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"The industry's latest "legend" -- John Legend, actually -- reveals that from the age of five or six, he expected to be 'discovered."
“I used to watch Michael Jackson on television and I figured I could do what he was doing." Music has been the central theme in the life of John Legend (born John Stephens) for as long as he can remember and now, some twenty-odd years later, this multi-talented singer, songwriter, musician, arranger and producer is fulfilling his childhood dreams and ambitions."
"John's patience paid off: through his college roommate and collaborator Devo Harris, he met Kanye West (Harris's cousin), who was emerging as a hitmaking producer for acts like Jay-Z and Scarface and an artist in his own right (via the now best-selling album The College Dropout). "I first met Kanye after he came to see one of my shows," Legend recalls. "It took a while for us to start working together. The first time was when he had me come in to sing hooks on a couple of the songs that eventually made the College Dropout album. Then he gave me some beats to write to for my demo. After about an hour and a half of writing, I came back with a song called 'Do What I Gotta Do,' based on a beat that sampled Aretha's 'Til You Come Back To Me.' He played that first song for a bunch of people and they all loved it, so we started working together more and more."
Hollywood is filled with "arranged" situations!