(Photo source)

Singer Usher Raymond reacted angrily to online reports that he sent out feelers to mainstream magazines asking $2 million in cash for exclusive pics of his newborn son. Allegedly, there were no takers, so Usher retracted his request – allegedly.

Now it could be that Usher – like Jay Z and Sean “Pimp Daddy” Combs, learned the hard way that they are not the true A-listers they thought themselves to be. And their pics don’t pull in the serious cheese like they wanted.

And then again, maybe it was just a rumor.

Usher told Pagesix.com that he would never sell pics of his son for money – and rumors about it angered him. “I am livid that people talk about my child,” Usher told Pagesix. He revealed that he posed – for free – with his son for an “incredible” Father’s Day cover for Essence magazine.

“What makes you a man more than being a father to your child? I recognize I gave anonymity away when I became an artist, but to have people try to paint a horrible picture of what’s so beautiful – it’s obvious someone is trying to stop something so beautiful.”

As he often feels he has to, Usher once again defended his right to marry the woman he wants to spend his life with. “I stand by her as a man loving my wife and being there for my child… Opinions are like [bleep]holes. Everybody’s got one. What I will say is, this is my wife and I would hope that [people] would respect my wife and my marriage and who I have chosen to spend my life with.” (Source)

According to Usher, he finally finished his album “Here I Stand” last week and a few select journalists have given it the thumbs up. “They noted that it was very courageous to take this direction in my music… They called it timeless.” Now when an artist changes his musical direction, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I guess we will have to wait and see.