Full Transcript for John Legend

1: John Legend. Yes, sir. Is there anything left for you to win? Just from that. 00:03:13 Speaker 3: I mean, I don't really worry about awards anymore because I feel like I have plenty. 00:03:20 Speaker 1: I'm blessed. I'm happy. 00:03:21 Speaker 3: And so now just even before I wasn't really like picking projects so I could get awards. Um, but now like even less so because it's, it's about, and it's about just making the art worthy of people's attention and love and, you know, just aiming for, For that standard of excellence. And I feel like if I get more awards, it's just because I'm focused on excellence. 00:03:47 Speaker 1: Right. And not worried about the awards. As they say, if you do what you love. Yeah. You never have a Johnny. You never work a day in your life. That's right. Yeah. So let's go back. Yeah. Lil Jon. Lil Jon. Lil Johnny. You know, that's my real name too. Okay. The Johnnies are here. 00:04:03 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:04:04 Speaker 1: I grew up, everybody in Ohio knows me as Johnny. Yeah. Yeah. Springfield. Springfield, Ohio. 00:04:09 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:04:10 Speaker 1: So take me back, man. 00:04:11 Speaker 3: Take me back there to, you know, little Johnny and before any of this became reality for you. So I grew up in a very big family and we all pretty much lived near each other in like Western and Southwestern Ohio. 00:04:25 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:04:25 Speaker 3: So Springfield, Dayton, Cincinnati, a little bit of Columbus, but everybody like in my extended family was close. I got mad cousins and, My mother was one of six and my dad was one of five. And then my mother's father was our pastor. I grew up in the Pentecostal church. And so my grandfather on my mother's side was my pastor. Her brother, her older brother was our pastor after my grandfather retired. And then my mother's mother was our church organist. And then my mother was the choir director. 00:04:59 Speaker 1: Yeah. So I just grew up in church, Pentecostal church. 00:05:03 Speaker 3: And I grew up around music because I would go to choir rehearsal with my mother as a young kid. And I was just surrounded by music all the time. And anybody who grows up in the church knows that it's such a great training ground for musicians. Like every band member that plays with me grew up playing in the church. It's just where a lot of especially black musicians get their training. And that's where I got my training. I also took classical piano lessons, too. 00:05:31 Speaker 1: On top of the church. Yeah, on top of the church. 00:05:33 Speaker 3: But my grandmother taught me how to play by ear. She would teach me chords and how to follow along with what was going on in church. And yeah, I loved it from a very young age. And I just never stopped singing and never stopped playing. It was part of my life from a very young age. 00:05:50 Speaker 1: This has always been the intention. Yeah. I would watch the Grammys. 00:05:54 Speaker 3: I would watch Star Search and Soul Train and Showtime at the Apollo. And I just, I was like, That's going to be me one day. That's what I wanted to do. Even as a young kid, I was even in a Star Search local talent show. 00:06:08 Speaker 1: You jumped in one? Yeah. So there was like a local version. 00:06:11 Speaker 3: It was at the grand opening of our mall, like 20 minutes from where I grew up. And the competition was if you won, they would send your video to like National Star Search as an audition. 00:06:25 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:06:26 Speaker 3: And you would get a $ 500 shopping spree at the mall at that mall. 00:06:29 Speaker 1: Okay. Yes. 00:06:30 Speaker 3: And so I won, I got my shopping spree. They sent my tape off to Ed McMahon and, uh, I didn't make it. 00:06:37 Speaker 1: Do you remember what you bought? Uh, clothes, man. 00:06:40 Speaker 3: Uh, you know, I was like, I'm, I'm gonna buy some fresh clothes to wear back to school. And everybody's going to be like, yeah, John got that $ 500 shopping spree. 00:06:49 Speaker 1: I did, man. I was so proud. And, uh, I just went shopping. 00:06:53 Speaker 4: So the other thing that I've heard, man, I heard you were quite the Doogie Howser. 00:06:57 Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I was. I was homeschooled for a while. And I was a nerd, man. I still am. 00:07:03 Speaker 3: I was doing crosswords on my way over here. And I was like. 00:07:07 Speaker 1: Spelling bee champ, skipped two grades. 00:07:10 Speaker 3: So I started high school when I was 12, graduated high school when I was 16, went to college when I was 16, graduated college. 00:07:18 Speaker 1: I couldn't even drink yet. I was 20 years old. What? 00:07:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, man. 00:07:23 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:07:23 Speaker 4: So when you went to college, though, at 16, you went on your own, though. 00:07:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, I went on my own, yeah. 00:07:28 Speaker 3: I was living in a dorm with a bunch of 18-year-olds, and I was 16. 00:07:34 Speaker 1: Yeah. How was that experience for you? 00:07:36 Speaker 3: I was so shy socially, and I was homeschooled, so I was already, like, sheltered. 00:07:42 Speaker 1: I grew up in the church, so I was sheltered in that way. 00:07:45 Speaker 3: I was sheltered in the sense of growing up in a small town in the Midwest, and most of the kids that came to I went to UPenn in Philadelphia. Most of the kids that went to Penn had money, were from like a big city or a suburb on the East Coast. 00:08:00 Speaker 1: And I was just. 00:08:01 Speaker 3: A fish out of water. So I get there and I'm shy. But the only thing I had to like make people pay attention to me was music. So, you know, being able to sing, being able to play. That was like my way of introducing myself to the world because. 00:08:15 Speaker 1: Otherwise I wouldn't talk to nobody. I was just so shy. 00:08:17 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:08:17 Speaker 1: Yeah. So have you and Ryan Leslie ever had that conversation? Yeah. 00:08:21 Speaker 3: I met him back in the day. Like we were both new artists and we

weren't signed yet. And I worked at this other job with a dude that went to Harvard with him. 00:08:31 Speaker 1: Okay. And we were like the Ivy League R & B cats. Yeah. Both like graduated college. Yeah. As babies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really dope. 00:08:41 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I met Ryan before either of us had a deal. And I worked at this job at this place called Management Leadership for Tomorrow. And it helped place minority kids into business roles and helped them prepare for the MBA if they wanted to go to business school. So you've always been in that space? Yeah, and this guy that worked with me went to college with Ryan. He was like, you got to meet my friend. He's making dope music. And he was. His demos were dope. I heard his demos. I was like, this dude is for real. And obviously he blew up later, but I heard the early music before that happened. 00:09:18 Speaker 1: So were you going from Philly to New York at this point? 00:09:20 Speaker 3: So I was in college in Philly. I would drive up to Scranton, which is another city in Pennsylvania. And I played at a church there. And I actually met Lauryn Hill because I played at this church. One of my choir members... Grew up in Jersey and went to school with Lauren. And she was like, Lauren's working on her solo album. 00:09:41 Speaker 1: You want to go over to. 00:09:42 Speaker 3: Newark area and, you know, just be a fly on the wall in the session. 00:09:49 Speaker 1: And that was like my first session. 00:09:50 Speaker 3: Like, you know, I went to the studio where they were making Miseducation. All the producers were there. Lauren was there. Rohan was there. And they're working on Everything is Everything. I was just hanging out, trying to stay in the cut, not getting away. And then when they were taking a break, my friend was like, Johnny, you gotta show her what you can do. So I go sit on the piano and I play her a couple songs. I did one Stevie song, Love's in Need. And then I did an original I had written called Too Late. And I just sat there and played for Lauren. And she was like, why don't you see what you can do on this track we're working on? So they just ran the track in my headphones and I started playing along. And my piano ended up being on the record. And that was my first time ever being part of a major record. 00:10:39 Speaker 1: And it just happened to be one of the greatest albums of all time. 00:10:42 Speaker 4: Wow. 00:10:43 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So for you, did it make it real at that point? Like I can really do it. Yeah. 00:10:51 Speaker 3: It made me, it gave me that first taste of like, Oh, this is the big time. This is like, this is the, this is, it just felt like I was entering the door into a new world of like, Oh, this is how a major record happens. And you got to be part of it. And now, you know, looking back, it's like, Oh, you just got to be on a piano session, which isn't a huge deal in the scheme of things. And in our business, you know, there's all kinds of guys that end up playing a session. But it just brought. 00:11:20 Speaker 1: Me into that world. Into the world, yeah. 00:11:22 Speaker 3: And then I met the producer she was working with. I started working with one of them on my own demo. Worked with another cat in Philly named Dave Tozer while I was at school. And also I was living in Philadelphia, which at that time was like, prime time to be in Philadelphia. 00:11:38 Speaker 1: So the Roots, Jill, Music, Bilal, all. 00:11:42 Speaker 3: These different artists were doing open mic nights. 00:11:45 Speaker 1: So were you going to these? 00:11:46 Speaker 3: I was going to like Black Lily and all these open mic nights in Philly. They would be at this place called Wilhelmina's. They would do Black Lily there and just cats would just go. And then all the artists like the Roots were producing like Erica and people from out of town would come through because they were working with the Roots. And the roots were like holding down the whole scene. And I was in college during this whole time. And then just graduating from college during this time. So I would be in Philly just like soaking up all this inspiration. 00:12:17 Speaker 1: Would you go on stage too or no? Yeah, later. 00:12:20 Speaker 3: At first I was just like chilling in the cut. I'm this kid, you know, went to college there. I wasn't from Philly. So I didn't really know like the crew there. But eventually I started to, you know, overcome my shyness and get up on stage. But early on, I would just soak it up, but it was just a great place to be, um, and get inspired and like, see the path. Cause everybody was like getting deals. They were like, you would see them trying out new songs. Like I remember seeing Bilal do soul sister before it was a record, you know what I'm saying? And you would see all that happening. And it's like, Oh, I can do this too. And, It just inspired me being there. So I'm so glad it was just divine that I went to UPenn, that I was in Philly exactly at the perfect time to be in Philadelphia. And I think I don't know where my career would be if I wasn't there at that time. 00:13:17 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:13:18 Speaker 3: I tell people all the time, I said, you got to be around it. You have to be around it. You have to be around it. And then eventually you got to get on stage and do it. 00:13:25 Speaker 1: Yes. And you got to find a tribe. 00:13:28 Speaker 3: And it's not about trying to find somebody famous that can put you on because everybody that I ended up working with, we were trying to come up at the same time. Um, so we rose together. Even Kanye, like I signed a good music, uh, but when I started work with him, he wasn't like Kanye West. He was just, he's producing my friend's cousin. 00:13:48 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:13:50 Speaker 3: He was literally my roommate's cousin who had just moved to the New York area around the same time I did after I graduated. And, uh, that's all he was at that time, but he started to

blow up eventually. He started to get placements on like, you know, the blueprint and all these other Rockefeller tracks. And he started to be known, you know, for those soul sample beats he was doing. 00:14:13 Speaker 1: And that was after we started working together. 00:14:15 Speaker 4: Did you ever think that, Or was it ever in your mind, like, okay, I'm going to Rockefeller, too? 00:14:21 Speaker 3: Not really, because Rockefeller really wasn't known to, like, sign R & B and, like, focus on R & B. 00:14:26 Speaker 1: Right, at that time, they only had Chris Sean. 00:14:28 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was really about rap. And it was a hip-hop label. And I ended up getting an offer from Def Jam. I didn't go there because we felt like we could just get more money. 00:14:41 Speaker 1: So we were like, let's wait. Are you already... In your situation with Ye at the time? Yes, I was at Good Music and Good Music was shopping me. 00:14:48 Speaker 3: So like Ye, John Monopoly, like the whole crew, Don C, like they were my team. And then we would go to meetings together and Ye would be like, you know, doing a sales pitch for me. And he was signed to Rock already, but he wasn't really getting the attention that he eventually would get when he was there either, because they really signed him. In our mind, we thought they signed him because they just wanted to keep the producer in house. And he had to prove himself to them as an artist. And after he got in an accident, he was out here in L.A., when he got in the accident and he just camped out here. 00:15:32 Speaker 1: He was at the W hotel. 00:15:33 Speaker 3: He would go to record plant and he recorded through the wire with the wire in his mouth. And he filmed his own video with Cootie and Chique and paid for it himself, paid for his own mixtapes and got them, you know, out on the streets and got them to DJs. And so he just invested in himself, believed in himself and it. 00:15:56 Speaker 1: Made Rockefeller pay attention. Because he did it himself. Yeah. 00:16:01 Speaker 3: So it was never a thing like, oh, yeah, I'm here. I already got this thing set up. 00:16:05 Speaker 1: I'm taking my label there. 00:16:07 Speaker 3: There's none of that. No, because he had to get himself going. He had to get himself going as an artist. And a lot of people didn't believe he could be a rapper. They were just like, yeah, he's a he's a producer who wants to rap. But like, obviously, he had so much artistic energy. 00:16:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. And like. 00:16:22 Speaker 3: He had true, like, solo artist energy, but people didn't really get. 00:16:27 Speaker 1: It for a while. Yeah. Yeah. 00:16:29 Speaker 3: It's funny, man, because I remember meeting you at the Keisha Cole I Changed My Mind video. 00:16:34 Speaker 1: Yeah. I co-wrote that song. I know this. So... Yeah. 00:16:40 Speaker 4: As, you know, the Army Money podcast, you know, we wild in the way I say shit. I was the video hoe. 00:16:47 Speaker 1: Video broke. 00:16:48 Speaker 3: Right? 00:16:48 Speaker 1: And... But. 00:16:51 Speaker 4: Keisha and I were both from the Bay Area. We came up together. 00:16:54 Speaker 1: Yeah. And I did it as a favor for my friend. Yeah. 00:16:57 Speaker 3: And I remember her pulling me to the side and going, he's special. 00:17:02 Speaker 1: Oh, that's dope. I never forgot that. That's dope. Because you guys were on set. Yeah. And she was like, he wrote the song with me. Yeah. Like, John. 00:17:11 Speaker 3: It was me, me, and Keisha wrote the song together. 00:17:13 Speaker 1: She was like, listen. John is dope. He's super dope. That's dope. That's nice to hear. Yeah. 00:17:19 Speaker 3: I love Keisha. Like, we really had some good times back then, too. Like, she was on the road with us for a while. She did some of those Usher shows with us. Some of Kanye's shows with us. 00:17:29 Speaker 1: And, yeah. Now, Keisha was working. We were a crew. 00:17:32 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:17:33 Speaker 1: It's just so funny, man, how, you know, obviously how the world turns. 00:17:35 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:17:36 Speaker 3: I haven't seen Keisha in so long. Is she up in the Bay? No, Keisha, I don't want to say where she lives. Okay, don't say it. But no, she's not in the Bay. 00:17:46 Speaker 1: She's not in the Bay. Okay, so now you guys finally get your deal. Yeah. You finally get your deal. 00:17:51 Speaker 3: He was already signed at Rockefeller for a while, but they wasn't putting no priority on him. And then I was signed to Good Music, and he was putting me on different records with different people, like Selfish with Slum Village, This Way with Dilated People's. I was even singing backup for Alicia on You Don't Know My Name. What the hell are we waiting for with Jay? Just a little this, a little that. And then I was all over College Dropout. 00:18:15 Speaker 1: But you're not being actually featured on anything yet. The only feature credit I got was the Selfish. 00:18:21 Speaker 3: Maybe the Dialogue of Peoples one, too. But Selfish, I got a true feature, and I was in the video. That was a proper, like, oh, he's an artist now. But we were trying to get me a deal. I got turned down by everybody. We'd have all these meetings. I still vividly remember meeting with some of the great executives. 00:18:37 Speaker 1: Yeah. I won't name names. I mean, listen, if you want to, I won't name names. I'll save that for the latest segment. Okay. All right. All right. All right. 00:18:44 Speaker 3: But like I met with all of them. Nobody got it. And nobody got it or people liked it, but they were like, eh. And then Def Jam offered me, but it was a low offer. So we were just like, we weren't sure if they were really excited about it, um, because it was a lower offer. And so we just held off and, uh, Once College Dropout came out. So it comes out February 2004. And it just exploded right away. And sold over 400,000 copies the first week. 00:19:16 Speaker 1: And it was just huge. 00:19:18 Speaker 3:

And that just made everybody be like, well, what's next from that camp? 00:19:22 Speaker 1: Right. And I was next. 00:19:23 Speaker 3: And so that's when we got multiple sizable offers. 00:19:26 Speaker 1: So the same people came back around. Yeah. And the same music. Of course. The demo didn't change. Yeah. 00:19:33 Speaker 3: The demo didn't change. It was the same music, but the situation changed. The buzz changed around us. And after they saw what Kanye did, they were like, well, what's next from y'all's crew? 00:19:45 Speaker 1: Right. And I was next. That's dope, bro. Okay, now you're finally here. Yeah. You're working on your album. 00:19:59 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm signed in May 2004, and my album came out seven months later, which is quick. 00:20:04 Speaker 1: Yeah. Quick turnaround, because the songs were basically already done. X up. 00:20:09 Speaker 3: Ordinary People wasn't done. I didn't write Ordinary People until after I got signed. And that ended up being, obviously, the most important song from that album. But the vast majority of Get Lifted was written. 00:20:19 Speaker 1: Already done. 00:20:19 Speaker 3: And a demo version of it was recorded. And then we went back and re-recorded it with money, like in a nice studio. But the songs were the songs, and we just re-cut them. 00:20:28 Speaker 1: How do you get to Ordinary People? 00:20:31 Speaker 4: Because I think that it shocked everybody as well when they found out it was you and what I am. 00:20:36 Speaker 1: It was like, wait, huh? it started with will. 00:20:39 Speaker 2: I am. 00:20:40 Speaker 3: And we were supposed to be writing for the black IPs in those sessions. We were at a, I think hit factory or Sony, one of those studios in midtown. And we're in the studio. All those studios are gone now, by the way, like no studio plans. 00:20:54 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:20:55 Speaker 3: All the, all the major studios where we did everything back then, there's just no money in it anymore. 00:20:59 Speaker 1: And people want to use the real estate for other reasons now. 00:21:02 Speaker 3: But anyway, so we were at one of those studios on the West fifties in New York. 00:21:07 Speaker 1: And, uh, He was just playing me beats. 00:21:09 Speaker 3: And, you know, anybody who writes top lines, you know, you get with a producer and they play you beats and see what comes to your head. So I was just recording whatever ideas came to my head. And they were supposed to be hooks for them, for the Black Eyed Peas. And one of the hooks was Ordinary People. And it was to a hip hop beat. It wasn't like the slow piano ballad version. It was to a hip hop beat. And I wrote the chorus with him on the spot. 00:21:37 Speaker 1: And then. 00:21:38 Speaker 3: I was like, you can keep all the other ideas, but I want to keep Ordinary People for myself. This is like two days later, though. It was like, on second thought. I was like, on second thought. Was there any resistance to that at first? I was like, you could produce it, but I want to keep it for myself. 00:21:55 Speaker 1: He's like, cool. Okay. 00:21:56 Speaker 3: So after that, Kanye's about to go to Europe on tour, and I was touring with him. I would sing the hooks and play the piano. We'd have a DJ, me on the keys and vocals. 00:22:08 Speaker 1: And Kanye. 00:22:09 Speaker 3: And then GLC and Consequence would come out and do a song or two. So that was like what we did on tour. Keisha would come sometimes. And that was the tour. So we were doing like clubs in Europe. And every soundcheck, I'd be like, let me write some more of that Ordinary People. 00:22:25 Speaker 1: So I would be writing. This is before you typed it in your phone. You just write it down. 00:22:29 Speaker 3: And I was writing it in my little notebook, writing the lyrics down. And I was writing Ordinary People, the verses down. because I'd already written the chorus with Will.i.am. And so eventually we go back home and I record a demo version and I'm intending to give it to Will for him to produce it like I promised him. 00:22:48 Speaker 1: And I did. I gave it to him. 00:22:50 Speaker 3: But everybody started to fall in love with the piano demo. 00:22:53 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:22:54 Speaker 2: And. 00:22:54 Speaker 1: Demo-itis. Demo-itis. 00:22:56 Speaker 3: Which means you fall in love with the first version you hear of a song. 00:23:00 Speaker 1: Don't touch it. Don't touch it. And that ended up being the version. So the demo... is the album version. Wow. Yeah. 00:23:09 Speaker 3: And KP and I tell this story. KP is like a legendary A & R. 00:23:15 Speaker 1: You know, that's my guy. Yeah. Kwan Prather. 00:23:17 Speaker 3: Um, he's DJ too, but you know, he was my A & R at Columbia at the time. 00:23:22 Speaker 1: And, uh, but he also, you know, worked with Outkast, Usher, so many great artists. And produced Green Light. Yeah. And co-produced Green Light with Malay. Yeah. 00:23:30 Speaker 3: And he's just a all around, like great advisor and creative. Like he writes, he, He has great ears and all that. But anyway, he was like, he snuck Ordinary People onto my sampler. You know how we used to have samplers? Yeah, he did tell me that story. So, you know, when you have samplers back in the day, this is ancient history for y'all young bucks. But we used to hand out CDs with the single and then snippets of the other songs from the album. And we thought we were going to do the single used to love you and snippets of four other songs, but he made ordinary people a full version and he wasn't supposed to like, nobody told him that that was cool. 00:24:18 Speaker 1: And I was like, and I was like kind of mad, like, yo, what are you doing, man? You didn't even clear this with us. He's like, trust me. 00:24:25 Speaker 3: And he like put it on the sampler and all the PDs, programming directors got ahold of it around the country. So they're, Promoting used to love you at Columbia, but the PDs also have. 00:24:39 Speaker 1: Ordinary

people, and they can play the full thing. Yep. 00:24:42 Speaker 3: And lo and behold, WGCI in Chicago were like. 00:24:48 Speaker 1: This is the one we want to play. This is the record. 00:24:51 Speaker 3: And they started playing it, and it just blew up in Chicago first, and then it swept the nation after that, but it started in Chicago. 00:25:02 Speaker 1: Wow. WGCI, Tiffany. 00:25:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, and once a major station gets on it, that's the record now. And they were playing it every hour in Chicago. It was power rotation in Chicago. And then it took off everywhere else. And then the label officially switches to promoting it. And then we shoot the video in December, right when the album's coming out. 00:25:28 Speaker 1: And that's when I really broke through. Does your life change immediately when you look back on it now? It's like the airport test. I always say that it's an airport test. Man, we talk about it all the time. 00:25:41 Speaker 3: If they don't stop you and say something to you, you ain't there yet. 00:25:45 Speaker 1: Exactly. Whatever you're doing ain't working just yet. Exactly. 00:25:48 Speaker 3: And I truly knew it by how many times people would stop me in the airport. Oh, we have some traction now. People would recognize me in the airport. People would sing Ordinary People to me in the airport. 00:25:59 Speaker 1: I was like, okay. 00:26:00 Speaker 3: Do you still fly commercial? I still fly commercial most of the time. I fly private sometimes, but I'm cheap, man. I'm like, it costs a lot to fly private and it's not worth it most of the time. So I fly first class commercial the vast majority of the time. 00:26:15 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, listen, brother, you famous, famous. So, you know, it's fine. 00:26:19 Speaker 3: People come up to me and it doesn't hurt me. It's like, yeah, somebody wants to take a pic. 00:26:25 Speaker 1: Fine. I love that. Everyone's nice to me. Like, it's not like, I deal with negativity when I'm out. Your energy is different, too, though. You know what I mean? 00:26:32 Speaker 3: People are kind to me. Like, they come up and say, your music got me through this, blah, blah, blah. 00:26:37 Speaker 1: Right. Like, your music got my wedding. Like, it's just all love out there. You're like the king of the wedding songs, bro. All of me is big. Stay with you. So high. Those are, like, my biggest ones. Nervous. Bro, you still can play Save Room at the reception. Like, bro. Yeah. Yeah. And so. 00:26:59 Speaker 3: Everywhere I go, people will tell me some version of that story. I proposed to my wife with this, blah, blah, blah. And so it's just all love out there. So I don't mind being around people because the energy I get is usually positive. 00:27:12 Speaker 1: Did you buy anything crazy after Ordinary People? I bought my apartment. That was like my big purchase. I lived in New York, so I didn't need a car. 00:27:22 Speaker 3: And I bought my apartment and that was it. I may have gotten a nice watch around then, but it wasn't like what I spend on watches now. 00:27:33 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he got Johnny's different. 00:27:37 Speaker 3: Today's price is not, yesterday's price is not today's price. 00:27:40 Speaker 1: I get it. I get it. I understand. Yeah. All right. So now you, you're fully, you're fully rolling. You're fully rolling. 00:27:48 Speaker 3: I always say the day when I knew I had made it, I got a call from Oprah and magic on the same day. 00:27:54 Speaker 1: Huh? So, so separately, random, just randomly though. Not about the same day. Yeah. 00:28:01 Speaker 3: They, they had gotten my number from my agent and they were like, I really want to reach out to John. Oprah wanted me to play for the legends ball. So she had that whole legends weekend. She celebrated all the black women that she looked up to, like the icons of our culture, like supermodels, singers, actresses, everybody, authors, Maya Angelou, everybody. She was honoring them and she called it Legends Weekend, Legends Ball. And so she had to invite me because I was John Legend. 00:28:32 Speaker 1: And why not? Makes sense to me. So she called me that day and then Magic called me because he wanted. 00:28:37 Speaker 3: Me to sing for like a charity event in his backyard for his foundation. And they both called me the same day. I'm like, oh shit, I have made it. Mama, I made it. 00:28:49 Speaker 4: The other part, bro, and this is something I, you know, why I really wanted you on the show too, just to tell you, thank you for the culture. 00:28:57 Speaker 1: Yeah. Because you've been a great representation. Thank you. Of black music around the world. Thank you. Right. 00:29:05 Speaker 4: Everybody can't go and do all of the things that you've done, bro. As far as like being in those rooms and how you show up in those rooms. 00:29:14 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:29:15 Speaker 1: It's inspiring, bro. Thank you. 00:29:17 Speaker 4: It really truly is, man. And you know, this is why we started the R & B Money Podcast. So that we could highlight and give flowers. 00:29:24 Speaker 1: I appreciate it. You know what I mean? 00:29:25 Speaker 4: Because I've never looked at you and felt like he playing himself or he out of pocket. 00:29:31 Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm like, yo, this is a grown man doing grown man music. Yeah. 00:29:35 Speaker 3: Making legendary timeless copyrights. 00:29:38 Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. You know what I mean? I mean? So I appreciate it coming from you. I definitely appreciate it. Bro, like it's been so cool to see. Thank you. You know what I mean? 00:29:45 Speaker 4: To see one of us, man, because that's why I yell this is R & B because you are an R & B soul artist. 00:29:53 Speaker 1: That's who I am. It's in your voice, brother. Yeah. The church, gospel. Yeah. You cannot get away from it. 00:29:59 Speaker 4: Yeah. So it's like, you know, I've never heard a record of yours where I felt like you weren't being you. 00:30:04 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

00:30:05 Speaker 3: I feel like that's the key with making music that you're proud of and making music that is authentic coming from you. I feel like you, you have to like make that be the standard for yourself as an artist, because your fans are going to know if it doesn't feel like it's coming from you authentically and honestly. And so I try to know who I am and make music that reflects who I am. 00:30:34 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Bro, you might have the most R & B rap features. I have a lot. 00:30:43 Speaker 3: And it's funny because it's not mentioned very much. Obviously, listen, we have greats. The T-Pains, you know what I mean? The Nate Dawgs. You know what I'm saying? 00:30:53 Speaker 1: Snoopy. 00:30:54 Speaker 3: Nobody ever really mentions that you have that many. 00:31:00 Speaker 3: R & B features on these rap records bro I'm like right up there with the most bro yeah yeah and it's not always expected you know what I mean like when you first start jumping on records with like Rick Ross yeah Magnificent was the first one we did and he was still relatively new like this was early in his career and I was about three albums in I think in my career and they sent me the instrumentals And me and my guy Devo wrote the hook together. Devo's Kanye's cousin, the one that introduced me to Kanye. And he was my roommate in college. And, you know, we had known each other since our freshman year in college. But we wrote the hook together for Magnificent. And then we just started doing a bunch of records together, like almost every album. 00:31:48 Speaker 1: He did two on my albums. 00:31:50 Speaker 3: I've done like seven or eight on his, either with him or on Khaled's albums with him. 00:31:57 Speaker 1: And yeah, man. 00:31:58 Speaker 3: I always say we could have an album of just John Legend and Rick Ross. 00:32:02 Speaker 1: For sure. Of all the joints we did together. For sure. But, yeah, I've been on a lot of Jay records, Kanye records. 2 Chainz, Clips, French Montana. Like, whoa. Yeah. It's a lot. I'm proud of it, too. 00:32:14 Speaker 3: Like, I love that hip-hop has been such a big part of my story. 00:32:19 Speaker 1: Because I love hip-hop. 00:32:20 Speaker 3: Like, when I'm listening to music in the car, like, there's a good chance I'm listening to hip-hop. 00:32:25 Speaker 1: We're children of hip-hop. 00:32:27 Speaker 3: It's our generation's music. I truly am a fan. I love it. 00:32:32 Speaker 1: I listen to it. I'm a critic. 00:32:34 Speaker 3: I'm evaluating the bars, all of that. I have so much respect for great hip-hop. I love being a part of it. I love that it's a big part of my repertoire. 00:32:47 Speaker 1: How do you choose what features you jump on? 00:32:50 Speaker 3: Part of it's just the quality of the artist. I want it I only want to be attached to, like, dope MCs. 00:32:56 Speaker 1: I mean, everybody we named. Yeah. And we did it. I mean, Nas, Big Sean. Yeah, yeah. 00:33:00 Speaker 3: Like, I want everybody to be dope. And then you just want to love the record, too. Like, feel like it fits your voice. Sometimes I write the hook. Sometimes they've already written it. 00:33:11 Speaker 1: Oh, so you'll sing a hook that somebody else wrote? Sometimes, yeah. Okay. Like, Khaled sometimes will send me stuff that's already been written. Like, God did. God did. It was already written. Friday wrote that. And then Higher, I didn't write. Oh, okay. 00:33:24 Speaker 3: He'll ask me to put my own touch on it, but the basic version of the hook was already in existence. 00:33:30 Speaker 1: In that sense, it's easy to decide. It's like, do I love it or do I not? Yeah. 00:33:34 Speaker 3: And then if I need to write the hook as do I love the beat, do I hear myself on it, and then do I think I can write something to it? And I wrote Magnificent, and I've written a few of the hooks that I did with Rick. 00:33:47 Speaker 1: He's great at beat selections. That's amazing. 00:33:49 Speaker 3: And he picks those cinematic beats that fit his voice because that voice has so much presence. You got to have the right beats to complement it. And he's really good at picking beats. So that's why I love working with him because you know the whole record is going to work. 00:34:05 Speaker 4: I would love to hear a collaborative album with y'all. 00:34:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:34:08 Speaker 3: We talked about it before and we just kind of never got around to it. 00:34:11 Speaker 1: But yeah, it's still in the cards. You know who else? This is my wish, man. And I'm putting it out there right now. Yeah. I... wish at some point you and Carl Thomas do a song together. 00:34:23 Speaker 3: You know, it has to happen, bro. I was just listening to my own song. 00:34:27 Speaker 1: Bro, it has to happen. It's called Next Time. It's on the new album. Yeah. And I was like, this song really reminds me of Carl Thomas. Bro. 00:34:36 Speaker 3: And when I first came out, people compared me to him. Yeah, I have certain... Yeah, like the way we pronounce... Yeah, pronounce words. KP was saying, you guys are both R & B niggas that enunciate. Very true. And so I think both of us listened to like Marvin Gaye and Nat King Cole. 00:34:53 Speaker 1: And you can hear some of that, the enunciation and phrasing. Yeah. 00:34:57 Speaker 3: We have some commonalities when it comes to that. 00:35:00 Speaker 1: And... I'm sure he grew up in church, too, like all of us do. 00:35:03 Speaker 3: But we definitely have enough in common. 00:35:07 Speaker 1: Come on, man. We need one, bro. We're both Midwest boys. He's from Chicago. I'm from Ohio. Come on, you're from Ohio, bro. 00:35:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:35:12 Speaker 1: I'm a true Carl fan, too. Like, I love his voice. I'm asking for it on the RMB Money Podcast, bro. Let's go. For the culture. John Legend and Carl Thomas for the culture. Let's go. We need him, bro. I'm down, Carl. 00:35:23 Speaker 3: So, if you're listening... I know he, like, listen, Carl is our family, bro. I

literally was listening to my own song. I was like, oh, this sounds like it could be a Carl Thomas record. 00:35:33 Speaker 1: Speaking of your own song. Let's do a remix. Look at me. Make me have it. I got John O'Keefe saying it too. So, okay. So we talking about the new album. Yeah. Muse. Yes, sir. Produced entirely. By Pharrell. By Pharrell. Yeah. Yeah. How'd y'all come up with that? 00:35:50 Speaker 3: Well, it started with us doing Birds Don't Sing together on Eclipse album. 00:35:54 Speaker 1: Yes. 00:35:55 Speaker 3: And I think he was just inspired by hearing what I did because he wrote that hook actually. And, you know, the brothers were singing about their parents passing. Both of their parents passed around the same time within months of each other. And each of them wrote a verse about how they felt about it. 00:36:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's just a powerful song. Yes, it is. And they asked me to be a part of it. 00:36:19 Speaker 3: And I listened to the lyrics and I was just like, I felt their heart and their soul being poured into the song. 00:36:25 Speaker 1: So I wanted to give them that with my version of the hook. Gotcha. 00:36:29 Speaker 3: And I think they were moved by what I did and Pharrell was too. And he was like, man, I just want to do a whole album with your voice. I feel like I'm so inspired by your voice. I feel like we can make something really classic. 00:36:42 Speaker 1: And he really had a vision for it from day one. 00:36:46 Speaker 3: Like what it sounds like now is what he described as when he originally called me, he called me out the blue. Cause me and Pharrell, like we didn't talk to each other like that. Like he, he, he wasn't even sure he had the right number on me. He was like, is this still you? 00:36:59 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:36:59 Speaker 3: And then he reached out and was like, man, what are you doing? Like, do you have a plan for your next album? And I was like, well, you know, I'm about to go on this get lifted 20th anniversary tour. And, uh, I'm not sure what my next album is going to sound like. He's like, well, I want to put my bid in. I want to do the whole album. And here's my vision for it. And literally what he described is what we made. 00:37:24 Speaker 1: He's like, I want you to be the Black James Bond. I want this to be cinematic. It's all of that. I want it to have the orchestra, the lush strings and horns. 00:37:32 Speaker 3: And I want you to be Nina Simone and Nat King Cole and all these things. 00:37:37 Speaker 1: But with 808 beats. Yep. 00:37:41 Speaker 3: That's literally what he described in that first conversation. He's like, I got a song already. I got a song already. It's called Daylight. I'm going to send that to you. 00:37:49 Speaker 1: Oh, he already had Daylight. 00:37:50 Speaker 3: Daylight was already written, him and Sam Henshaw. I changed like a few lines, but it was the song basically. 00:37:56 Speaker 1: Then my brother Terrace is an arranger on there, right? 00:37:58 Speaker 3: So Terrace Martin arranged all the horns on the whole album. So we did the horn sessions here in LA. We did most of the recording, writing sessions in Paris. Me and Pharrell. Oh, you're just pouring champagne. 00:38:10 Speaker 1: At this point. Yeah. He has a Moet deal, you know. He's working in Louis Vuitton. 00:38:16 Speaker 3: You know, we did the whole sections and arrangements in LA. 00:38:19 Speaker 1: Yeah. Then we did this in Paris. Yeah, Moet in Louis Vuitton. Yeah. Okay. So we're doing it at the offices of Louis Vuitton. 00:38:26 Speaker 3: So he's literally doing both jobs at the same time, producing records. 00:38:29 Speaker 1: That's great. 00:38:30 Speaker 3: And designing, you know, Louis Vuitton clothes right there in that same office, same area. 00:38:37 Speaker 1: In the building. And, you know, it's a great place to be creatively. 00:38:40 Speaker 3: You're working with him, you're working around all these other artists doing what they do. And, you know, it would be me, him and Sam Henshaw writing a lot of the records. KP came for some of the trips too. And, uh, he ended up A & R in the project. So he had been my A & R throughout all of my early records at Columbia, but then he got let go of Columbia and was independent. And then he worked with Pharrell for a while. And so, uh, It was perfect because it was like, who better to bridge between me and Pharrell and be our creative liaison and conduit and advisor than KP because he knew both of us so well. And he had worked with both of us so much. 00:39:22 Speaker 1: And we both trusted his ear. 00:39:24 Speaker 3: And he knows how to work with artists. Like, he has a great ear, but he also knows how to communicate with us. And tell you the real. 00:39:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. He tells you the real, but he does it, you know. In his way. In his way. 00:39:36 Speaker 4: Absolutely. And above all, I tell him all the time. I'm like, bro, you have immaculate taste. 00:39:41 Speaker 1: Yeah. He really does. His taste is, like, timeless. Yes. 00:39:44 Speaker 3: Like, he gets what's dope. And he understands how to articulate things. why he likes what he likes and why he doesn't like what he doesn't like. And like, he's truly one of the best A & Rs I've ever been around. 00:39:58 Speaker 1: I am in full agreement. Yeah, bro. Yeah. So what's next for John Legend? 00:40:12 Speaker 3: Man, it's hard to see past this album because all I've been talking about is this album lately, but I'm working on two musicals for theater. 00:40:19 Speaker 1: So you're going back to Broadway. 00:40:20 Speaker 3: So this will be my first time writing for musical theater. 00:40:25 Speaker 1: Oh, you write them? Yeah. So I'm actually writing the full, every song, like every lyric, every melody. Yeah. 00:40:32 Speaker 3: Like for entire shows, which is insane. 00:40:35 Speaker 1: I'm sure. Yeah. It's like a lot. It takes a long time. 00:40:38 Speaker 3: Musical theater takes like, Minimum like four or five

years to develop. We've been working on this first show, Imitation of Life. It's going to be off Broadway at The Shed in New York. Is it taken from the movie, Imitation of Life? 00:40:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So our parents grew up on those movies. Come on, man. I know that movie. Two versions of it. And our parents have watched at least one of them. Yes. All that generation has seen it and they love it. 00:41:03 Speaker 3: And it's, you know, it's like emotional and like a lot of our parents' generation really knows it well. It started out as a book and it's been made as a movie twice. And our original director was like, man, I think this will be a beautiful musical. And she didn't know me at the time, but she met with Universal, who owns the intellectual property for it. And she was like, I really love Imitation of Life, but I have this vision of making it as a musical. And I want John Legend to write the music and Lynn Nottage, who's this Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. 00:41:34 Speaker 1: To write the book. 00:41:35 Speaker 3: So when you write a musical, it's a book writer and the music writer and then a director and the cast and everybody. 00:41:41 Speaker 1: So she had this vision of us doing it. 00:41:43 Speaker 3: She knew Lynn, but she didn't know me, but she just knew, you know, of me and found a way to get in touch with me. 00:41:50 Speaker 1: And it was during the pandemic. And I've been working on it since then. Yeah. And I was like, I ain't got shit going on. Like I can't tour. I'm at the house. I'm at the house. 00:42:00 Speaker 3: So I just would sit in my little piano room at home and write the songs. And we would do Zooms, you know, just like go over the content, talk about the outline of the show, go back and forth about what we wanted to say in each scene. And then I would just write the songs in my little piano room at home. And then the process for musical theater is, Once you have a rough draft, you start workshopping it. So workshopping means you're literally teaching the songs and the script to actors. And it's like a table read, basically. It starts that way. And then you start to stage it. You start to choreograph it and just see how it feels on its feet. And that process helps you figure out what's working and what's not. 00:42:45 Speaker 1: And so. 00:42:46 Speaker 3: more than any other project, I've revised the shit out of this show. It's like, I've been rewriting and we've changed opening songs like three times and I've rewritten so many songs, changed the lyric here, cut the lyric there, cut full songs that we just, they just didn't work anymore. Like, that process is very iterative and it's different than any other thing that I've done in the fact that, like, you're workshopping and workshopping. So we've done, like, five or six workshops. And now, finally, years later, it's going to be in the theater. And it's not even ready until it's on stage. 00:43:25 Speaker 1: But congratulations. Thank you. And that's exciting. So that's next. 00:43:29 Speaker 3: And then I have another show based on the life of Basquiat that I've been writing, too. 00:43:34 Speaker 1: Okay. So you didn't say, oh, I'm going to just do one, I'm going to do two. Well, I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the first time. 00:43:40 Speaker 3: And then we found out that these producers we were working with had been talking to Basquiat's two sisters, and they're in charge of his legacy now. So their father was before he passed away, and then he passed it on to his daughters. 00:43:58 Speaker 1: And so they're in charge of his legacy. 00:43:59 Speaker 3: And so these producers we were talking to, they were like, you know, we have the rights to develop a musical based on his life. We're in touch with the sisters. Would you be interested in writing the music for it? 00:44:10 Speaker 1: I was like, hell yeah. 00:44:12 Speaker 3: And I was enjoying the process of Imitation of Life so much, I was like, yeah, I could do it again. And obviously, it's just a special idea to be able to make something based on this iconic artist who's meant so much to the world. And so when that opportunity came up, I was like, hell yeah, I want to do it. And so I've been writing that, and we've got a rough draft of that show written fully now. We've workshopped it a couple times. And hopefully it'll be on the stage in like a year or two. 00:44:44 Speaker 1: Yeah. So for Muse, do you plan on touring? Yeah. I'm going to tour next year. Okay. Yeah. We're working on finalizing the dates now. Sell off is my joint, bro. Oh yeah. That's a true R & B joint. Sell off. Yeah. Pray for you. Yeah. Like, I'm like, oh yeah. Sell off is like, Vintage R & B. For sure. I can't get away from it. Yeah. I can't get away from that record. Yeah. 00:45:09 Speaker 3: That was one of the early ones we wrote. Next Time, Sail Off, Daylight. Those were some of the earliest ones. 00:45:15 Speaker 1: When you look at music now, you've done all these things, right? 00:45:19 Speaker 3: You've pivoted into so many different spaces and had great success. 00:45:23 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:45:24 Speaker 3: What keeps bringing you back to like, okay, I'm going to make another album? You wanted to have a purpose. Doing the Pharrell album felt like it was a new thing to do. 00:45:33 Speaker 1: And it was exciting to do. 00:45:35 Speaker 3: So you just want to feel like that it has something that is pulling you in, you know? Something that excites you, makes you feel challenged, pushes you to, like, do your best work. And this opportunity to collaborate with Pharrell was, like, a special moment. I was like, just the sound of it, just telling somebody, oh, John Legend's doing an album with Pharrell Williams. 00:45:59 Speaker 1: Like, oh, that's exciting. But. 00:46:01 Speaker 3: you still got to execute and like make it amazing to make it live up to the hype. And so part of the motivation was just like that pressure of like, Oh, if y'all going to do an

album together, it better be dope. 00:46:13 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:46:13 Speaker 3: And so I like that challenge. I like that feeling of this is the standard and you need to meet that standard. And so that pushes me. 00:46:21 Speaker 1: I love the album. Thank you. I've been listening to it nonstop, bro. 00:46:24 Speaker 3: I'm proud of it, man. I really like feel great about it. And I, I see how it is in the world now. Now it's been out for almost a week and I love how it is in the world too. 00:46:35 Speaker 1: Like I love seeing it alive. What's your favorite record? Do you have one? 00:46:39 Speaker 3: I love bodies on the floor. I love fireflies. I love her. And next time is like creeping up in my mind. And when I said, that's been creeping up in my top three or four list too. 00:46:53 Speaker 1: Yeah, man. So, you know, We got a special segment. 00:46:57 Speaker 3: Yeah, man. You warned me ahead of time. I haven't been thinking about it because I've been focused on each question. 00:47:02 Speaker 1: It's all good, man. You know? I'm going to find my way to your answers. 00:47:05 Speaker 3: When you come here, man, you know, we got a couple segments, man, that you just have to tell us what's on your mind. So, you know, our good brother Tank has sent something in for us. 00:47:13 Speaker 1: Okay, Tank. What you got? Yeah. Your top five. Yeah. Come on, Johnny. Tell them. Top five. 00:47:28 Speaker 3: R & B singing tank. Through the running. 00:47:31 Speaker 1: R & B singers. 00:47:32 Speaker 3: R & B songs. 00:47:42 Speaker 1: Here on this show. Everybody want to know. What they want to know. Your top five. This almost sounds like a Broadway song. I mean, he has been on Broadway. Top five. Your top five. Your top five. That's how you introduce a segment, sir. Yes, sir. So as the... Oh, hold on. He not done. No, he not done. He not done. He not done. Yes, take. 00:48:20 Speaker 3: So as the deacon himself has asked, we want to know here at the R & B Money Podcast, what are your top five singers and your top five R & B songs? 00:48:32 Speaker 1: Singers now. Top five R & B singers. 00:48:34 Speaker 3: Are we talking specifically about their singing ability? 00:48:38 Speaker 1: Whatever John Legend says. 00:48:40 Speaker 3: Or them as full artists, like songwriting, artistry, everything. 00:48:45 Speaker 1: That's up to you. Because that's a different question. 00:48:47 Speaker 3: If you want to give descriptions of why you named the people, that's on you. Because a version of the singer's list is different than a version of the artist's list. 00:48:57 Speaker 1: So I could do both. Come on. Listen, man, I'm hanging out with you. Yeah. 00:49:01 Speaker 3: You got time, I got time. So singers-wise, I would say... my top five, R & B. And I'm making it R & B, like it has to be people that are primarily. 00:49:12 Speaker 1: Known to sing R & B. I'm going to say Marvin Gaye. Yes, sir. I'm going to say Whitney. Yes. I'm going to say Luther. I'm going to say Stevie. Okay. Four. And Aretha. Amen. There's no fighting that list. Yeah. Now, artists. Okay. 00:49:39 Speaker 3: I wouldn't put Whitney on that list because there are other artists that I connect with more. But I think, bar none, she's one of the greatest singers to ever grace the earth. 00:49:49 Speaker 1: Absolutely. 00:49:50 Speaker 3: So I would change the list for the artists. Stevie would still be on there. Marvin would still be on there. Aretha would still be on there. So that's three. I wouldn't put Luther. 00:50:01 Speaker 1: Artists. Okay. I'd put him as a singer. You got three. 00:50:05 Speaker 4: We need two more R & B artists on your top five. 00:50:09 Speaker 1: I'm going to say Donny Hathaway. I was just on a plane with Layla. I've been on a plane with Layla, too. She sat right in front of me. We was talking. Told you I fly commercial most of the time. That's four. Who's my fifth? Roberta Flack. Wow. That's a great five, too. Artists. Artists. Yeah. Okay. High five R & B song. Come on. 00:50:42 Speaker 3: Come on, song man. You got all the songs. I'm going to say Eyes by Stevie. That goes on like all my GOAT lists. 00:50:49 Speaker 1: Stevie. He is who he is. 00:50:52 Speaker 3: I got to pick something by Smokey. Or like, like the, I think Cruisin'. Yeah. Yeah, Cruisin'. Because it's like enduring. Covers are dope. Like, every version of it is dope. 00:51:08 Speaker 1: That's just a great, great, great, great record. Great song. Great copyright. So that's two. 00:51:14 Speaker 3: As and Cruisin'. I'm trying to think of the great songwriters and then what my favorite of them is. A song for you. Does that count as an R & B song? Because it's like the... I'm counting. What was the original version? Wasn't it like a white artist that did it originally? 00:51:29 Speaker 1: Well, we at the R & B Money Podcast. That is a Donny Hathaway classic. That's right. Ray Charles did a great version, too, speaking of R & B. Yes. Yeah, so I'm going to say a song for you. A song for you. Okay. That's three. You know what? 00:51:45 Speaker 3: We're throwing ordinary people in there. 00:51:46 Speaker 1: Fuck it. Why not? Fuck it. Why not? Fuck it. Fuck it. Okay. Ordinary people. So that's four. Yeah. I need one more. X Factor, Lauryn Hill. 00:51:56 Speaker 2: Oh. 00:52:00 Speaker 1: I feel good about that list. Incredible. I feel good about that list. Okay. Now you got to build your Voltron. Your R & B Voltron. Yeah. Superhero. 00:52:12 Speaker 3: So the voice of this person, the... The voice, stage performance, styling. 00:52:19 Speaker 1: Styling. 00:52:20 Speaker 4: Clothes the drip who can put the fly shit on and who's got the most passion like you got to put this all together so who's who's our voice personally i would go with marvin gaye for the voice because i feel like he has the perfect r & b voice like it's soulful it's silky it's sexy. 00:52:42 Speaker 1: When it needs to be but he can growl and do all that. 00:52:45 Speaker 3: When it

needs to his range is like A perfect range. 00:52:49 Speaker 1: Sounds good on every record. 00:52:50 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:52:50 Speaker 1: It sounds like, just like magical on every record. Yes. 00:52:53 Speaker 3: I would say his voice is like the ideal soul voice to me. 00:52:58 Speaker 1: Agreed. Marvin Gaye. And honestly, his stage presence is drip. All of it. Like, I wouldn't be mad if he was just Marvin Gaye. 00:53:08 Speaker 3: But, you know, like obviously other guys can like dance and do the things like MJ, like obviously, like, Chris Brown, cats that can truly dance. 00:53:18 Speaker 1: But I don't really go to a show to see people dance. You know what I'm saying? I respect it. But you pull up for the vocals. 00:53:26 Speaker 3: I pull up for the music, including the vocals, the arrangements, the beauty of the arrangements. But I have so much respect for guys who can dance because I can't. and like it's such a skill like at least you know some people don't know they can't dance like you watch Chris dance oh yeah that brother can dance like truly and it's like that can't be taught and it's amazing to watch it because they're truly gifted at what they do and like you learn steps but you don't have that innate ability to just be as limber and as like And have the swag and, like, everything that he has. 00:54:04 Speaker 1: Like, it's amazing. Absolutely. 00:54:06 Speaker 3: I respect it, but it's not my, it's not what I go to a show to see, but I'm impressed by it. 00:54:12 Speaker 1: Right. So, whose stage performance, though? You still didn't give me one. 00:54:17 Speaker 3: Honestly, I'm, like, I'm not mad at just giving it all to Marvin because, like, he had the swag. 00:54:22 Speaker 1: He was sexy. Like, and his fashion in the era that he was in. All right. It was all that. Yeah. Yeah. It was everything. Are you going with him for the passion too? Yeah. Why not? So all things Marvin Gaye. Yeah. Okay. I feel like he's the ideal R & B artist. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. For me. Yeah. 00:54:43 Speaker 3: He's like the blueprint, the role model as far as all that goes. But I also say that Stevie Wonder is the greatest solo artist of all time because of the songwriting. 00:54:55 Speaker 1: You can't argue it. And I like to argue. You know what I mean? Because my greatest artist, obviously, is Michael Jackson. Yeah. 00:55:04 Speaker 3: I'm rolling with Mike. But when you bring in the songwriting side. 00:55:10 Speaker 1: And the longevity of the songwriting. 00:55:12 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:55:13 Speaker 1: Like, he was making dope records since the 60s. Yes. And still is making records, still touring. Yeah. 00:55:22 Speaker 3: I believe he's the greatest solo artist of any genre of all time. That's been my contention for years now. I can't argue with your mama. 00:55:31 Speaker 5: I don't think you got to argue with your mama. 00:55:42 Speaker 1: Your mom's with me. Johnny's right. It's Stevie. Okay. We got one more segment for you. One more segment for you. I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names. I ain't saying no names. 00:56:01 Speaker 3: We was. 00:56:02 Speaker 1: We with. What you did. Don't say shit. I ain't saying no names. He's delivering the runs. He always got the extra run. Always. It's out of his mind. Okay. 00:56:22 Speaker 3: This segment, very important, very, very, very important segment. Called I Ain't Saying No Names. 00:56:28 Speaker 1: I ain't saying no names. 00:56:29 Speaker 3: Will you tell us a story, funny or fucked up, or funny and fucked up? The only rule to the game, John Legend himself, the man, can't say no names. Well, I was talking about how all these major executives didn't want to sign me. 00:56:51 Speaker 1: Man, I don't have a really, like, truly funny story. I mean, like I said, it's funny or fucked up. I feel bad, especially after that intro. Thank you. Put your foot in that intro. Now I ain't got no story to live up to it. Well, man, you done been around the world. You done been on tour. Yeah. You done been in sessions. I don't have nothing crazy. You done sang for people. It didn't go right. 00:57:18 Speaker 3: One story that stands out to me is We met with this legendary executive. 00:57:24 Speaker 1: With a great ear, with a great track record. 00:57:28 Speaker 3: And I was brought to this executive by another great executive. I'm in there with Kanye, John Monopoly, good music crew brought me in. We thought we were going to have a great meeting. And the executive was like, no, I don't hear anything. I don't hear any hits. Songs aren't there. Um, And I like took umbrage. I was like in the meeting, like kind of pissed off. 00:57:56 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. 00:57:56 Speaker 3: That this person didn't get it. So I started arguing with the shit. And this is, this is the first demo. 00:58:04 Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the first demo. This is basically get lifted though. 00:58:07 Speaker 3: It was like, it was essentially, but without ordinary people, which I said before, cause that wasn't on the demo. I didn't write it until I got signed, but I basically started arguing with the executive and, Like, you're wrong. 00:58:18 Speaker 1: You have no idea what good music is. Basically, you know, I'm so mild-mannered. So the idea of me even arguing with... You just had enough. Yeah. I was like, no, you're wrong. 00:58:28 Speaker 3: And then I started stating my case like I was going to convince this person if they didn't hear it to begin with. 00:58:36 Speaker 1: And they didn't. 00:58:37 Speaker 3: And I still remember that argument. And I'll still run into this executive now. And we'll bring it up. 00:58:46 Speaker 1: Oh, you do? Yeah. And we just laugh about it. 00:58:50 Speaker 3: But has this executive ever admitted just flat out like, you know, bro, I was wrong. 00:58:57 Speaker 1: Not really. 00:59:01 Speaker 3: So they said something like, ah, you know, you win some, you lose some. I've said before, I feel like it happens for a reason, though, because you think they're wrong. and maybe they are wrong, but you don't want to go to a place unless they completely get it. 00:59:15 Speaker 1: Unless they get it. If they don't completely get it, then you're going to be on the shelf. Yeah. 00:59:20 Speaker 3: And I was so lucky that by the time I got signed, Columbia felt a sense of urgency. 00:59:25 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:59:26 Speaker 3: And like I said, Kanye had just blown up and, They were like, this crew is hot. Let's strike while the iron's hot. And my album came out seven months later. And Cats will get signed and sit on the shelf for years. And so the fact that it happened when it did was why I had an album out seven months later. 00:59:46 Speaker 1: I had a single out like four months later. 00:59:48 Speaker 3: Did this executive try to come back when y'all got hot? Or no, they never came back. 00:59:53 Speaker 1: It was too late. Yeah, it was too late. Yeah. 00:59:58 Speaker 3: Legendary exec. I run into this person. I've been to events honoring this person. 01:00:06 Speaker 1: I got a feeling I know who it is. Oh, I got a feeling I know who it is. We'll discuss afterwards. When the cameras are on. No, we won't. Because they're going to be in my DMs. Jay, we know. You better tell us. Nope, nope, nope. He leaving. He not telling me nothing. I don't know nothing. I ain't saying no names. 01:00:26 Speaker 3: Man, thank you, bro. Thanks for having me. This has been great. I love that this show exists and y'all do great work. And I've seen some of the conversations y'all had before. And it's such a great thing for the culture. And like, we need R & B shit, you know? 01:00:41 Speaker 2: Yeah. 01:00:42 Speaker 3: Because I feel like black music is so hip hop, you know? And it's nice that we have our own space. 01:00:48 Speaker 1: Yeah. 01:00:48 Speaker 4: And listen, I tell people all the time, man, everybody's life has the rhythm and the blues. 01:00:53 Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what I mean? So we all R & B. Yeah. Like it or not. It's us. It's our music. Yeah. It's our culture, man. Like I said, bro, thank you for pulling up. Yes, sir. Muse is out right now. Y'all go get that. Yes, sir. 01:01:08 Speaker 4: This has been the R & B Money Podcast. I'm Jay Valentine. This is John Legend. John Legend in the building. 01:01:15 Speaker 1: I'll see y'all next week. 01:01:16 Speaker 3: And Tank is a ghost haunting us. Haunting us with his runs from afar. What if Deacon Men's Quartet runs? What if Deacon Quartet runs?