Kanye West played a pretty pivotal role in the career of John Legend. When he was cutting his teeth as an up-and-coming artist, he co-wrote and sang a variety of hooks for Ye. Eventually, when he launched his G.O.O.D. Music label, Legend was the first person to sign. With the Chicago MC in his corner as a producer and head of the label, he eventually became a star in R&B.
However, over the years, their relationship has cooled significantly. Their creative partnership died down over time, and the more controversy Kanye West sparked, the more distant he became. Eventually, the hurtful antisemitic and MAGA rants led John Legend to disavow himself completely from the artist who helped him blow up.
Kanye West expressed deep remorse for his actions and comments over the years with a lengthy apology in The Wall Street Journal. There, he cited his bipolar disorder and his traumatic car accident early in his career as a major source of his mental decay. Many of his old collaborators and G.O.O.D. Music signees reunited with Ye due to his attempts to make amends.
However, the “Ordinary People” singer and pianist was always nowhere to be found. Ultimately, for him, he stressed that he wasn’t the kind of person to make it a big public affair.
John Legend Explains Why You Won’t See Him Making Music With kanye West Any Time SOon
In an interview with Complex, he revealed that Kanye West has never reached out. That’s not to say he’s against forgiving him for past behavior and snide comments. Instead, he’d want to have a private conversation and see further action in making amends with the people he’s offended in the past.
“Any forgiveness that he needs to seek isn’t about anything he’s done to me,” John Legend said. “I feel like what he’s done to society has been really harmful. What he said about entire communities has been really harmful. The Black community, the Jewish community, those things have been really harmful… I know he’s apologized in that one statement in The Wall Street Journal, but I don’t think that’s sufficient to cover the harm that he’s done.”
In terms of making music together, John Legend didn’t rule out anything. But it wouldn’t be anything in the very near future.
“Who knows, five, 10 years from now?… Like I said, I don’t hold grudges,” he added. “I don’t feel personally offended so much that I couldn’t forgive him for anything personal. But I think as a cultural figure and as a person who has [an] impact on the world, the things he said and did were so violently wrong that it requires more than a statement in The Wall Street Journal.”
Photo by Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
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