John Legend is opening up about his former friendship with Kanye West in a new interview, where he insists that the “Real Friends” rapper has changed from the person he was when they first met. Legend, who famously collaborated with Ye on his 2004 critically-acclaimed album “The College Dropout,” was ever-so-often spending a lot of time with West and his family at one point.
It wasn’t uncommon to see West’s children enjoying playdates with Legend’s kids, while Ye and Legend often had joint couples’ date nights with Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen. But after Ye began showing his support for former President Donald Trump, it appeared as if the once close friendship had begun to fizzle out, with Legend previously saying his ties to Ye couldn’t survive their opposite views on politics.
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In his recent sit-down with Kara Swisher for the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast, the soon-to-be father of three shed light on Ye’s anti-semitic comments, explaining, “I do find him different than he was back then. I didn’t see hints of this kind of harmful behavior back then. But, you know, I think life happens to people and I think the death of his mother [Donda in 2007] probably had something to do with this.”
“I don’t want to play armchair psychologist, but he’s definitely changed and a lot of us who have known him over the years are really concerned about it.”
When quizzed on whether he has tried to reach out and help West in whatever struggles he may be going through, Legend openly admitted that he doesn’t deem himself to still be a friend of the Yeezy founder. In fact, the “Ordinary People” singer says they ended up losing contact with one another, but he adds that he’s aware of mutual associates having tried to help him seek treatment.
If Kanye had lived his life like 30% different he could have been Jewish people’s favorite comedian. The line delivery here is fantastic. My dad cracked up every time we watched it and we watched it like 8 times in a row. https://t.co/6BdDsOsfWr
— Nathan Tankus (@NathanTankus) October 31, 2022
“We have not been friends for a while now, and so I’m not personally doing anything, but I do know people who are, and a lot of people are concerned about him,” he expressed.
“I think we need to be clear about how insidious and nasty antisemitism is and has been for centuries. How it’s caused millions and millions of deaths. It’s cropped up in societies all over the world, and it’s made life very difficult for Jews all over the world for a long time. And it is not some new discovery. It’s not some innovation in hate.”