R&B star Usher is giving the world a first look at his adorable baby boy in the new issue of Essence magazine, on newsstands now, and we have a look at the incredible cover!

The shots are some of the first of Usher Raymond V, who was born to the R&B star and his wife, Tameka, last year. In the magazine, new dad Usher talks about how fatherhood has changed his career and says he takes fatherhood very seriously.

"Now I represent what he is to become," he tells the mag. "He's going to admire me, he's going to look up to me. He's going to say, 'I wanna be' -- or he should say -- 'I wanna be like my father. I wanna be a man of valor. I wanna possess what my father has as a man.' To get married was a choice. To have a child is a responsibility."

The singer's fifth studio album, Here I Stand, has burned up the charts on the strength of such tunes as "Love in This Club," which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.