Usher dropped a few unknown tidbits of old school facts about his personal life and his career, which looked like to kind of all be intertwined together. In a previous interview with The Roots’ drummer, Questlove, on his Pandora radio show, Questlove Supreme, Usher chopped it up about everything, from how he got caught up in music legends, Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid’s and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmond’s beef back in the day, to how Tevin Campbell ended up getting work that was originally meant for him; to issues with his former-wife/mom of his 2 kids, Tameka Raymond, and also his mom/former-manager, Jonetta.
It turns out “Can We Talk” was truly Usher’s song…until Babyface gave it away to Tevin Campbell in order to spite LA Reid at that time, as per to Usher:
Usher: “When I 1st signed to LaFace Records, I wanted to do an album with Babyface and LA Reid, right? I signed specifically for that reason. So LA Reid wanted Babyface to work on me…and they were going via, you know, a lot of drama at the time.
They were kinda severing their ties. He [Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds] got mad…and he built an entire album for me, and he gave the entire album to somebody else…Tevin Campbell! ‘Can We Talk’…was my song…”
“Can We Talk” ended up being the biggest song of Tevin’s career. It stayed at #1 on the R&B charts for weeks and the entire album, I.m Ready, sold 2 million+ albums. By the way, I dig Usher and Tevin, but I gotta admit that after the way Tevin killed it on “Can We Talk,” I couldn’t imagine ANY other vocalist recording that song…not even Usher. Usher’s mom was his manager for years, until he fired her. But he acknowledges his gratitude for her…