"There were four Beatles, there were three Bee Gees, but there's only one Usher."

So says Usher.

For those who don't believe in reincarnation, consider this: Just as Michael Jackson, the self-appointed King of Pop, finds his career in shambles, a shiny talent arrives to take the crown.

Those who wish to pay their respects to the new King of Pop may come to the Toyota Center Friday, where he will be twirling, crooning and flashing the style that earned him the throne. "As a stage performer, I feel like I'm at the top of my game," Usher says.

"I don't think I'll ever stop being an ultimate entertainer."

Some may scoff, but Usher's solo career is starting to resemble the post-Jackson 5 career of Michael Jackson more and more each day. Instead of Motown mastermind Berry Gordy, producer L.A. Reid was the one who discovered Raymond Usher when Usher was barely a teenager.

Usher, now 25, has been a hit machine since his first single, Can U Get Wit It, reached No. 13 on the Billboard R&B charts. He's been in movies and television, and his 3-year-old album 8701 produced chart-topper after chart-topper like U Remind Me and U Got It Bad.

Now Confessions, Usher's new album, is starting to look like his Thriller. It jumped out of the box five months ago; more than 1 million copies were sold the first week, and it's still No. 4. Three singles -- Yeah, Burn and Confession Pt. II -- have reached No. 1, and in May all were among the top 10 singles simultaneously. Only the Beatles and Bee Gees have managed that feat.

"I wanted to make sure this album just wasn't about my experience but real talk," Usher says. "It was about just being real."

If Confessions tracks like the flirty Superstar and the suggestive Can You Handle It and Do It to Me are what Usher's "real" life is like, then sign me up for that reality show.

Unlike some young musicians who say they had to grow up too fast or had overbearing parents, Usher has only praise for his mother, who helped her son refine his voice in the choir of the Chattanooga, Tenn., church where she was choir director. She then moved her son to Atlanta, where he would be discovered years later.

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs helped Usher flesh out his talents in 1994, when the single Think of You rose into the R&B top 10. With assists from an all-star team of collaborators like Teddy Riley, Babyface and Jermaine Dupri, Usher has enjoyed a steady stream of steamy hits, including You Make Me Wanna and Nice & Slow from 1997's multiplatinum My Way.

Then came 8701, which sold more than 8 million copies and earned armfuls of awards, including a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance with U Remind Me.

It appeared that Usher might have hit his peak. But Confessions seems to be changing all that.

If the numbers don't ultimately give him a claim as the King of Pop-dom, some of those outfits, accessories and moves he shows off on Friday will, anyway.