John Legend is speaking his peace on the former friendship he had with Kanye West and giving a little insight into how he thinks the controversial rapper became so, well, controversial.
Speaking in a new interview with London’s The Times over the weekend, the “Get Lifted” singer touched on the relationship he once had with West, noting that in the beginning, he was optimistic and passionate. Now, however, Legend said his “devolvement” is apparent and a miserable thing to witness.
“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,” Legend said. “I didn’t see a hint of what we’re seeing now, his obsessions with antisemitism, anti-blackness. It does feel sad, sometimes shocking, to see where he is now...It is sad to see his devolution.:
West has notoriously been crashing out for years, leaning more and more into anti-Semitism, vulgarity and more in recent years. Most people have theorized that his descent into controversy was kicked off by the death of his mother, Donda West, back in 2007. As for Legend, he holds a similar train of thought—though he doesn’t feel he or anyone is really “qualified to psychoanalyze him.”
“After his mother passed in 2007 there was definitely a difference. His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently,” the “Ordinary People” singer said.
Looking back on when the two of them really parted ways, Legend explained that while there had been some space in between them for awhile, their rift widened after he opted not to support West during his run for presidency back in 2020.
“He was upset that I didn’t support his run for presidency of the United States of America, for understandable reasons,” Legend said in a separate interview on “The Axe Files” podcast. “I wasn’t alone in that, but, you know, he was not happy about that. And we really haven’t been close since then.”
Legend’s comments come nearly a month a half after West went on a bizarre, albeit short rant against him during an interview with DJ Akedemiks. While going off on several of his former friends and collaborators, West said of the “Green Light” singer: “Look at John Legend’s old sissy ass. I ain’t never do nothing wrong to that nigga. I changed generations of his life. And he got on that f***ot ass hot sweater... They said he smells like mashed potatoes.”