Key Takeaways
- John Legend says he would consider a private, man-to-man conversation with Kanye West, but neither former collaborator has reached out to one another.
- Legend says West must do more than his Wall Street Journal apology to address the harm his comments caused Black and Jewish communities, adding that he cannot see himself making art with Ye in the near future.
- Legend shared his stance while promoting Muse, his first full-length album in four years years, produced entirely by Pharrell and featuring Pusha T and Malice on "Bodies on the Floor."
John Legend has opened up about his frayed relationship with longtime collaborator Kanye West, and whether or not it can ever be repaired.
Last month, Ye, whose hurtful antisemitic rants forced a number of his former friends and collaborators to part ways with him, reunited with some of his ex-G.O.O.D. Music artists during a pair of shows at Chicago's Soldier Field.
Speaking to Complex ahead of the release of his new album Muse, which arrived on Friday (October 23), Legend, who himself was once signed to G.O.O.D. Music, discussed whether or not he could ever see himself reconnecting with West.
"He's not reached out to me," Legend explained. "So I don't want to act like I've refused to meet up with him or talk with him. But if we did talk, it wouldn't be a public reunion. It would be man-to-man, like a private conversation."
The EGOT-winning singer-songwriter then said that despite West making a few slick comments about him in the past, he doesn’t find it difficult to let bygones be bygones.
"I don't have a hard time forgiving anybody personally for any slight — and, you know, he's said a few stray comments about me. But he hasn't done much to harm me, or with the intent to harm me at all."
Turning his attention to West's damaging public comments about Jewish people and Black people, Legend believes the College Dropout hitmaker needs to focus on mending those relationships before their own.
"Any forgiveness that he needs to seek isn't about anything he's done to me," Legend shared. "I feel like what he's done to society has been really harmful. What he said about entire communities has been really harmful. The Black community, the Jewish community, those things have been really harmful."
In January, Ye took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal in which he offered a lengthy apology for his antisemitic comments and reflected on having bipolar disorder and how it has impacted his life.
For Legend, the statement is a start but not enough to cover the hurt he's caused: "I know he's apologized in that one statement in The Wall Street Journal, but I don't think that's sufficient to cover the harm that he's done,"
He added that because of this he's not ready to reconnect with his former friend in a creative setting. "I don't think I'm interested in making art with him because of [all that he's done]," Legend stated. "I can't see it happening in the near future. Who knows, five, 10 years from now? But that doesn't mean I wouldn’t have a conversation with him and just talk to him man to man."
Reiterating that West hasn't reached out to him, and that he himself hasn't reached out to Ye, the award-winning piano maestro said: "Who knows? Like I said, I don't hold grudges, and I don't feel personally offended so much that I couldn't forgive him for anything personal."
He concluded: "But I think as a cultural figure and as a person who has impact on the world, the things he said and did were so violently wrong that it requires more than a statement in The Wall Street Journal."
Muse is John Legend's first new full-length album in four years. Produced entirely by Pharrell, the album's recent single, "Bodies on the Floor," sees the pair team up with Clipse rappers Pusha T and Malice.
Arriving alongside an epic music video directed by Paul Hunter, the drama-filled visuals plays like a cross between Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The War of the Roses, with a little John Wick sprinkled in for fun.
You can watch the video exclusively on Spotify for the first 48hrs here, before reverting to other streaming patforms.
