John Legend says Kanye West — who legally changed his first name to Ye last year — helped him craft his work by producing songs with him for his 2004 debut, Get Lifted and “connecting” him with other industry heavyweights, such as Rick Ross.
The 43-year-old musician told Eddie Francis on Apple Music 1 on Wednesday, May 18, 2022: “I’ve just been collaborating with so many dope artists throughout my career. I started with Kanye at G.O.O.D. Music and our whole thing was bringing hip-hop and soul together. So I was on a lot of his tracks … a lot of tracks he was producing for other people … he was producing my tracks and connecting me with other people in hip hop so there’s always been a lot of collaborations in my background. I’ve done a thousand tracks with Rick Ross, worked with so many great MCs over the years. I’ve just always thought collaboration was a great way to make music and when we do it together it can be better than when we do it separately. So I’ve just always had that spirit and that energy and I love working with dope people and we definitely did that with this album.”
Legend believes he has “good chemistry” with Ross — who he worked with on his new record — and how they have “similar” taste.
He said: “We got a dope one on the new album. We got good chemistry … his voice and my voice, it just works well together. We like a similar type of track too. … A lush soulful track. You know … it works.
The La La Land star — who is married to 36-year-old model Chrissy Teigen — revealed he was “honored” that he worked with the late Nipsey Hussle on the track “Higher” before “we lost him too soon.”
