While Omarion awaits the Tuesday (Jan. 12) release of his new album Ollusion, the former B2K frontman is also looking forward to projects from his peers.
Two big albums he’s waiting on this year are Beyoncé’s I Am…Sasha Fierce follow-up and Usher’s Raymond vs. Raymond, which is currently due in February despite recent leaks.
“I’m really excited to see what [Beyoncé] is about this time, what type of music she does,” Omarion tells VIBE. “I’m [also] looking forward to Usher’s album. I heard a lot about it. A couple of months back he played me a lot of records but I’m not sure if he kept them or if it’s new or what exactly he’s doing, so I’m very interested to see what he comes with.”
Of Ursh’s Polow Da Don-produced single, “Little Freak,” featuring Nicki Minaj, O says, “It’s dope. I want to see the video. I’m real interested to see how mobile [Usher] is. I want to see his get-off, how he’s performing, how he’s dancing.”
Despite Drake being his former label mate, Omarion seemed oblivious about the Toronto rapper’s much hyped debut Thank Me Later (“Oh, it’s called Thank Me Later?” O asked). Though the two collaborated on Drake’s So Far Gone track, “Bree’s Interlude,” while O was still signed to Young Money Entertainment, he insists it wasn’t a tit-for-tat deal.
“It wasn’t even planned. It just happened,” says Omarion. “As everyone knows, Wayne stay in the studio so I think everyone has that quality in his camp. [Drake] was doing his mixtape and was like, ‘Yo you should get on the mixtape.’ I was like, ‘Man pull the beat up,’ and then we just did it… Drake is doing really well for his career and I wish him luck.”
Of course, Omarion was most excited about his own project, Ollusion, stating that he’s stepped up both his singing and performing in the past two years. “The whole project is really my progression. I really just felt like I needed that time to grow and have some new things to talk about and let life happen and pull the inspiration from there,” he explains. “I feel like I’ve become stronger as a singer as a dancer. I’ve never really been at this level and what I mean by that is that I can physically and mentally get lost in performing. When I’m dancing, my movement is not about my movement. If I tell my mind to turn my body into a pretzel then I’m gon’ turn my body into a pretzel. That’s how elevated that I’ve become in my performance.” —Clover Hope