Usher won’t be participating in a Verzuz battle anytime soon.
In a recent interview with People Every Day podcast, the R&B artist shared that no musician would “want smoke with their songs.”
Instead, he explained how best Verzuz battle would feature him standing onstage battling himself — which is a concept that had already been done in his 2010 studio album Raymond V. Raymond.
“It’s like, I could do it by myself. But I don’t wanna do that. That’s not the purpose of Verzuz, me versus me. I think it’s great. It’s great to celebrate music.” Usher continued, “But the appreciation of it starts with understanding what it is and how long it has taken to do this legacy. And if you compare it, what are you comparing it to? Are you comparing it to itself?”
Elsewhere in the interview, the ‘Confessions’ artist said, “I’m a different animal, man, I’m cut from a way different cloth, man. And when you put those songs on, I’m telling you, I don’t think anybody in the world would want smoke with their songs.”
A month ago, Usher shut down rumors circulating about him doing a potential Verzuz with Chris Brown. He told interviewers, “There was a flyer put together. It’s not official, no, we’re not doing that.” The ‘Yeah’ singer continued, “I don’t think y’all ready for nothing like that. You might be ready for something like that on stage, maybe in the future. Stay tuned.”
The eight-time Grammy award winner crowned himself as the King of R&B in an interview with Bevy Smith.”King, whatever you wanna call it. I’ve been working to the point where I do own that, and I do deserve that.”
And with his ongoing hard work, Usher does deserve to be the King of R&B. According to BET, the singer has extended his Las Vegas residency with 25 new dates. He is set to be back on stage in March 2023 and wrapping up by July 2023.