Prior to his legendary Super Bowl Halftime Show performance on Sunday (February 11), Usher released his first independent record, Coming Home, on his own label Mega. The album dropped on Friday before the big game, and features a slew of different artists like Latto, Burna Boy, H.E.R., Summer Walker, and 21 Savage.
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Usher also reworked the Billy Joel hit “Uptown Girl” into the track “A-Town Girl,” shouting out girls from Atlanta, Georgia. He recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the album and specifically about the track, which also features Latto.
When asked what it was like to flip the iconic Joel song, Usher replied, “It was super cool. I didn’t think he was going to clear it at first, to be honest. But when I finally got the clear, I was like, ‘This is fire.’” He continued, “There’s these songs and algorithms that work with the world; you might not even know the damn song, but you have heard it before. You’ve heard that feeling. There’s these forever-type records. So ‘Uptown Girl’ is something that worked with ‘A-Town Girl.’”
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Usher went on to explain further. “It was the perfect sample that could flip this mentality of this girl who’s just unwavering and she don’t really care about what the f–k else is going on in the world,” he said. “She cares about where she is and what she feels and what she knows is real. And the places that she goes and the experiences that she has is something like, ‘Yo, you can try to change an A-Town girl, but you’ll never change an A-Town girl.’ Wherever she goes, she’s just going to make it A-Town.”
Usher Explains the Phenomenon of an A-Town Girl
“A-Town Girl” does indeed create the feeling that everyone knows from “Uptown Girl,” fabricating a character who has a particular attitude based on her location. There’s more to Usher’s A-Town Girl, though, and he continued to explain.
“I’m trying to get her to come to Las Vegas, try to get her to come to L.A, [but Atlanta girls] just move a little bit different. They motivate. ATL girls motivate the rest of the girls in the world,” said Usher. “You look at even how the models are dressing. I mean, if you’re from Atlanta and you really do know it, you’ll know the difference. But otherwise people will be like, ‘Oh nah. Those nice curves, everybody has those.’ Nah, that’s some A s–t. That’s ATL.”
Featured Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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