![\"M-32-JOHN-LEGEND\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/M-32-JOHN-LEGEND.jpg\")
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URBAN LEGEND<\/b><\/p>\n
With his own brand of hip-hop soul,\u00a0<\/b>John Legend aims to make R&B cool again<\/b><\/p>\n
By Russell Hall<\/p>\n
ven as a child John Legend always knew exactly what he wanted. \u201cI\u2019d watch Star Search<\/i> and imagine one day meeting Ed McMahon, and getting four stars,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cShows like American Idol<\/i> and The X Factor <\/i>probably have the same effect on kids today\u2014the belief that you can get discovered, and out of nowhere your talent can suddenly take you from being unknown to famous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fame indeed came to Legend, though it was hardly sudden. Born John Roger Stephens, Legend grew up in Springfield, Ohio, playing piano by 4 and writing songs by 11. Gospel choirs and his working-class parents\u2019 R&B records forged his earliest influences. \u201cI had a pretty religious upbringing,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of my life was centered on the church. My family upheld a lot of traditional values.\u201d<\/p>\n
An academic whiz, Legend graduated high school at 16 and was offered multiple scholarships to top-tier universities, including Harvard and Georgetown. He selected the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in English\u2014but Legend also gained notice at the Ivy League school leading a campus a cappella group and playing shows in Philadelphia. An appearance on Lauryn Hill\u2019s 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill<\/i> marked a high point. After graduation the following year, Legend landed a position with a prestigious Boston-based management consulting firm\u2014but he never let go of his dream to pursue music. \u201cEvery day I felt my big break was just around the corner,\u201d he says. \u201cI always figured my first year as a management consultant would be my last, but I ended up doing it for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legend\u2019s big break came in 2001, when a friend introduced him to Kanye West. A relative newcomer himself, West recognized Legend\u2019s talent and signed him to his G.O.O.D. label, and quickly employed him on a range of studio projects. Singing, playing and occasionally writing for the likes of Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Slum Village, Legend proved a quick study. \u201cI\u2019m better because I work with Kanye,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have different areas of strength and different sensibilities that overlap\u2014we complement each other really, really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those combined talents propelled Legend\u2019s debut 2004 release Get Lifted<\/i>, and he soon took the R&B world by storm. Selling nearly
\n3 million copies worldwide, the album earned the artist multiple Grammys\u2014including Best New Artist, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Album. Legend\u2019s 2006 follow-up Once Again<\/i> drew further acclaim, reaching platinum status and scoring another Grammy for the Top 40 single \u201cHeaven.\u201d Next came 2008\u2019s Evolver<\/i> followed by 2010\u2019s Wake Up!<\/i>, a collaboration with the Roots that featured covers of socially conscious soul nuggets from the 1960s and \u201970s. The latter record netted Legend three more Grammys\u2014including Best R&B Album.<\/p>\n
Love in the Future<\/i>, Legend\u2019s latest, puts a modern spin on classic soul traditions. The album was inspired in part by Legend\u2019s new wife, Chrissy Teigen. \u201cWhen we settled on a theme for the album\u2014being in love\u2014it made sense,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe record is about starting a new love and beginning something you feel optimistic about.\u201d<\/p>\n
A broader aim was to restore classic R&B to a preeminent place in popular music\u2014albeit within a contemporary sonic context. \u201cI wanted everything to be spacious, big and modern,\u201d Legend notes, \u201cbut not too cluttered. We wanted the focus to be on my voice. My voice\u2014and the way I write songs\u2014is soulful, but we didn\u2019t want to sound like we were trying to re-create a Marvin Gaye album from 30 years ago. We wanted to capture some of that essence, but for a new era.\u201d<\/p>\n
An array of producers, including 88-Keys, Q-Tip, Hit-Boy, Darhyl Camper and Malay, were assembled to help with the project. Still, says Legend, co-executive producers West and Dave Tozer\u2014who were instrumental to his first three albums\u2014were firmly at the helm. \u201cI\u2019m just comfortable working with those guys,\u201d he says. \u201cWe understand each other\u2014I trust their tastes and know their strengths and weaknesses. That said, there were also a variety of producers I hadn\u2019t worked with before. It\u2019s a good balance of the familiar and the new.\u201d Legend spoke with us about his creative process, handling success, and the music that shaped his artistry.<\/p>\n
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What was your goal for the album?<\/b><\/p>\n
To answer a question: What\u2019s the place of soul music in the modern era, an era in which R&B music seems to be marginalized a bit? We wanted to reassert how important soul music can be and do something fresh with it. Once you have that as a mission statement, you evaluate your musical choices within that context.<\/p>\n
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How do you make those choices?<\/b><\/p>\n
A lot has to do with whom you work and what instruments you decide to put on a song. Also, how you arrange songs. How do I make a new soul album that feels fresh but preserves that classic style of music we love so much?<\/p>\n
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How did you select the material?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
First, you want all the songs to be among your best. And then you focus on creating the right feel. Some good songs might not make the album simply because they don\u2019t have the right feel. The focus is on quality but also on cohesiveness and preserving a certain overall tone. I made the final decisions about the song sequence, and Kanye gave me great advice on choosing the right songs.<\/p>\n
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What else does Kanye bring to the table?<\/b><\/p>\n
He has great taste and a great sonic ear, particularly for drum sounds. He also works with a lot of amazing producers and collaborators, so he brings all those connections to bear. His input was crucial.<\/p>\n
Has your creative relationship evolved?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s been pretty constant. Kanye was more involved than ever with this album. He\u2019s grown as a curator of great talent\u2014and he\u2019s gotten better at drawing upon various producers, bringing together different collaborators. After we had rough drafts of the arrangements, Kanye brought in a bunch of producers to help finish them. In some instances the arrangements were completely rebooted, where they sounded totally different from how they sounded before.<\/p>\n
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Are you comfortable with that change?<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m very open to it. It\u2019s exciting to bring new ears into the process. Someone may take a song in a completely different direction. That happened with a few songs. \u201cYou and I\u201d is a good example. I had Malay do that. I said, \u201cCan you add some flavor to this? I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s in the right place.\u201d I was thinking mainly of the drum track, but he ended up redoing a lot of it, and I love where he went with it. I didn\u2019t expect it, but it turned out magical.<\/p>\n
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Did the Wake Up! album have an impact?<\/b><\/p>\n
One aspect that was influential was how I started singing in a way that was richer and more powerful. The style of the material we covered on Wake Up! <\/i>inspired that approach. Once I unlocked that, it made me want to do more of it. I\u2019ve continued to do that on this album. I think these two albums are my best, from a vocal standpoint.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s your songwriting process?<\/b><\/p>\n
It usually starts with the music. Sometimes I write on piano, other times I might sit with a guitarist and we\u2019ll come up with the music together. And sometimes I\u2019ll work directly with a producer. In hip-hop and R&B, particularly, producers often make instrumental tracks that don\u2019t yet have a melody or vocal part. They just think, \u201cThis sounds great\u2014it could be a cool record if we get the right top line.\u201d And then I\u2019ll come in and write that.<\/p>\n
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Which method do you prefer?<\/b><\/p>\n
They all work well. It\u2019s good to have a variety of approaches, or at least it is for me. If it\u2019s just me sitting at the piano, a lot of things tend to become ballads, and I don\u2019t want a whole album of them. When I work with producers who have ready-made beats and instrumentals, it pushes me to get outside my ballad zone.<\/p>\n
Which artists influence your songwriting?<\/b><\/p>\n
No one else has influenced me nearly as much as Stevie Wonder. But I also think back to singers and songs I heard growing up\u2014Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, George Gershwin and Cole Porter. I love classic songs from a time when the standards were pop. Those songs are melody-driven and have a certain classicism when it comes to lyrics. Though I do things that are more contemporary, I like to write lyrics that are timeless. Listening to those classics makes me mindful of what that means.<\/p>\n
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Did you start out emulating singers?<\/b><\/p>\n
Earlier on I tried to sing like Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Nat King Cole. Marvin Gaye also had a big influence, as did Nina Simone. Jeff Buckley has since become one of my favorite singers.<\/p>\n
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What were your strengths coming up?<\/b><\/p>\n
Everyone seemed to love my voice. They felt it was powerful and soulful. They also thought I was a good songwriter. Those are the things I think I do best. Also, that I played piano made me very useful to someone like Kanye, who\u2019s a producer but doesn\u2019t really play. He had me do all sorts of things\u2014play piano on various tracks, add vocal harmonies, arrange background vocals. Meanwhile I was writing a lot of the songs that ended up on my first album. I was pursuing a solo career even as I was getting these side gigs, doing session work.<\/p>\n
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Ever become discouraged?<\/b><\/p>\n
No. I was getting encouraging signs along the way, encountering people who believed in me and were excited to work with me. In 2001 I got my first lawyer, and he introduced me to my first big manager\u2014David Sonenberg, who had managed the Fugees and Wyclef Jean. That was a big step. Not long after that I met Kanye and started working with him\u2014another big step. Working with Kanye opened a lot more doors, getting me in the room with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and other artists. I always felt a record deal was just around the corner, although it took longer than I expected.<\/p>\n
Did Get Lifted\u2019s success surprise you?<\/b><\/p>\n
What was interesting was that I had seen the same thing happen to Kanye the year before, so it didn\u2019t surprise me in any way. His first album came out in February 2004. I was on the road with him during that time, and witnessed firsthand his ascension, so it didn\u2019t feel that exotic when it happened to me. Actually it was liberating and empowering. Suddenly I had the power to control my destiny. I had the public\u2019s attention and felt free to make music I believed in.<\/p>\n
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How did success affect your family dynamic?<\/b><\/p>\n
First of all, they\u2019re proud and excited for you. But it does make things a bit complicated. When you come from a family that doesn\u2019t have much money\u2014and most of my extended family doesn\u2019t\u2014it becomes a bit stressful. You get all sorts of requests, not just from close family but also from family you didn\u2019t even know, and from friends of family. You have to learn how to say no without letting it take a huge psychic toll.<\/p>\n
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Which do you enjoy most\u2014writing, recording or performing?<\/b><\/p>\n
I love writing\u2014few things are more satisfying than finishing a song. But I can\u2019t divorce that from live performance, performing is the final payoff. There\u2019s nothing better than singing something like \u201cAll of Me\u201d onstage and hearing the crowd sing along. I also love putting together a set list. It\u2019s fun rehearsing and coming up with ideas for transitions.<\/p>\n
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What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\n
A stripped-down tour. We just finished a full-band tour with a big production, and in the middle of the show we stripped it down to four songs where I just played by myself. I want to do a full tour that way\u2014not completely solo, but close to it and completely unplugged. I saw how much the fans enjoyed that.\u00a0 M<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
URBAN LEGEND With his own brand of hip-hop soul,\u00a0John Legend aims to make R&B cool again By Russell Hall ven as a child John Legend always knew exactly what he wanted. \u201cI\u2019d watch Star Search and imagine one day meeting Ed McMahon, and getting four stars,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cShows like American Idol and The X […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[7403,1611],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12346,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12344\/revisions\/12346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}