John Legend Calls Kanye West's Antisemitic Spiraling "Sad"
John Legend Calls Kanye West’s Antisemitic Spiraling “Sad” & “Sometimes Shocking”
As (former) Kanye West fans continue to bury their heads in the sand, his former friends and colleagues have also expressed their disappointment in his fall from grace.
That includes John Legend, his label mate and frequent collaborator, who spoke to The London Times about him going from one of the most talented musicians in Hip-Hop to essentially an outcast who rants on social media about his custody battles and wears swastika T-shirts in public.
“He had so much optimism, so much creativity. It does feel sad, sometimes shocking, to see where he is now.” Legend said.
In the interview, he recounted how much Ye has changed since he first met him in 2001 when his popularity skyrocketed for producing on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, saying he was “very passionate, very gifted, and he had big dreams not only for himself but also for all the people around him.”
The singer says he spent a ton of time with West in the early aughts as both their come-ups were around the same time. He remembers traveling and doing shows with him while gaining recognition for his own work outside of being just Ye’s keyboard player. But with all that quality time, Legend says there was no inkling that he’d flip like this.
He continued, “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 success of Ye’s The College Dropout only helped his debut, Get Lifted, which also dropped in 2004. Legend said labels were suddenly interested in him, and his association with Ye helped, adding “everyone wanted to know what was happening in our camp.”
Legend is hesitant to pinpoint what prompted Ye’s new persona, but suggests a switch flipped when his mom died in 2007 from postoperative complications.
“I don’t think we’re qualified to psychoanalyse him, but after his mother passed in 2007, there was definitely a difference. His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently,” he adds.
The decades-long friendship ended in 2022 when West publicly supported Donald Trump’s presidential run.
John Legend Calls Kanye West’s Antisemitic Spiraling “Sad” & “Sometimes Shocking” was originally published on ionecassius.staging.go.ione.nyc
