Zeros

Shoulda Never Left: Usher Lands Back on the Billboard Hot 100 A Babyface -penned duet with Kehlani puts one of R&B's great voices back on the chart. Whether it means anything more than that is the question worth asking. Kehlani dropped her self-titled fifth album on April 24th — her 31st birthday, a date she apparently treats as a gift to the rest of us as well — and buried inside its seventeen tracks is a moment that will register differently depending on your vintage as an R&B fan. Track eight is titled Shoulda Never , featuring Usher . It is penned by Babyface. It is on the Billboard Hot 100. If you are of a certain age, you are permitted a quiet exhale. The collaboration has a backstory worth knowing. Kehlani had originally wanted Usher for the remix of Folded , the breakout single that earned her first two Grammy wins , and became something of a generational anthem for a younger R&B audience. Usher was on the road — his Past Present Future tour had h...