John Legend Clarifies That Kanye West Friendship Melted Down Over Rapper’s Failed Presidential Run

John Legend is speaking out once again about his split with former friend/producer Kanye West, seeking to clarify some comments he made last month about what caused the rift between the former collaborators. In a New Yorker profile the outspoken social justice advocate described how he thought friendships should not be determined by “who they voted for,” but that “certain things you believe in are indicators of your character, and obviously that will affect your friendships.”

That was a lead-in to a discussion about Ye (as West is now known) posting a series of texts between the two about Kanye’s support of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump before the Donda rapper launched his own failed White House bid; Legend sought to clarify that his comments about the rupture in the August CNN story were taken out of context.

“The story was that we had stopped being friends after he supported Trump. This was a mischaracterization. Legend explained. “That was kind of the Rupert Murdoch version of the story — it was all over the New York Post and Fox News.” However, what Legend told the New Yorker was that West was upset with him for not supporting the MC’s presidential aspirations. He said that this was what caused us to have a strain in our friendship. “I don’t know what the future holds, but he was very upset that I didn’t support him and that I supported Joe Biden. He will have to decide if he can get over that .”

.

In addition to their difference of opinion about West’s support of Trump, Legend also said that the most distressing part of Ye’s anemic presidential run — in which he scored just 60,000 total votes — were reports that it was essentially a ghost operation to amplify Trump’s unsuccessful re-election run. Legend said that the most frustrating part of Ye’s run for the Presidency was the fact that Trump and his GOP establishment were supporting the no-shot third-party bid to siphon votes from Biden.

“I don’t know how aware he was of the fact that there was so much Trump personnel throughout his campaign, raising money for him, getting petitions signed for him, getting him on the ballot. Legend stated that he saw their work on his behalf to be a clear scam and an attempt to siphon Black votes away form Biden. “Kanye was upset about that, and we haven’t been friends since, .”

As for his feelings about West posting those screenshots of their text back-and-forth in 2018, Legend said, “Everyone saw how I talked to him about it. I spoke to him with love, empathy, and tried my best to help him see things from a different perspective. He did as he was told.” At press time, West’s spokesperson could not be reached for comment.