John Legend on Kanye West's 'Descent': It's 'Sad, Sometimes Shocking to See Where He Is Now'
John Legend didn't anticipate Kanye West's 'descent.'
The two artists used to have a strong personal and professional relationship after they began working together on music in the early 2000s. However, the two have since gone their separate ways, and Legend admitted in a Saturday profile with The Times that 'it does feel sad, sometimes shocking, to see where [West] is now.'
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'Back then Kanye was very passionate, very gifted, and he had big dreams not only for himself but also for all the people around him,' the 13-time Grammy Award winner recalled of his time working with West. 'He had so much optimism, so much creativity… I didn't see a hint of what we're seeing now, his obsessions with antisemitism, anti-Blackness, and it is sad to see his devolution.'
Legend added that while he doesn't 'think we're qualified to psychoanalyze him,' he began noticing a 'difference' in the 'Stronger' rapper after the death of his mother in 2007. 'His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently,' he said.
Even though they aren't close anymore, partly because of West's support of Donald Trump, Legend acknowledged his influence on the trajectory of his career as an artist who had previously 'been turned down by labels everywhere.'
'Kanye blew up after producing Jay-Z's album The Blueprint in 2001,' he said. 'Then he experienced a buzz as a solo artist and the whole time I was travelling with him, doing shows with him, getting exposure not only as his singer and keyboard player but also as an artist myself. I had been turned down by labels everywhere. Then The College Dropout sold 400,000 copies in its first week, everyone wanted to know what was happening in our camp.'
Legend added, 'All those people who turned me down suddenly decided that my music sounded a lot better than it did the first time round.'
In recent years, West's career has taken a turn as he has continued to make aggressive antisemitic and pro-Nazi remarks. Most recently, he made headlines after firing off controversial and antisemitic tweets, including praising Adolf Hitler, identifying as a Nazi, promoting a Yeezy T-shirt design with a swastika, denouncing the #MeToo movement and reigniting his controversial comments on slavery.
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