Or at least we thought the album addressed their breakup. The album’s second single, the break-up ballad “Burn”, would also hit #1 and would set the tone for an album rooted in the controversial break-up of he and Chilli, member of R&B group TLC. The single is one of the 25 biggest songs of all-time and was the third biggest song of the 2000s decade, behind The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” (#2) and Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” (#1). The trio’s bonafide club banger, based on meeting a shawty in the club, would go onto reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remain there for 12 non-consecutive weeks, the longest stay for all three at the top. The collaboration was also at an all-time high for Atlanta based music on mainstream charts, as both rappers had #1 singles the year prior. The first single from his breakthrough album Confessions, “Yeah!”, we saw Usher join forces with Lil’ Jon and Ludacris at the respective peak of both of their careers. So it was only a matter of time before he took the world by storm and became the biggest story of music. He was officially transitioning from a heartthrob performer, into a grown man still straddling the line. His 2001 album, 8701, was a commercial success due to singles “U Remind Me”, “U Got It Bad”, and “U Don’t Have to Call”. In the first quarter of 2004, R&B’s rising prince would transform into one of the all-time greats in R&B.

7 Our writer takes a stroll down memory lane through one of R&B’s most scandalous albums of the 00s.

Usher confessions album tracklist