Usher Hard II Love Album Cover & Tracklist

It’s been four years since Usher released his 2012 album, Looking 4 Love. While the album was his 4th Number one album on the charts, it didn’t receive great reviews as Usher has had a hard time pleasing his 90’s R&B fans and this new generation of R&B lovers. It’s been the same story leading up to the new Usher Hard II Love album, his eighth.

Hard II Love is a long time coming. Usher has been trying to create a buzz around it since early 2013. He joined The Voice television show as a judge and followed it up with the release of his single, “Good Kisser”. The song, a provocative dance track performed well, but audiences were torn as to the direction Usher was going. He released two more singles, “She Came to Give It to You” featuring Nicki Minaj and “I Don’t Mind” featuring Juicy J. They didn’t really help attract his day one fans, but temporarily captured a younger audience.

Usher went on tour and even had a headline performance at Essence Festival in 2015. His feature on Wale’s “The Matrimony” single might have had the audience at peak interest, but still no album came in 2015. The album title has changed from UR to Flawed and now finally Hard II Love.

At the end of 2015, he released this single “Chains”, a Tidal exclusive featuring Nas and Bibi Bourelly. The song and visual was one of the first songs that helped create a soundtrack to the Black Lives Matter movement.

In June, Usher released what would prove to be the official first single to the album, “No Limit” featuring Young Thug. A second single, “Crash” was also released.

With the release of the film, Hands of Stone, which Usher stars in as Sugar Ray Leonard, Usher found another platform to help showcase the music. The song, “Missin U” was released along with the film and “Champions” is featured in the film.

Perfect timing to release the Usher Hard II Love album a month later on September 16th.

The album cover, which is above is the photo of a bust of Usher, which was created by Daniel Arsham. It matches the original album titled, ‘Flawed’ but Usher decided to still use it for the album.

Check out the full Usher Hard II Love soundtrack below:
1. “Need U” (Conversation with Priyanka Chopra)
2. “Missin U”
3. “No Limit” feat. Young Thug
4. “Bump”
5. “Let Me”
6. “Down Time”
7. “Crash”
8. “Make U a Believer”
9. “Mind of a Man”
10. “FWM”
11. “Rivals” feat. Future
12. “Tell Me”
13. “Hard II Love”
14. “Stronger”
15. “Champions” (From Hands of Stone)