John Legend

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• Genre: Neo-Soul
• Hometown: Springfield
• John Legend Website

About

An accomplished singer, musician, songwriter and producer, John Legend has been making music of one kind or another since his early childhood. Influenced by a musical family active in the church, the young Legend embraced gospel, classic soul and hip-hop, and the fusion of all three epitomizes his unique sound. He performed and recorded with various groups as well as a solo artist while attending college in Philadelphia and subsequently became seriously involved with the area's neo-soul explosion of the late 1990s. His first major break came from erstwhile Fugee Lauryn Hill, when he played piano on her megahit single "Everything Is Everything." Since then, he has recorded with a virtual Who's Who of R&B and hip-hop superstars including Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Janet Jackson. But it was Kanye West who really put him on the map, recruiting him to play and sing on the multiplatinum album The College Dropout, then signing him to his production company KonMan Entertainment, which in turn lead to a deal with Columbia Records. After releasing several self-made CDs to sell at concerts, he dropped his highly anticipated major label debut Get Lifted in early 2005. Executive produced by Kanye, with a laundry list of top-shelf collaborators, the album - and John Legend himself - is guaranteed to be huge.

- Brolin Winning