Thursday, May 12, 2005

John is a legend

I just came back from home from the John Legend concert at the metro. It was awesome. Dude is talented. Like a male version of Alicia Keys, playing the piano whilst singing sweet soulful-rnb-neo soul-gospel inspired tracks. I don't know that much about him so maybe the text below gives a nice intro into the next RNB superstar (dj ho called it here first! - although his album did debut at number 5 on the American Billboard charts) and is backed by Kayne West.

"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. "

- Rolling stone.

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