When John Legend first popped on the scene almost 10 years ago (man…time flies) I was one of dude’s biggest fans. Money was on some neo soul ish (I’ve ALWAYS hated that word btw) but with Kanye behind the boards he also had that hip hop boom bap backing him too, which is one of the many reasons I loved his debut alum “Get Lifted.” When “Once Again” dropped it’s like his sound completely changed. Gone was the samples and boom bap and up to the plate was this “Sammy Davis singing a the Flamingo lounge in Vegas” sound and while a lot of folk I knew weren’t feeling it, I messed with it. Not as much as “Get Lifted” but being a producer myself, I always try (the key word is try) to give artists enough rope to try out new stuff before they hang themselves with me. But by the time his 3rd album “Evolver” came out, all of a sudden outta no where, I stopped rocking with dude and to be honest, I have no idea why. I LOVED his first single “Green Light” with Andre 3000 but to this day I never heard the album…and I still have no urge to hear it. So it’s simple math to assume that if I didn’t wanna check “Evolver” that I wouldn’t be checking for his new album “Love In The Future.” Which would be a correct assumption…if I didn’t see his video for “Who Do We Think We Are” with Rick Ross while I was flipping channels and was stuck on stupid. Now THIS sounded like the “Get Lifted” John Legend that I rocked with and if this was a sign of what’s to come from “Love In The Future” then I’m all in again.
The Hit Boy produced “The Beginning” sets the album off lovely cause as soon as those drums drop, this takes you right back to the “Get Lifted” John Legend. “Open Your Eyes” has Legend covering Bobby Coldwell’s song that Common help make famous while “Made To Love” has a Kanye “Love Lockdown” feel to it. “All of Me” is classic John Legend, the 88 Keys produced “Hold On Longer” has Stevie Wonder written all over it and “Save The Night” is a straight banger. “Wanna Be Loved” and “Dreams” are both real dope but I’m blown that Joe Jonas (from the Jonas brothers) co wrote “Dreams” with John. When I peeped the credits I felt like Eddie Murphy’s pop in Raw when he was asking Ed what was he doing with Danny Terio cause I'm like why the hell is John Legend hanging around Joe Jonas? John and Stacey Barth both do enough justice to one of my fave Anita Baker songs “Angel” enough that I wish it was a full song and not just an interlude. “Asylum” has John telling his shorty that he’ll go crazy with her and Hit Boy helps close the album the same way he set it off with “So Gone.” But my favorite song on the album is the same song that made me start checking for Legend again in the first place, which is the Bink (one of the most slept on producers who should be a household name like Just Blaze which would only be right since Just basically stole Bink’s ENTIRE sound) produced “Who Do We Think We Are.”
So the million dollar question is after listening to “Love In The Future” am I checking for money again? And the answer is simply no doubt! This dude has officially worked his way back on my radar. Like I said earlier, I honestly don’t know what made me stop messing with dude but “Love…” help remind me just how dope Legend is. In fact, after chilling with “Love…” for a minute, I’m actually gonna go diggin’ and finally listen to that “Evolver” album cause I MAY (the key word is may) have missed out on some dope music while I was sleeping on a legend.
4 outta 5
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