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The young singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist John Legend is a genuine piece of R&B talent. The musician has released a string of best-selling singles, as well as helping out on hits by other members of the hip hop community like Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys. The Ohio-born Legend credits his family with instilling an enduring love of gospel music and hymns in him at an early age. At age 4 he began playing classical piano, and he was taking solos in his church choir by the time he was 6. The academically-minded Legend excelled in high school and college and founded a co-ed a capella ensemble while attending the University of Pennsylvania. Initially John Legend saw himself as a businessman, and he took a job with a consulting agency in Boston. But he moonlighted as a singer and pianist, releasing an independent series of Live At records recorded in different East Coast clubs. Luckily for the music business, Legend's roommate Devon Harris was cousins with the rising hip hop star Kanye West. Legend and West were both trying to shake off the stereotypical "thug" image prevalent in African American hip hop and R&B and a fruitful musical partnership and friendship was born. Legend sang many of the call-response hooks on Kanye's breakout College Dropout and West created smooth beats for Legend's studio debut Get Lifted. Sophisticated piano singles like "Used to Love U" and "Ordinary People" caught the attention of radio listeners everywhere, and John Legend also forged a reputation as a go-to man for chorus hooks-he's sang backup for everyone from Jay-Z and Dilated Peoples to Ray Charles and The Black Eyed Peas.

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