album give him his fourth #1 debut in a row. By Gil Kaufman Usher Photo: Usher is setting a fine example for his protégé, Justin Bieber . A week before the Biebs plans to storm the charts with his eagerly-anticipated Believe , Ush will debut in the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart with his seventh album, Looking 4 Myself . According to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, he sold 128,000 copies of the disc. The debut was the fourth number one bow in a row for Usher, though it was significantly down from the 329,000 copies sold by his previous album, 2010’s Raymond V. Raymond . The figures were not nearly what Bieber’s expected to pull next week, but they were enough to hold back prog rock icons Rush , whose Clockwork Angels clocked in at #2 on sales of 103,000. The other debuts in the top 10 came from country singer Josh Turner , who hit #4 with Punching Bag (45,000), British singer/songwriter sensation Ed Sheeran ‘s + (42,000) and hyped rapper Waka Flocka Flame ‘s Triple F Life: Friends, Fans & Family (33,000). The rest of the top 10: Adele , 21 (#3, 63,000), One Direction , Up All Night (#6, 39,000), Neil Young & Crazy Horse , Americana (#7, 37,000), Alan Jackson , Thirty Miles West (#8, 37,000) and the “Rock of Ages” soundtrack (#9, 36,000). Metric debuted at #12 with Synthetica (27,000), while festival faves Grace Potter & The Nocturnals jammed into the #17 slot with their latest, The Lion The Beast The Beat (24,000) and TV funnyman Jimmy Fallon hit #25 with his all-star comedy effort Blow Your Pants Off (15,000). Usher topped the iTunes album chart as well, followed by Sheeran, Rush, “Rock of Ages,” rapper Kid Ink ‘s “Up & Away,” One Direction, Waka, Adele, John Mayer ‘s Born and Raised” and Fun. ‘s Some Nights . On the iTunes single chart, Carly Rae Jepsen continued to top the list with “Call Me Maybe,” with Maroon 5 just behind with “Payphone,” then Katy Perry ‘s “Wide Awake,” Bieber’s “As Long As You Love Me,” Gotye ‘s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and Pitbull ‘s “Back in Time.” Rounding out the list at #7 was Usher’s “Scream,” Rihanna ‘s “Where Have You Been,” One Direction ‘s “What Makes You Beautiful” and Bieber’s “Boyfriend.” Bieber is expected to blow everyone out of the box next week with Believe , which could score the biggest first frame of the year. Other new releases include the latest from Fiona Apple , Kenny Chesney , Smashing Pumpkins and Walk the Moon . Related Artists Usher
Police Tase 80-Year-Old Woman For Raising Cane But, wait…why didn’t she have on clothes??? Police in Dorchester County, S.C., used a Taser on a nude 80-year-old woman after she allegedly attempted to attack police with her walking stick. WCSC reports that when police answered a complaint of someone making loud noises in the area, they were met by an elderly woman wearing no clothes on her porch, reportedly hitting the steps of her porch with her cane. According to police, the woman, who spoke “confusingly,” began to swing her cane at the officers when police tried to take it away from the nude woman. As police continued to talk the woman out of swinging her cane at them, another officer used his Taser on the woman’s back. The woman was immediately transported to a nearby medical facility for treatment. When police investigated the area, they discovered that the woman, a former tenant, had broken three windows at the property after the owner attempted to give the deposit back to the woman. WCSC reports that no charges were filed against the woman despite the $250 worth of property damage. Source
DILF! In celebration of Father’s Day , we celebrate the hottest looking dads in the biz. These handsome celebrities balance their fame with family, and look good doing it. So hit the flip for more dads we’d like to fawk and tell us what you think. Do you agree with our list and who did we forget?
‘It could have been one of the most incredible records ever,’ he says of his attempt to record with Winehouse. By Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Christina Garibaldi Usher Photo: MTV News It’s one of the great R&B duets that never was. While Usher was working on his seventh studio album, Looking 4 Myself , he was determined to take fans on a musical journey and experiment with sounds he’d never explored before. So, in addition to teaming up with Diplo for the seductive lead single, “Climax,” , as well as EDM giants Swedish House Mafia, Usher said he sought out producer Salaam Remi because he was very interested in doing a song with Remi protege, Amy Winehouse , before the singer died unexpectedly died at age 27 in July 2011. “We met and we talked about it for a moment when I saw her,” Usher said of a brief sit-down with the troubled crooner to discuss the potential soul summit. “There was a few conversations that took place, but we never quite made it to it … I would have loved it.” One of those talks occurred while the unlikely duo were shopping at the ritzy London department store Selfridges. “I was shopping and she was doing some private shopping and she came out and we kind of crossed each other’s [paths] and, [I was like] ‘Is that Amy Winehouse?’ … And before you know it we talked and exchanged information and I invited her to a show … and she didn’t come.” Winehouse was out of the country at the time and sent a relative to the gig in her stead, but that missed connection has stuck with Usher to this day. “It could have been one of the most incredible records ever,” he said. “A voice like that comes once in a lifetime.” Usher still wanted to get in the studio with Remi, and though it was a hard time for the producer, the pair met in New York and worked it out. “The style and the sound that we worked, I felt would definitely compliment what he does as a producer and what I have to offer.” The story that the two explored on “Sins of My Father” was a new one for Usher, who had never spoken about his feelings for his dad in song before. “That was a hard one, but he gave me a palette that really worked.” Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Usher
‘Let’s get going, summer is almost here!’ Usher tells MTV News. By Christina Garibaldi Usher Photo: Stuart Wilson On top of his club-banging hits and soulful voice, Usher has another impressive skill: creating the song of summer. Usher has ruled the airwaves in the summer for years, with hits like “You Make Me Wanna” and “U Remind Me” making fans roll down their windows and pump up their radios to his infectious tracks. Most recently, in 2010, Usher hit the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 during the summer months with his inescapable hit “OMG,” and now he’s looking to repeat that success with “Scream,” the second single from his seventh studio album. “Let’s get going, summer is almost here!” Usher told MTV News. “It’s intended to be that, but I don’t think that was the only thing. We thought about live performance, we thought about mixing and matching and also giving people an energy that only [producer Max Martin] would be able to create.” “Scream” is the latest single from Usher’s just-released album, Looking 4 Myself, which he hopes will not only get people on the dance floor, but also affect them in a more personal manner. “If I’m gonna move you, I want to move you. I hope that it could be something that could be life-changing,” the singer last month during “MTV First: Usher.” “You may be going through something real crazy, who knows, and just need to get out and just enjoy yourself. So I always think about the club, I always think about that song that will be able to let you out of that slump, if you’re in it.” Usher’s latest album, which he called an “evolution” of sound , is just the next step in his musical risk-taking. He credits longtime producer Jermaine Dupri with the opportunity to reach many different genres of music. “If I do track back to the first time I was about to take a risk, even though it wasn’t about my direction, it was more so by Jermaine Dupri’s direction with ‘You Make Me Wanna,’ ” Usher said. “You didn’t really hear that tone or that instrument on top of an R&B record, so it was an incredible collaboration or mixture of urban and classic R&B or pop… that really began to open up the conversation and allow people to understand, ‘Oh, wow, this is not just an artist that you could put in a box or put in a specific category.’ ” Are you excited for Usher’s album? Let us know in the comments! Related Videos MTV News Extended Play: Usher Justin Bieber: ‘I Can’t Not Dance Battle Usher’ Related Artists Usher
Critics are mostly positive about the new release, with one calling it, ‘at its best, a truly next-level soul album.’ By Kara Warner Usher’s Looking 4 Myself cover art Photo: RCA Given the incredibly fast-paced, blink-and-you-miss-it, flash-in-the-pan, hit-singles-or-bust state of the music industry these days, career longevity is almost as difficult for an artist to achieve as fame and recognition itself. R&B superstar Usher is clearly an exception, as Tuesday (June 12) marks the release of the seventh studio album in his 18-year career. Usher has said that Looking 4 Myself represents an “evolution” for him in several ways, and judging from the positive reviews, critics seem to agree. Without further ado, let’s take a tour through the “Looking 4 Myself” reviews. The Story of “Myself” “To the list of people who’ve had mind-altering experiences at Coachella, you can add Usher. In April he was a surprise guest at the music festival, and he says his seventh album, Looking 4 Myself, was inspired by the eclectic acts he saw there, including Euro-disco champs Swedish House Mafia (who produced two songs for L4M ) and Aussie synth-rockers Empire of the Sun (who guest on the title track). Even Usher’s new look off stage — the Buddy Holly glasses, the facial scruff — suggests that he’s warming to indie music. Did he go into Coachella as a Top 40 guy and come out a hipster? Well, he’s not exactly taking a stand against party-rock anthems here. Looking 4 Myself still sounds like the Usher you know; it’s just a little more interesting than his usual onslaught of skull-pounding beats and silk-sheets ballads.” — Melissa Maerz, Entertainment Weekly The EDM Influence “In the interviews surrounding the release of Usher’s seventh album, Looking 4 Myself, the singer discussed the wide variety of music that influenced the set, ranging from electronic dance music to folk-rockers Mumford & Sons. And while there’s a prominent EDM sound on many of the tracks (folk, not so much), the sound has fused seamlessly with R&B, making Looking 4 Myself, at its best, a truly next-level soul album. One that has the warm, organic feel of R&B and deep pop hooks, but also the pulsating low-end and shimmering keyboard flourishes of EDM.” — Jem Aswad, Billboard.com Sonorous Surprises “A number of surprises lurk within, though. ‘Twisted’ is the most disruptive track on the album, and proves that production duo the Neptunes are still able to time-travel back from the future to offer another dose of innovation. The rhythm is ridiculous, the kind that the Virginia team of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are experts at creating. Jim Jonsin’s catchy rhythm on ‘Lemme See’ finds its groove when Rick Ross parks his Lamborghini on the track’s lawn for a cameo. (Pharrell, by contrast, raps of rolling on another kind of vehicle, ’20 of us on Vespas and mopeds,’ cruising the city and offering a girl a gift of white lipstick.) The biggest outlier on Looking 4 Myself is Usher’s collaboration with Australian progressive electronic group Empire of the Sun on the title track. The song, which features Empire lead singer Luke Steele, is a new wave ditty with a beat that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Hall & Oates or later-period Steely Dan record.” — Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times The Final Word ” Looking 4 Myself covers a lot of ground, from the modernized, shouting soul of ‘Twisted’ to the jaunty new wave of the surprising title track, a catchy collaboration with Luke Steele of the Of Montreal-esque synth-pop band Empire of the Sun. Not all of it works, but none of it is unpleasant, either, something that couldn’t be said of the previous releases from the single-and-on-the-prowl phase of Usher’s career. Unlike Raymond or Versus, with their dutiful adherence to Top 40 templates, a sense of freedom and exploration carries through Looking 4 Myself that makes it feel unique from any other Usher album. Although few of these songs rank among his best, it’s a pleasure to hear a great performer branch out, following whims and taking risks as he tests new ways to work his voice.” — Evan Rytlewski, The A.V. Club Related Videos MTV First: Usher Related Artists Usher
It’s no secret that Usher’s mother Jonetta Patton never liked his ex-wife Tameka Foster, but did you know their dislike for one another allegedly came…
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