In America we have big issues with education - in impoverished communities especially. I work with Teach For All, and so we're encouraging more people to get into teaching.
John LegendRead
The main focus for me is not trying to find duet partners. It's about just making great songs. I want most of my album to be in my voice because it's my point of view.
Interpretation
John Legend emphasizes the importance of creating quality music rather than simply collaborating with other artists.
In this quote, John Legend expresses that his primary goal in music is to prioritize the creation of impressive songs that reflect his personal perspective. He values his individuality and aims to showcase his unique voice, focusing less on collaborations and more on the authenticity of his art.
In practice
In a speech about the creative process, this quote can inspire musicians to prioritize their unique sound.
In America we have big issues with education - in impoverished communities especially. I work with Teach For All, and so we're encouraging more people to get into teaching.
Hip-hop is one of the most free art forms there is. There's so many sounds you can use, so many things you can bring in. You never know, man. I bet years ago people would've never said they would hear me with Rick Ross, and we did four classic songs together.
For me as a songwriter, I love when other people cover my songs.
To have the chance to see your music be elevated and to have almost universally positive response to that music, makes me feel better every day. I feel more confident and inspired, and that's fun.
Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?
I wrote the song "Show Me" as a prayer to God asking simple, honest questions about life and death and why there is so much suffering in the world. As I grew with the song I realized I shouldn't limit these questions solely to God; I should ask those questions of others and of myself.
When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.
It was stumbling on to really the bible of the blues, you know, and a very powerful drug to be introduced to us and I absorbed it totally, and it changed my complete outlook on music.
This has not changed: always like the first time, very, very nervous. But when the music begins, you are in the music, it's a sort of transformation. Your feeling for the music is greater and has nothing to do with your nerves. You go out of yourself.
We may be sure that a genius like Mozart, were he born today, would write concertos like Chopin and not like Mozart.
The Blues are the true facts of life expressed in words and song, inspiration, feeling, and understanding.
It's not easy to play in a framework that requires simplicity and to tastefully find ways to interject the kind of freedom that we have in playing jazz.
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