Usher

By Chris Molanphy Atlanta hip-hop king T.I. vaults 70 places into the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 this week with "Whatever You Like," a sing-songy, smudgy Xerox of his classic 2006 hit "What You Know." Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

By Maura Johnston Nominees for the MTV Video Music Awards, which take place Sept. 7 in Los Angeles: BEST NEW ARTIST Miley Cyrus Katy Perry Jordin Sparks Taylor Swift Tokio Hotel BEST MALE VIDEO Chris Brown, "With You" Flo Rida, "Low" Lil Wayne, "Lollipop" T.I., "No Matter What" Usher, "Love In This Club"

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By Maura Johnston 1. Kid Rock - "All Summer Long" 2. Rihanna - "Disturbia" 3. Usher - "Love in This Club" 4. Estelle - "American Boy" 5. T.I. - "No Matter What" 6. Leona Lewis - "Bleeding Love" 7. Lil Wayne - "A Milli" 8. Pussycat Dolls - "When I Grow Up" 9. Coldplay - "Viva La Vida" 10. Katy Perry - "I Kissed a Girl"

By Anono-Critic Much more telling than any of those breezy strolls through Vibe-World is an unsigned piece titled "Cover Me Badd," which analyzes 17 cover images that, in the staff's judgment, have not aged well and are otherwise shitty. A March 2005 issue fronted by Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams is...

By Maura Johnston BEST NEW ARTIST Katy Perry Taylor Swift Jordin Sparks Tokio Hotel Miley Cyrus Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" Directors: Gil Green & Dwayne Carter BEST MALE VIDEO: Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" Director: Gil Green/D. Carter Usher - "Love In This Club" Director: The Brothers Strause

By Maura Johnston Usher's latest album, Here I Stand, was something of a flop, despite him going to every show on the cable dial to promote it. (It's sold a relatively paltry 948,000 copies in 10 weeks, and had no top-10 singles after the No. 1 hit "Love In This Club.") So he's fired his manager Benny Medina and lur...

By Maura Johnston BEST MALE VIDEO: Lil Wayne - "Lollipop" Cash Money Records/Universal Motown Director: Gil Green/D. Carter Chris Brown - "With You" Jive Records/Zomba Director: Erik White/Chris Brown Usher - "Love In This Club" LaFace Records/Zomba Label Group Director: The Brothers Strause

By Maura Johnston Nas' new album, which was stripped of its epithetastic title in the months leading up to its release, took the No. 1 spot on this week's album charts, selling 187,000 copies in its first week out. The album, which leaked earlier this month, had a first-week total that was a little more than hal...

By Anthony Miccio Usher was livid!," claims an insider. "He threatened to fire everyone." People have been telling Usher to listen to his mother," says a source. "Nobody knows how to sell him better than she does. Usher can be stubborn. But he may be ready."

By Anono-Critic For the July "Swagger" issue, the mag secured the participation of Usher Raymond for both a photo shoot and a sit-down chat. In "Caught Up," penned by Mitzi Miller, Usher addresses the issue that has enveloped his public profile in the past year: the dismissal of his "mom-ager" of 30/15 yea...

By Dan Gibson Choice Music: Male Artist Chris Brown Jesse McCartney Justin Timberlake Kanye West Usher Choice Music: Rap Artist Flo Rida Kanye West Lil Mama Lil Wayne Lupe Fiasco Choice Music: R&B Artist Beyoncé Chris Brown Rihanna T-Pain Usher

By Maura Johnston The top 10 digital albums, with sales totals in parentheses: 1. Usher, Here I Stand (44,000) 2. Sex And The City soundtrack (27,000) 3. Fergie, Dutchess EP (11,000) 4. 3 Doors Down (10,000) 5. Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs (9,600) 6. Jason Mraz, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things (7,500)

By Maura Johnston You know, between his tepid performances on the Saturday Night Live finale and the above reworking of "Yeah!" on last night's Dancing With The Stars—which turned the song's club setting into something more resembling an ersatz tap-dancing studio to which Lil Jon and Ludacris obviousl...

By Chris Molanphy The current "special edition" strategy came of age in 2004, when the already-hot Usher, already three No. 1 singles deep into Confessions, recorded "My Boo" with Alicia Keys and re-released the album with a fourth No. 1 single locked down. Since then, we've seen Mariah Carey, Shakira, Just...

By Anthony Miccio Alicia Keys "Like You'll Never See Me Again" Mary J. Blige "Just Fine" UGK feat. OutKast "Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You)" Best Female R&B Artist Alicia Keys Mary J. Blige Keyshia Cole Rihanna Mariah Carey Best Male R&B Artist Trey Songz Ne-Yo Chris Brown J. Holiday

By Jess Harvell ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Far from the headache-inducing weirdness of "Dat Girl Right There", Usher's last Leak Of The Day, the anguished "I Can't Win" finds producers Stargate lending a platinum sheen of melodramatic piano and strings guaranteed to add zeros to sales tallies and radio spi...

By Maura Johnston Barack Obama: Babyface, the Goo Goo Dolls, Macy Gray, Ne-Yo, Will Smith, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick Jr., Pete Wentz, Win Butler, will.i.am/the Black Eyed Peas, the Grateful Dead, Jeff Tweedy, Conor Oberst, Joanna Newsom, the Cool Kids, Stephan Jenkins, OK Go, Shudder to Think, D...

By Anono-Critic The cover represents what we're all about, man.": Blender's cover features a pop singer removing her shirt; RS' year-end cover is, as always, a composite of many of its 2007 covers—which is to say, the magazine itself and imprimatur it bestows; and Spin has a rare instance of a African-Ame...

By Jess Harvell Rolling Stone has named the most recent comeback from the (for the time being anyway) president of Def Jam the No. 1 single of 2007. And at No. 2... Randy Newman. (We give up.) At least Lil Wayne placed ahead of the Boss. (Bet that made for some fun editorial meetings.) The full 100 is after the jump, but fi...

By Anono-Critic Finally, we get to the feature well, which, given that deeply reported longform journalism and think pieces are VF's bread and butter, seems half-baked. James Wolcott, a trusted VF contributor and a gifted critic, takes on Ken Russell's 1975 film Tommy in "Tommy Dearest"; he admits that...

By mjohnston Nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album go to: Lost Highway — Bon Jovi The Reminder — Feist It Won't Be Soon Before Long — Maroon 5 Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals nods go to: The Sweet Escape" — Gwen Stefani & Akon Best Pop Instrumental Performance nominees are:

By Chris Molanphy Bottom line: with "Low" seeming to slow down and "Apologize" having a tough fight to go the last mile, Alicia Keys will probably be sitting pretty through much of the holiday season. Which is appropriate, in a year where the ladies mostly dominated the gents on the singles charts.

By mjohnston 9:42 p.m. Me: "Aww, remember Michael Jackson?" Kate: "Who's that?" 9:58 p.m. Did you guys know that Alicia Keys is this generation's Stevie Wonder and/or Ray Charles? 10:12 p.m. America has chosen "Hungry Like The Wolf." I hate you, America.

By mjohnston ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: When listening to Usher's monster hit from a few years back, "Yeah!," did you ever feel that what the song needed was less Lil' Jon, and more music that sounded like someone rubbing their wet fingers on a balloon, then turning that sound way, way, way up? If so, then "Dat...

By Chris Molanphy 1. Chris Brown, "Kiss Kiss" (LW No. 1, 8 weeks) 3. Alicia Keys, "No One" (LW No. 4, 9 weeks) 6. Kanye West, "Stronger" (LW No. 6, 15 weeks) 7. Baby Bash feat. T-Pain, "Cyclone" (LW No. 8, 15 weeks) 8. Kanye West feat. T-Pain, "Good Life" (LW No. 7, 8 weeks)

By mjohnston Perhaps sensing that today would be a good day to put out bad news since people who cover music would be kinda distracted, release dates for three sorta-big upcoming albums were shifted today. (News that Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains was also pushed back has also been making the rounds, but t...