Maybe you’ve built up this image of yourself. On “U Got It Bad,” Usher sounds pained and puzzled, and the thing that’s messing him up is the idea of overwhelming attraction: “Know you got it bad when you’re stuck in the house/ You don’t wanna have fun, it’s all you think about/ You got it bad when you’re out with someone, but you keep on thinking ’bout somebody else.” So it’s a song about not wanting to admit that you feel things. The whole arrangement is uncluttered by design it exists mostly to stay out of Usher’s way. There are a few subtle, melodic synth bits in there, too, and some whooshing-wind sound-effects, but that’s really it. Over that drum machine, William Odum, a session guitarist who played on a lot of Dupri productions, plays a busy acoustic figure so clean that it sounds positively unreal. It’s got the same 808-driven rhythmic pattern as a whole lot of that era’s Southern rap, mostly limited to mechanized kickdrum booms and hi-hit tics. “U Got It Bad” is very much a product of its time.
He built it from there, and it became this massive song.” Usher got a writing credit on “U Got It Bad,” as well, but it seems like most of the song was Dupri and Cox. That’s one track I initiated musically, and Jermaine brought the lyrics and the whole production concept, where it started with just a little piano idea I laid down. Cox takes credit for the “U Got It Bad” melody: “‘U Got It Bad’ is special to me because Jermaine allowed me to express myself melodically. In the Bronson book, Cox says that Dupri has basic concepts for songs and that those songs would develop as the two of them passed ideas back and forth. They helped write and produce songs for Dupri collaborators like Lil Bow Wow and Jagged Edge. In 2000, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jermaine Dupri started working together regularly. Cox’s Noontime boss Chris Hicks became his manager, and the two of them both worked on “Get Gone,” a song that the Houston R&B group Ideal took to #13 in 1999. While studying at Clark Atlanta University, Cox had worked as an intern at the label Noontime Records. Dupri worked on the song with his co-producer and regular collaborator Bryan-Michael Cox, a Houston native who’d gone to high school with Beyoncê and who’d recorded an early demo tape with her. In any case, that whole exchange gave Dupri his lightbulb moment, and he started writing “U Got It Bad” as soon as Usher left the studio. You got it bad.” Dupri doesn’t identify the girl, but Usher started dating TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas in 2001, so it might be her. Usher asked why, and Dupri responded, “We’re going to do this later on. They got into some conversation, and he couldn’t finish his work.” Dupri told Usher that he had to leave the studio for the day. Then she called him while he was in the studio. Dupri says that the girl “got him really upset, and then she left. Usher and Dupri were trying to work together in the studio, but Usher “couldn’t get his performance together.” Usher had brought a girl to the studio, and her presence was distracting Usher. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number 1 Hits, Jermaine Dupri says he got the idea for “U Got It Bad” because he saw that Usher had it bad. “U Got It Bad” isn’t un-horny, but it’s more about being helpless before your own sense of longing. Lyrically, though, the two songs work on different levels. Both go heavy on drum machines and ultra-processed acoustic guitars, and both rely on Usher’s ability to skate over a track - sounding almost, but not quite, like he’s rapping. Both tracks are digital-era versions of the slow jam. Later on, Dupri said that “U Got It Bad” was essentially his attempt to remake Usher’s first chart-topper, the 1998 smash “ Nice & Slow.” In 2013, Dupri told Complex, “‘U Got It Bad’ was basically just another version of ‘Nice & Slow,’ with me trying to repeat and just make a better version.” Musically, the two songs have a lot in common. Usher recorded “U Got It Bad” with Jermaine Dupri, his favorite collaborator. “U Got It Bad” is what happens when the sensitive-player thing stops working - when, despite your best efforts, you catch feelngs. “U Got It Bad” exists in conversation with “U Remind Me” in ways that go far beyond the Prince-esque stylization of the titles. It’s Usher attempting to walk a line - to remain single but to let this poor lady down easy through the magic of soap-opera psychodrama.
On that “U Remind Me,” sensitive player Usher does his best to carefully explain that he can’t see you anymore because you remind him too much of his ex, who cheated on him and hurt his soul. Usher released “U Got It Bad” right after “ U Remind Me,” the first single from his 2001 album 8701. “U Got It Bad” was Usher’s second consecutive #1 hit.
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