John Legend is opening up about what caused his fallout with Kanye West.
In an interview with The New Yorker, the Grammy-winning singer referenced a recent interview in which he said that political differences caused a rift in their relationship.
Legend said his comments made during an interview with “The Axe Files” were misconstrued by some media outlets. “Yeah, what it got described as was, we stopped being friends because he supported Trump, which was a mischaracterization of what I said,” he said. “That was kind of the Rupert Murdoch version of the story—it was all over the New York Post and Fox News.”
However, he clarified that their fallout occurred when he didn’t support Ye’s 2020 presidential bid. “What I was saying was that he was very upset with me that I didn’t support him running for President, and that was the real impetus for us having a strain in our friendship,” he said.
“I don’t know what will happen in the future, but he was very upset with me that I didn’t support him and I supported Joe Biden. It’s up to him whether he can get past that,” Legend added.
Ye echoed these sentiments during his appearance on “Drink Champs” last year, saying he was upset when Legend and Big Sean didn’t vote for him when he ran for president.
“Both John Legend and Big Sean, when I ran for office, got used quick by the Democrats to come at they boy that actually changed their life,” he said. “And that’s some sell-out shit. And I don’t rock with neither of them.”
Back in 2018, Legend reached out to Ye about his support of Trump, resulting in Ye sharing screenshots of their text conversation on Twitter.
“I talked to him with love and with empathy, and tried to help him see another way of looking at things,” he said. “And obviously he went the way he went with it. The most frustrating thing about his run for the Presidency for me was how much it was an operation run by the Trump campaign. I don’t know how aware he was of the fact that there was so much Trump personnel throughout his campaign, raising money for him, getting petitions signed for him, getting him on the ballot.”
He continued, “I saw their work on his behalf as a clear scam and an operation to try to siphon Black votes away from Biden, so there was no way I was going to support it. Kanye was upset with that, and we haven’t been friends since, really.”
On Friday, Legend is set to release his double album Legend, which is divided into two parts. “The conversation I had with my team is that Act I was like Saturday night and Act II was Sunday morning,” he explained. “Saturday night is more about sensual pleasures, more about the party, more up-tempo. Sunday’s more introspective and intimate and spiritual.”
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