John Legend On Kanye West's Downfall
If you watch a Kanye West live performance from the early 2000s, it's possible that you might spot a young John Legend somewhere in the background.
Yep, long before he was the EGOT winner he is today, John got his big break thanks to his close ties to Kanye, serving as his backing singer and keyboard player.
For many years, John and Kanye were incredibly close, both professionally and personally, as were their wives, Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen. However, around the time Kanye first publicly endorsed Donald Trump in 2016, it seems a rift began to form between the two artists.
In 2018, Kanye memorably shared a screenshot of a text exchange between himself and John where the All Of Me singer was encouraging him to 'reconsider aligning' himself with Trump. 'You're way too powerful and influential to endorse who he is and what he stands for…So many people who love you feel so betrayed right now because they know the harm that Trump's policies cause, especially to people of color,' one of John's messages read. 'Don't let this be part of your legacy.'
At the time, Kanye said he shared the private texts online 'to show that there are people around [him] that disagree with [him] and voice their opinion.'
As we know, Kanye's problematic behavior only got worse over the years, resulting in his divorce from Kim in early 2021. Since then, the rapper's vitriolic hate speech online has rightfully left his reputation in ruins.
Now, commenting on his former collaborator's public downfall during a new interview with the UK Times, John considered the drastic changes in Kanye's personality since they first met as budding artists. '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. He had so much optimism, so much creativity,' he said. '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.'
The Oscar-winning artist also acknowledged how his proximity to Kanye in the early 2000s took his career to the next level after being '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 traveling with him, doing shows with him, getting exposure not only as his singer and keyboard player, but also as an artist myself. Then The College Dropout sold 400,000 copies in its first week, everyone wanted to know what was happening in our camp.'
He added: 'All those people who turned me down suddenly decided that my music sounded a lot better than it did the first time round.'
It's no secret that Kanye was deeply impacted by the death of his mother, Donda West, in November 2007. Notably, John weighed in on the widely theorized belief that 'there was definitely a difference' in Kanye from that point onwards in terms of his problematic behavior. 'His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently,' he said.
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Franklin Jon Michael Hill: Nazareth's character didn't change much at all, but since he is the narrator, he's got a lot of text and a lot of context that he gives to the audience, and all of the speeches have been streamlined. There's been some restructuring and completely new monologues in the second act. It's pretty extensive, the difference between what was performed in Chicago and what we have now. There are literally changes on every page. It's really hard to quantify what he's changed, because it was constant tweaking and sharpening and clarifying. Harry Lennix: The chief change in terms of the play, for me, other than the refining of the language, has been in the chemistry of the cast. When you have actresses who are as talented at humor as Kara Young and LaTanya Richardson Jackson, it's going to add more laughs. It's a funnier show here than it was in Chicago. Our cast in Chicago was magnificent, of course, but this is a different city and it has a different temperature. In Chicago, it was a little close to home — the play is set in Chicago — but in New York, I think there's more distance, so the audience can see a little bit more the humor. LaTanya Richardson Jackson: Phylicia Rashad, who directed it, made sure that it wasn't a moving freight train, but it felt like a moving freight train! It was a different process of having to learn lines every day, especially during previews, which was hard because you rehearse in the day and you do the play at night and try to implement the lines. But this company welcomed us and just plugged right into us as soon as we met them, so they made the process easy, easier than what it seemed because they were so welcoming. Kara Young: The cast just really welcomed us with an open heart, open arms. The play was evolving and Branden was writing constantly, consistently, and we were all on it together, too, to some degree, so there was a lot of new things happening and we were all on the train. 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As you alluded to, he overdoes it, he goes a little too far as one is prone to do when you can't see the forest for the trees. I have to give all credit to Ms. Phylicia Rashad, who helped me in this, and obviously Branden. It's a harrowing moment, but that's part of Branden's gift. He gives you something that is inherently tragic or harrowing and then juxtaposes it right up against something that is supremely hilarious. Hill: You see two people with a gulf between them that are each making the effort to bridge that gap, so while it does feel gratifying, it's also helpful at the end of the play. They're both still really reaching for something and going after something with their words, so I think that really drives us through it. But when it's over, it feels special. I think what Branden's written is really transcendent. It ends up being one of those universal father-son theological, philosophical discussions that transcends our immediate reality. It takes on this epic context or feel. We look forward to that scene. Lennix: I've told Branden and Jon that this is my favorite scene to do with another actor that I've ever done. I cannot think of another scene that I look forward to doing more every night. Jon is such a beautiful actor and so responsive, wherever I go he can go, and wherever he goes I try to go. The completion of these characters' journeys, at least for this evening in the theater, is beautiful. It's a beautiful written scene, my word! Jacobs-Jenkins: I definitely don't write plays to win Pulitzers, so when you win it, you're like, 'Oh my God, this is sweet, this is the icing on the icing.' I'm very happy to have won it, honestly, because some of my favorite plays have won it. It feels so wild. The panel is made up of other writers, too, so it feels like it's the only real writing award in the theater because it's based on the script, not the production. In terms of how I look at it in my body of work, the truth is for every play, because I live inside the writing of them, they're all connected in ways that maybe aren't clear to people. This is in some ways the cousin to Appropriate, but there's also something about it that couldn't have been written unless I wrote The Comeuppance. I'm also aware that I'm on the young side in terms of the award, so I hope this isn't the only one in my lifetime. Marc J. Franklin Jackson: I was just so overwhelmed and overjoyed with pride and honor when he won [the Pulitzer]. I think I felt more emotionally than when I heard that I had been nominated for the Tony, quite frankly. That was such a major, major accomplishment because I want so much for all of you young people that you become everything that has been put inside of you. It is something that is written on the resume of my heart, and I will always, until I leave this earth, look at this moment and realize that God had given me such a miracle to live inside. It's a major accomplishment. Hill: I don't think the feeling in the building has changed. We've felt this way about the play probably since Branden brought in the last 40 pages the night before first preview in Chicago and sat on the stage and read it, and there wasn't a dry eye. We are overjoyed to see Branden being recognized in this way and for it to be officially his installment in the great American play canon. We approach it with the same verve and vigor every night, and perhaps the audience comes in with something new, a different expectation because it has received this accolade, but our job is to really execute what we built and make this offering every night with the same inspiration as we did on first preview. Lennix: When we started, we had half of a play, so in some ways I feel like I am in the DNA of this character now. I think Branden took certain conversations and poeticized them, put a lot of stuff that we talked about at the table when we were workshopping this play into the play as any great writer would do. It's very gratifying that the Pulitzer committee would select us. I think it's fitting. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant, but I don't know of a play that is this brave, that is this ambitious, and that is this insular: you take a little family, all of the action of the play must take place over a 12- or 14-hour period, so these are classical elements, these are elements of union, time, and space, the stuff that great writers of old have tried to achieve. It's been very gratifying, and I take some pride in the acknowledgement, in his acknowledge, of Branden being a Pulitzer-worthy writer. Davis: As an actor, that's a cherry on top. The greatest honor for me is that the play is being recognized in this way with the Pulitzer. We've had one other Pulitzer Prize-winning play at Steppenwolf, and that was August: Osage County, so to be mentioned alongside Tracy Letts' fantastic play is the greatest honor. Lennix: The commonality, I think, is almost unavoidable, that is, August chronicled the 20th century, he can be thought and argued to be the defining voice of that twentieth century in terms of drama on the American stage, and much can be said for Branden. Purpose is a definitive, I would dare say, representative work of the new millennium. No other play that I'm aware of at this point, a quarter of a century in, has so adroitly dealt with the causes that we're all dealing with: COVID, neurodivergence, expanding gender identities. This is something that probably could not have been written in August Wilson's lifetime, but August did for that century what I think Branden is doing for this one. It's not uncommon to have great poets writing dramatic literature, but somebody that exists who is aware of the politics of it, of the racial aspects of it, of the complexities that are unique to this American experiment in such a comprehensive way, this distinguishes these two men. Jackson: Branden is the most consequential writer of our time, bar none. Because of Branden's relationship with himself and the world, he has been able to write women in a way that is different and less intellectual than August. There's something about the visceral nature of how Branden has written women that is different. I said to August one time, 'You've got to write me some women that sound like these men,' and he said, 'When I get to understand women that way, I will.' The way Branden has treated these women, there is something that is inherent in what he knows and what he sees that he's been able to capture and deliver. August's women, they are great intellectual women, but they don't really, to me, compare to the men because I don't know of a playwright who has written men as well as August. I think Branden, the breadth of Branden's genius, is he knows women in an intimate way. Young: I have not really taken the moment to absorb the last four years, but I feel incredibly fortunate. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of these works and these writers and the brilliance, the majesty of these pens. I actually cannot believe these are the companies in which I'm surrounded. When you said it, it really hit me. Listen, I saw Martyna Majok and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Lynn Nottage [Clyde's] continue to work on their plays. These people are masters at what they do. Every moment, every beat is meticulously crafted. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 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