John Legend has recognized the second that he believes his former mentor Kanye West’s “descent” started.
The 2 artists have an extended historical past, with West having signed Legend to his label GOOD Music in 2004, earlier than govt producing his debut album ‘Get Lifted’ later that 12 months.
Their relationship turned bitter after Ye’s quite a few public controversies, with Legend writing in 2022 that “I actually assume as a result of we publicly disagreed on his working for workplace, his supporting Trump, I believe it turned an excessive amount of for us to maintain our friendship, actually.”
Now, in a brand new interview with The Occasions, Legend has mirrored on Ye’s antics in recent times. “I didn’t see a touch of what we’re seeing now, his obsessions with antisemitism, anti-blackness, and it’s unhappy to see his devolution,” he mentioned.
When requested when he believes the change in character occurred, he added: “I don’t assume we’re certified to psychoanalyse him, however after his mom handed in 2007 there was undoubtedly a distinction. His descent began then and appears to have accelerated lately.”
Legend went on to debate his authentic collaborations with West within the 2000s. “Again then Kanye was very passionate, very gifted, and he had massive goals not just for himself but in addition for all of the individuals round him. He had a lot optimism, a lot creativity. It does really feel unhappy, generally surprising, to see the place he’s now.”
This 12 months alone, Ye has written a string of extremely controversial posts on X, which noticed him take again his apology to the Jewish group for his previous anti-Semitic remarks and go on to declare himself “a Nazi”. He additionally wrote: “I like Hitler”, and praised Elon Musk as “essentially the most lit person who [has] ever been on Twitter”, following the latter being accused of creating a Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
In February, he got here underneath fireplace for promoting a white T-shirt with a big swastika emblem on the chest, listed as “HH-01” on his web site – probably a reference to the “Heil Hitler” chant.
The location was later taken down by Shopify, although the web retailer later acknowledged that it was taken down as a result of potential for fraud – not as a result of it was promoting a swastika t-shirt. Shopify did condemn the merchandise, calling it “vile, disgusting and inexcusable”.
Then, the rapper appeared to backtrack on his earlier feedback, taking to X to share that “after additional reflection”, he’s “come to the realisation that I’m not a Nazi”. Nonetheless, it was adopted only some days later by but extra swastika attire showing on his X web page.
His album ‘Donda 2’ was launched onto all streaming platforms in April, just for it to be taken down simply hours later. That got here shortly after he lately joined Twitch, solely to be banned after seven minutes after he allegedly threw a Nazi salute whereas proclaiming: “Heil Hitler.”
As for Legend, his world tour in celebration of the 20th anniversary of ‘Get Lifted’ begins later this month at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on Could 27. See the total checklist of dates right here, discover UK tickets right here and North American tickets right here.
