Page 96 - Sharp Winter 2023

FULL LOOK BY GUCCI.
“People ask me that about my political views, too. Do I feel like I need to be more careful? I feel like it’s liberating to tell my truth.”
the double album as a form is more fluid in the age of streaming, where fans make their own playlists and listen at their own pace. Once the prized young collaborator of artists such as Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, and Alicia Keys, the now-seasoned Legend sounds most excited about the prospects of hosting the work of other musicians himself, citing the tracks with Muni Long, Saweetie, and Rick Ross as some of the album’s highlights.
Although Legend is energized by bouncing ideas off other artists — “I never felt like I left it,” he says about collaboration during the socially distanced phase of the pandemic — the material on Legend often feels personal. On “Pieces” he thinks of grief as a teacher, evoking his and partner Chrissy Teigen’s public mourning following the loss of their stillborn child. Then there’s “Wonder Woman,” a devotional hymn, with a video that prominently features Teigen. Does it cost him more to be personal at this stage in his career, given how much people think they know about his and Teigen’s lives? “I think it’s easier, honestly,” he counters. “People ask me that about my political views, too. Do I feel like I need to be more careful? I feel like it’s liberating to tell my truth.”
In recent months, telling his truth saw Legend direct his attention on social media to the recent midterm elections. Though plenty of political artists focus their philanthropy and activism on the bigger picture of the Senate or the House, Legend went smaller, doing his part to spotlight local district attorney races, which he sees as the best pathway to create a restorative society.
“A lot of what I want to do is educate people,” he says, occasionally slipping into second-person plural as he explains the purpose behind his tweets, like a politician speaking earnestly of his grassroots campaign. “A lot of people didn’t know who their district attorney was, didn’t spend a lot of time and energy focused on what they did and how their policies affected everyone’s lives in their communities. Part of what we’ve done is raise awareness that district attorneys matter, and that ending mass incarceration is a goal we should look toward. Once we educate people about that and they start paying
attention to who their district attorneys are, then they can make their own decisions about what policies and what direction they think their community should go in.”
The expectation that artists of his stature should “shut up and sing,” as critics once said of The Chicks, is not unfamiliar to Legend, who’s been in his fair share of Twitter skirmishes. But the calculus is different, he thinks, for someone with a direct investment in and lived experience of the causes he amplifies online. “I think a lot of it comes from being a Black man in America,” he says, gesturing to a broader tradition of Black activism in the arts. “I think we feel the stakes more than a lot of other communities feel them. We have been victims of bad policy in the United States for so long that we care a lot about politics. We care a lot about fighting for justice in the political realm. We’ve seen the effects that racist policy has had on our communities for centuries. I think we feel a special sense of responsibility and a special sense of urgency when it comes to how these political issues affect our lives and our families’ lives.”
Legend emphasizes that mass incarceration is not an academic problem for him as a Black man in America, even one with his degree of wealth, fame, and security. He sees his championing of marginalized communities as the fulfilment of his own personal legacy. “I wrote an essay when I was 15 that said I wanted to become a successful musician and use my platform to help my community,” he says. “I’m going to continue to do that. It’s rooted in who I am, rooted in where I come from, and rooted in my knowledge that these things are not just academic: they affect real people’s lives. And I don’t feel removed from those communities who are dealing with these issues, despite the fact that I’ve achieved some success and some fame and some fortune.”
Hearing him speak this softly of his accomplishments, it’s easy to forget that Legend is American industry royalty, having scored the coveted quartet of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony — the first winner to do so in four consecutive years. With the exception of the Grammys, he confesses a bit sheepishly, he pulled off this
96 WINTER 2023
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