Not many people know that Kanye West has worked on all of John Legend's five studio albums, so when it comes to talking about the real Kanye, John is the man to tell us what he’s really like.
Speaking exclusively to Magic’s Jo Parkerson, John said: “We’ve been working together for a long time now, it’s been about 12-13 years. He executive produced almost all of my albums now and he was actually more involved with this one than the previous ones – and probably even more than my first album. We just got together at the beginning of the process of making this album and said we want to make a really great, soulful, fresh, modern album that felt really good. Feel good soulful music and that’s what we went for, it was fun working with him.”
Yeah, OK, but we all want to know what he’s REALLY like…
John said: “The things people see in the media – when he’s brutally honest and very creative, [he] marches to the beat of his own drum – all those things are very true of him. There’s not like a public persona and a private persona, but people don’t know how generous he is. For instance when we’ve worked together people are surprised that he’s worked on all my albums for all of my career.
“He’s been so instrumental in my career, people don’t really realise that and how generous he’s been to me over all of my career, including the beginning when I was broke and still figuring out what I wanted to do, as an artist he was helping me figure that out. So I have a more rounded picture of him than most people do, but he’s still that guy too – he isn’t afraid to speak his truth at any time and you need people in your life like that, especially when you’re making art and being creative because there is always going to be people to tell you what you want to hear, but you need people to tell you what you need to hear too.”
And Kanye is accepting the cost of achieving his dream, according to John. John said his marriage to Kim Kardashian has pushed him to another level.
He says: “He and Kim, Brad and Angelina, Jay and Beyonce they are the ultimate celebrity couples and I think he is conflicted about dealing with that because he recognises the power of it and also recognises the drawbacks. I think he’s dealing with that just like anybody would, because part of it is you’ve achieved your goal and you’ve realised your dream, you wanted to be a successful artist, you wanted to be hugely impactful, you wanted to marry this stunning beautiful woman and so you realise all those dreams but you also realise is that there is costs to that as well.”