Recently, Kanye West has made headlines for his antisemitism. Among many other controversies, he also released a song featuring his 11-year-old daughter North and Sean “Diddy” Combs, and reportedly invited controversial influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate over during a visit with North. As someone who was friends with Ye for years, John Legend thinks it’s “sad” to see how Ye has changed.
John and Ye were friends and collaborators.
When John and Ye started working together in the early 2000s, John “didn’t see a hint of what we’re seeing now,” he told The Sunday Times during a recent interview. According to the “All of Me” singer, there were no sings of Ye’s “obsessions with antisemitism, anti-blackness” when they collaborated. He added that “it is sad to see his devolution.”
At the time, Ye seemed a lot different.
Thinking back to the time he spent with his former friend, John recalled someone who seemed completedly different from the musician who recently released a song glorifying Adolf Hitler. “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 said, adding that Ye had “so much optimism” and “so much creativity” at the time.
“It does feel sad, sometimes shocking, to see where he is now,” he added.
John said Ye’s behavior seemingly started to change after a tragic loss.
During the interview, John acknowledged that it’s not really his place to “psychoanalyze” Ye — especially given that he is not “qualified” to do so. But as a former friend of Ye’s, he did notice that his behavior started to change after he lost his mother. “After his mother passed in 2007 there was definitely a difference,” John said. “His descent started then and seems to have accelerated recently.”
In the past, John described feeling ‘disappointed’ in his friend.
In 2016, John revealed that he was concerned about Ye’s mental health. That same year, he also spoke out against Ye’s decision to meet with President Donald Trump. “I’m pretty disappointed with Kanye that he says he would have voted for Trump,” he said at the time.
In 2020, John addressed his strained relationship with Ye again. “I don’t think we’re less friends because of the Trump thing,” he said at the time. “I just think we’re doing our own thing. He’s up in Wyoming. I’m here in LA. We’ve both got growing families and I no longer have a formal business relationship with him as an artist, so I think it’s just part of the natural cycle of life.”
