Usher’s Lost ‘Flawed’ Era: The Two Songs That Previewed an Album He Never Released

Two premieres, not two released singles

At a private New Year’s Eve concert in Hollywood on December 31, 2015, Usher introduced two unheard songs: “Hard to Love” and “Cards.” Contemporary reports called them new songs, and some secondary posts later upgraded that description to “singles.” That distinction matters. Neither recording received a documented commercial release at the time, and neither appeared under those titles on the album Usher eventually issued.

The performance was part of a Samsung Pay promotion. Samsung’s own announcement promised winners a Los Angeles concert and party with Usher, establishing the event’s corporate setting but not identifying any forthcoming music. Reports published shortly afterward supplied the missing titles: Complex described Usher as debuting “Hard to Love” and “Cards”, while Rap-Up said both were introduced during the private concert.

This evidence supports a precise conclusion. The songs were publicly previewed by Usher himself, so they were not anonymous internet fabrications or unauthorized leaks. But a live debut is not the same thing as a label release. There is no reliable evidence that RCA serviced either title to radio, placed either one in digital stores or designated them as official singles.

That ambiguity explains why a March 2016 headline announcing “two new singles” can point toward a real event while misstating its commercial status. By March, the recordings were already several months old as live previews—and their parent project was still changing.

The album was called Flawed

Usher had been working toward his eighth studio album since at least 2013, an unusually long gestation for an artist accustomed to tightly coordinated campaigns. In January 2016, he appeared in a video with artist Daniel Arsham and supplied the working title: Flawed. Rap-Up’s contemporary account connected that announcement directly to the New Year’s Eve performances.

The title also fit what could be heard in the performance material. “Hard to Love,” as presented onstage, framed romantic difficulty as self-recognition rather than simple blame. That thematic reading is interpretation, because the unreleased studio recording and its official credits remain unavailable. Still, the phrase “hard to love” anticipated the emotional premise Usher later attached to his finished album: intimacy complicated by pride, infidelity and emotional evasiveness.

“Cards” appears to have occupied the same adult-R&B territory, judging from surviving descriptions of the performance. Yet its authors, producers and recording history cannot be responsibly reconstructed from a concert clip or fan-maintained lyric page. No authoritative label booklet or commercial metadata exists for the song under that title. Claims assigning definitive studio credits should therefore be treated as unverified unless a rights holder or writer confirms them.

The incomplete paper trail is revealing in itself. These were works in progress demonstrated to a small audience while Usher was still testing the identity of the record. They were not finished pieces of a locked campaign.

Four years of false starts

The uncertainty had a longer history. After 2012’s Looking 4 Myself, Usher released several substantial singles without delivering the album listeners expected to follow them. “Good Kisser,” “She Came to Give It to You” and “I Don’t Mind” all arrived during 2014. The last of those became a major R&B hit, yet the album remained unfinished. In its June 2016 assessment of the prolonged rollout, Revolt noted that Usher had been discussing the project for roughly three years.

That delay changed how every preview was received. A new Usher recording no longer guaranteed that an album was imminent—or that the song would survive until the final sequence. “Hard to Love” and “Cards” became another pair of possibilities in a campaign already crowded with abandoned routes.

The definitive pivot arrived in June. Usher released “No Limit,” featuring Young Thug, on June 9, followed by the solo single “Crash” on June 10. The Los Angeles Times identified “No Limit” as the first of two official singles, language supported by their arrival through commercial platforms. Unlike the New Year’s previews, these tracks acquired label-backed release dates, distribution and promotion.

“No Limit” ultimately reached No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its trap production and Master P references located Usher inside the mid-2010s Atlanta continuum, while “Crash” paired electronic percussion with a more exposed vocal performance. Artistically, the combination suggested that the album would balance current rap-informed production against the romantic vulnerability long central to his work.

From Flawed to Hard II Love

By August, Flawed had disappeared. The finished album was titled Hard II Love, with artwork by Daniel Arsham and a September 16, 2016 release date. Sony’s official announcement said pre-orders included “Missin U” and the Hands of Stone song “Champions,” alongside the already released “No Limit” and “Crash.” Sony Music España documented that final configuration, and Pitchfork reported the same two advance album tracks.

Neither “Cards” nor a track literally titled “Hard to Love” appeared on the album. There was, however, a title song called “Hard II Love.” The resemblance invites a reasonable—but unproven—hypothesis that material, themes or a title concept evolved between the preview and the finished record. Without an authoritative comparison of the underlying compositions, it would be unsafe to declare the album track a renamed version of the New Year’s song.

The completed record carried a large production roster, including Raphael Saadiq, D’Mile, Metro Boomin, PartyNextDoor, Pop & Oak, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. Its three-year construction was acknowledged during the launch; Rap-Up reported that Usher described the album as a project refined over approximately three years. That long process helps explain why early candidates vanished and why no single preview can stand for the whole record.

What the two songs tell us now

“Hard to Love” and “Cards” belong to a familiar category in pop history: artist-sanctioned previews that never became official catalog entries. They are neither conventional singles nor classic leaks. Their defining public event was the December 31 performance, followed by press coverage in early January and the Flawed announcement later that month.

For listeners, their significance lies less in an unavailable master recording than in the glimpse they provide of Usher making decisions in public. The eventual title Hard II Love preserved the language of romantic difficulty even as the track list, collaborators and commercial strategy shifted. “Cards,” meanwhile, simply fell out of the documented album story.

The finished record was released by RCA on September 16 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. AllMusic’s album entry reflects the broad spread of writers and producers assembled for the final version. That album—not the discarded Flawed configuration—is the authoritative release.

The careful verdict, then, is straightforward. Usher did surprise a private audience with two new songs. He did not verifiably release two singles under those names. What survives is a brief, fascinating checkpoint between an album called Flawed and the very different record that became Hard II Love.