Usher's 8701 : 20 Years Later

 

     Usher's third studio album, 8701, released August 07, 2001 via Arista Records. Several producers were involved in the making of the album including Usher himself along with The Neptunes, Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs, Mike City, Bryan Michael Cox, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.  

Having been scheduled for an October 30 release, the album titled was changed from All About U, amidst delays and online leakage of tracks. The album was renamed 8701 in reference to album's release date of August 7, 2001 (8/7/01) and his first time singing in church in 1987.
8701 takes inspiration from multiple artists, including Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Michael Jackson.

8701 produced two Billboard Hot 100 number one singles – "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad" stayed on top for four and five weeks, respectively.  'U Remind Me' won Usher his first Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 while it  reached the top five in Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. 

"Pop Ya Collar"  entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, but achieved less success in the United States, with a peak of number sixty on the Billboard Hot 100.

 The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 210,000 copies sold in its first week. 8701 has since been certified 4x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold eight million copies worldwide as of 2010.
The album earned Usher numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards, three Billboard Music Awards and a BET Award. 

In December 2009, the album and its single, "U Got It Bad", were ranked as some of the best records of the 2000–2009 decade. The former was positioned at number sixty-three and the latter at number fifteen, respectively, on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 Decade-End Charts. 

The album debuted atop the Canadian Albums Chart, and spent three weeks on the chart.
It topped the UK Albums Chart on the week ending August 21, 2001, remaining there for 47 weeks until it exited the chart. On the Australian Albums Chart, 8701 peaked at number five, and remained on the chart for forty-three weeks and was certified 2× platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 

Credits for 8701 adapted from Allmusic.

David Ashton – assistant engineer Babyface – guest artist Dave Barry – guest artist Bryan-Michael Cox – instrumentation, producer Jermaine Dupri – guest artist Kevon Edmonds – guest artist Brian Garten – engineer

Kevin Guarnieri – assistant engineer, engineer Jimmy Jam – guest artist Kelis – guest artist Terry Lewis – guest artist P.Diddy – performer, primary artist, featured artist, guest artist David Rideau – engineer Usher – primary artist, vocals