In 1993, Usher recorded his first single "Call Me a Mack," which was featured in the film "Poetic Justice." At the time, Usher's voice was experiencing changes due to puberty, so producer L.A. Reid wanted to drop him from the label. "Then someone said to me, 'Don't be a fool. Don't sell your stock in Usher. He's still going to be a star. He's everything you thought he was the day you signed him,'" Reid revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. That someone was Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Reid confirmed.
In 1994, 16-year-old Usher released his first album, self-titled "Usher," which was coproduced by Diddy and Reid. The album was not a huge success, but Usher's second album, "My Way," released in 1997, was. With hit singles like "Nice & Slow" and "You Make Me Wanna," the album established Usher as a rising R&B star to watch.
Usher's success and the name of the album came from his insistence on making the kind of music he wanted. "See, they wanted him to be this bad boy image. Usher's not a bad boy. ... It didn't work. So Usher said, 'I'm gonna do it my way,' and that's basically what we did," Usher's mom explained on the OWN series "Behind Every Man" (via Yahoo). Speaking about the iconic album, Usher told Complex, "It's not until you finally grab the bull by the horns and go after your own creative and ambitious ideas that you begin to give people something that is truly authentic to who you are."
