Usher featuring Ludacris "Dat Girl Right There"
Usher sold over a million copies in one week with his last album Confessions (which would eventually push over eight million units and score a couple Grammy’s), but is the pressure to follow up a mega-seller like that perhaps too lofty a goal for “Mr. Entertainer”, or has becoming a so-so Broadway actor, new husband and father-to-be curved his ability to make good music anymore.
The past year has seen plenty Usher leaks, and while some were dismissed as older material never meant to reach the public ear, they all ranked underwhelming, especially for a R&B star who had the Midas touch with anything he graced a few years back. The latest question mark to hit the ‘Net is the confused “Dat Girl Right There”, a noisy number that marries predictable male ogling with a messy, futuristic crunk mindmeld beat consisting of cantankerous drum clatter and a symphony of farts.
After banging countless beauties from around the world, one stand-out girl has impressed him so much that it’s reduced him to a slobber-mouthed fool, stuttering out a chorus as annoyingly repetitious as it’s “wish it could be as cool as Amerie’s” backing track. Usher made great lyrical strides with all the soapy relationship drama that unfolded over Confessions, so hearing him regurgitating the mindless gibberish of a contemporary soul amateur is such a letdown. Even Ludacris’ typical wacky XXX banter (“Like yeast in the over/ All of a sudden she made me RISE-rise-rise-rise“) fails to ignite much interest over a cartoony beat he should’ve easily owned.
A manic new offering that somebody during the process of recording should have exposed for it’s extreme lameness, “Dat Girl Right There” has us “confessing” that he might want to re-think his comeback plan if this is the strongest jump-off he can come up with.
DL: “Dat Girl Right There” (YFH)
Did you like “Yeah” the 1st time you heard it? Have you heard the completed mixed version of this record in a club setting? Keep in mind that you have reviewed a leaked, unfinished record.