“OMG!” Usher just dropped a new single and it’s not just good — it’s “Good Good.”
In light of his latest release on Friday, Usher, 44, opened up to PEOPLE about what the single means to him, wrapping up his Las Vegas residency, being named the “Domestic Terrorist” — and he weighed in on social media buzz surrounding Keke Palmer attending his show.
“R&B has always been about the service, and that service is either conversation of love, the songs you make love to, the songs you fall in love to [and] the way that you choose to articulate yourself in relationships,” he tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“‘Good Good’ is about being in a relationship with someone and ultimately letting them know like, ‘Yo, we don’t have to be enemies,'” he continues. “We might not be good good, meaning we may have not made it to forever, meaning we may not have been the relationship that was going to last forever in the way that you thought, but we can be good.”
“Good Good” features 21 Savage and Summer Walker and follows his previous single “GLU.”
“I mean, who better to really talk on the subject than two people that we watched go through some really vulnerable things in front of the world?” he says. “Summer, 21 Savage, myself, we all could collectively tell our story as we don’t necessarily always feel as comfortable talking about it in interviews and being vulnerable in that way, but on this song, it addresses the idea of what ‘Good Good’ is to them and what ‘Good Good’ is to me.”
He continues, “When it came about, I think we were all really just going through these, somewhat of these ideas, and I think it was perfectly timed. I don’t know if I could have timed it better.”
The “Yeah!” performer’s new song will be featured on his upcoming studio album, which set for release this fall. He has not announced the title.
The new release also comes after the Confessions singer wrapped the first run of his Las Vegas residency Usher: My Way. Reflecting on the performances, he says he’s felt like he was “living out my version” of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack shows in Las Vegas back in the day — where people felt “compelled to get ready — not just show up.”
“I love how sophisticated it felt,” Usher says. “[The fans] literally get on a plane, they picked out an incredible outfit and they’re ready to show it. They feel good, it makes them feel good, and they sing these songs that they’re familiar with. They sing these songs that are No. 1s because they made them No. 1, or either they experienced it, they went through that heartache and pain.”
He continues, “I look out in the audience sometimes and I can see tears and I see his eyes, or I see guys singing a song that normally like, this guy super-duper hard, why the hell is he singing that song so emotionally? Oh s—, that means he probably experienced some idea of what it was to even make it. So I get really excited about that, so much so that it made me want to make new music.”
One of his shows last month sparked social buzz after Palmer’s boyfriend Darius Jackson publicly called her out for her outfit at the concert — and he received backlash for it.
Jackson quoted a tweet showing a video of Palmer, 29, in the outfit dancing with Usher alongside the text, “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom.”
In a second tweet elaborating on his stance, he wrote, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is. This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”
While Palmer has yet to publicly respond to Jackson’s comments, she posted more photos of the outfit, including closeups of the top of the outfit and a shot showing off her booty in a bathroom mirror. She captioned it: “I wish I had taken more pictures but we were running late!”
Usher, however, says it was “a pop moment” and “worth talking about.”
“I think everybody’s vision or a version of what they felt happened there just leads you back to just really having a good time in Las Vegas. And that’s what I hope came out of it. Rather, it was a conversation of what was going on with us having fun in front of the audience or conversation about that song,” he says.
Adding, “Every night I’m thinking about how the world now is going to react to this moment that I’ll have with whoever I’m choosing to sing to. But it was a pop moment, and it was fun to have at least conversation going and we just keep it light. I don’t see anything negative happening in Las Vegas.”
He’s even embraced a nickname given to him by fans: the “Domestic Terrorist.” He jokes, “The internet is crazy. You can’t beat the internet.”
Usher will perform a series of shows in Paris in September before he kicks back up in Las Vegas at the Park MGM’s Dolby Live in October.
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