A

A is the ninth studio album by Usher, released in August 2018 on RCA Records and produced by Zaytoven, Bryan-Michael Cox, and Frank Ocean. The album arrived with minimal promotion and was positioned as an experimental companion piece to the trap-soul landscape of the late 2010s, featuring a streamlined track listing of ten songs. Collaborations with Future and Young Thug placed Usher within the Atlanta trap ecosystem that had come to dominate mainstream hip-hop and R&B. While the record generated less commercial buzz than his prior work, it was praised by critics for its sleek, atmospheric production and Usher's refined vocal delivery. A demonstrated Usher's ongoing evolution as an artist in his mid-career phase.