As the most recent visitor on the Joe Budden Podcast, Jermaine Dupri, an award-winning producer and songwriter, shared an fascinating perspective on collaborating on music with R&B singer Chris Brown, citing his shut friendship with Usher. JD shared his need to collaborate with Brown on a file; nevertheless, as historical past has proven, if the producer does work with Brown, it may create a potential subject with Usher.

The matter arose whereas Jermaine Dupri and JBP mentioned a potential Verzuz between Chris Brown and Usher. JD needs to see the 2 superstars compete in opposition to one another, however is siding with Usher as a lot of the famous person’s classics had been produced by JD.

“I know everybody — you know people — have this thing about Usher and Chris Brown,” JD tells Joe Budden. “I’m never gonna say Chris Brown, and I fuck with Chris Brown, but I wrote half of the Usher songs. Y’all want me to go against myself? Like, I’m not doing that.”

Jermaine could also be selecting Usher, however he nonetheless needs to see a Verzuz occur. He continued: “Like, however you feel going to happen in the Verzuz, that’s how y’all feel. These my songs. I wrote these songs, I’m going for my songs. I’m never going to go against myself, but at the same time, like I said, with being competitive, I’m also saying, I want Usher to stay Usher. I want Chris Brown to stay Chris Brown.
Let’s fight it out.”

Usher and Chris Brown come from two totally different eras, however each have been talked about within the debate over which artists will be the only real heirs to Michael Jackson’s throne. According to Jermaine Dupri, each superstars have signature kinds that he doesn’t wish to see emulated within the Verzuz.

“Be who you got to be,” mentioned JD. “Like, don’t do his dance. That’s like Mike … that’s like Prince doing “Smooth Criminal”.
I’d have been mad as fuck by seeing him along with his ass out in his little excessive heels on attempting to maneuver like Michael.”

JD’s remark would result in Joe Budden asking concerning the producer working with Chris Brown. Referring to the same earlier scenario with Dru Hill and JD’s former group Jagged Edge, Dupri revealed that working with Brown is “dangerous.”

“If Chris Brown calls today, on some Dru Hill/Jagged Edge shit, ‘JD, I need something, come through, are you coming to give him the slaps?” Budden requested JD.

“It’s dangerous at this point,” JD replied. “Because like, I said, I don’t go to the studio thinking about, ‘let me hold this, hold some other shit, hold this, let me keep this.’ I might fuck around and go in the studio, Chris Brown and make Thriller. 
Usher will hate me for the rest of my life.”

Then, Jermaine Dupri would acknowledge that he had created a number-one hit with Chris Brown earlier than and is aware of what a collaboration between them is able to. He elaborated:

“I would love to work with Chris Brown. I have worked with Chris Brown before. Bow Wow and Chris Brown got a number one record. 
As soon as we put him on the song. Number one, you ain’t got to tell me what’s going to happen. I know what’s going to happen, but I’m just saying.. 
I have the experience of doing this with Jagged Edge, Dru Hill, where I know the danger in it, right? And I’m also so confident in myself that I know I’m going, if I go in the studio with Chris Brown, I’m not fucking around. I’m going to come out with a record that goes.”

Usher and Jermaine Dupri’s friendship has endured for almost three a long time, constructed on music, mentorship, and unwavering loyalty. Their connection started within the mid-Nineties, when Dupri, already a revered producer, helped form the younger singer’s profession throughout a vital second.

After Usher’s 1994 debut acquired a lukewarm reception, Dupri stepped in to information him towards a extra refined, mature sound. That partnership produced the 1997 album My Way, which delivered career-defining hits together with “You Make Me Wanna…” and “Nice & Slow.” The file established Usher as a rising R&B star whereas cementing Dupri’s status as one of many trade’s high hitmakers.

Their artistic synergy continued on 8701 and the blockbuster Confessions, which grew to become one of many best-selling R&B albums in historical past. Together, they crafted timeless data that influenced the sound of a technology.

Usher and Chris Brown outlined R&B’s momentum in 2024 and 2025. Usher’s ninth studio album, Coming Home, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, later profitable R&B Album of the Year on the 2025 iHeartRadio music Awards. His Past, Present & Future Tour ballooned to 58 dates, drawing huge North American and European crowds.

Meanwhile, Brown’s 11:11 Tour grossed over $82 million throughout 36 sold-out U.S. reveals earlier than increasing to record-breaking stadium stops in South Africa and Brazil. His single “Residuals” climbed to his eleventh No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, solidifying each artists as pillars of recent R&B’s world attain. Brown’s anticipated Breezy Bowl XX world tour kicked off this month.