The big bombshell he dropped, however, was revealing that Kanye West has stopped banging out the beats and instead enlists others to do his some of his heavy lifting.
To be fair, Legend didn’t dump on Yeezy as if he’s not involved in the music making process. The singer clarified his statements; he was careful to mention that West is still very much a producer and stating they remain close creative collaborators.
“He doesn’t really make beats anymore,” shared Legend. “But he suggests beats to write to. He has all these young producers coming through and he just curates it and just helps put the album together. He helps write songs, he curates the beat selection, all that, song selection and helps with the videos.”
Legend was clear in restating the West is still hands on, after a flabbergasted Charlamagne balked at the news. Legend even added that West will still “tweak” the beats himself but he’s not involved in all stages of the track as once before.
“We think of production as making beats, but production is the vision and Kanye is a producer in a classic sense, that’s how Quincy Jones was,” added Legend.
John Legend’s upcoming album Love In The Future is slated to drop June 25.
Hop to the 3:50 mark to get to the Kanye West portion of the interview.