Kanye West shared a screenshot of a text message he received from John Legend yesterday that saw the singer tell Kanye to reconsider aligning himself with Donald Trump. Ye responded thanking John for reaching out, accusing John of using a "tactic" to manipulate his "free thought." Amid the public sharing of the personal text message to Kanye's millions of followers, John has called into Hot 97 to chat with Ebro in the Morning to explain his reasoning for the text message and more.
"I was shocked when it happened, but then I said 'well, I'm proud of what I said,'" the "All of Me" singer tells Ebro. "At least I didn't say anything I didn't want other people to know I thought. [...] I didn't mind it after I thought about it for a second."
"Racism isn't just some abstract thing you talk about but it has actual effects on human beings when they're deporting people, when they're banning certain countries from coming to our country, when they're calling certain countries shitholes and making immigration policy that's based on that kind of bigotry," he says in the video below. John says Donald not only has terrible values, but he implements them into policies that effects people he cares about.
"When Kanye talks about Trump, I feel like he's thinking about him as more of a marketing triumph. I think he sees certain aspects of himself in Trump, like how brash he is and how he don't give a fuck and nobody believed he was guna win. And with a simple message like MAGA he defied all the odds and beat the establishment. I think that's appealing to Kanye."
Hear John talk at the two-minute mark.