There’s Something About Me, My Self & MaryJane (Act 2) – later this year, suggesting there is yet more drama to vanquish. Rumours are she’ll release a sequel to the sequel – the gloriously titled My Life II. By referencing that source, she was using shorthand to tell them what to expect from the songs: struggle, strength and a sense of rebirth.

When Mary J Blige released My Life II … The Journey Continues in 2011, the sequel to her 1994 breakthrough, she drew a line connecting her journey with that of her long-term fans, telling the BBC that the sequel came from a “need to be reminded of how far we’ve come”. A proper sequel – not just a Jay-Z-style The Blueprint 2, which was more like a Hollywood sequel, ie bigger, bolder, more Beyoncé – suggests that Usher might have further personal traumas to unpack (he recently separated from his second wife). Focusing on what the press called his “little secrets” but also taking in themes from those close to the project (Burn was about the dissolution of Usher’s relationship with TLC’s Chilli in Confessions Part II he sung about impregnating a mistress, though that came from Dupri’s experiences), it was an album that offered relatable expressions of pain even though the packaging was distinctly aspirational. Confessions is Usher’s defining album, the one that offered a glimpse into the life of a then-burgeoning superstar who until that point had revealed little beyond his glorious six-pack. Whether dis is what we do all want is open to interpretation, but the caption was telling. His Instagram tease was reposted by the album’s main producer Jermaine Dupri, suggesting the pair were hard at work together. In March, the Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) hitmaker hinted at a sequel to his 20m-selling, A-list cementing 2004 opus, Confessions. So what’s an artist with an identity crisis and a depleted fanbase to do? Easy: look to the past. Unfortunately, that temporary new ’do got more online traction than the surprise eight-track EP, A, which had arrived with a whimper in October 2018. T he last we heard from Usher Raymond IV, he was taking a curling iron to his hair and dressing up for a New Year’s Eve party like a lost member of the Rat Pack.

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