Usher - You Make Me Wanna...

What this video is

Released August 1997 as the lead single from Usher's second album My Way (LaFace/Arista), 'You Make Me Wanna...' arrived at a pivotal moment when Atlanta's LaFace Records was redefining the sound and image of R&B masculinity. The video introduced a mass audience to Usher's choreographic identity — a synthesis of Michael Jackson-influenced precision and late-90s street-inflected cool — and helped establish the…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in the late-90s R&B canon, the video codified the performance-only format for choreography-forward male R&B artists. Woodruff's use of colored-room isolation and clone compositing became widely imitated, and the video's success on MTV and BET helped establish Usher as the era's…

The director

American director raised in Virginia; attended University of Maryland, College Park as a National Merit Scholar. Rose from intern to Executive Producer at BET, then served as Senior National Director of Music Videos at LaFace Records. Known for visually…