HE'S BACK

"It's about time for me to get back in and put my 10 cents in it!"

I feel it's about time for me to come out with an album," Usher said via phone from Atlanta on Tuesday to MTV. "I'm not extremely enthused about where music has gone. I say that coming from listening to artists like Stevie Wonder, Prince, Michael Jackson — those great artists and iconic musicians. I feel music is at a standstill."Usher says he does like what Justin Timberlake and John Legend are doing right now, and that Robin Thicke has released the album of the year with The Evolution of Robin Thicke. Thicke is one of the collaborators on Usher's upcoming opus."His album is banging, but also as a producer and writer, he's amazing," the singer said of his friend. "We've been able to get to a point where we can work very easily together. I'll give him an idea and he'll understand exactly what wavelength I'm on."Jermaine Dupri and the production teams of Dre and Vidal and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are all scheduled to collaborate on the record — as is Jay-Z. Usher, who appears on the Pharrell-helmed "Anything" from Jay's Kingdom Come LP, said he and Hova did a trade-off.