His lead vocals on the group's recording of Joan Osborne's " One of Us" (written by fellow Penn alum Eric Bazilian of the Hooters) received critical acclaim, landing the song on the track list of the 1998 Best of Collegiate a Cappella compilation CD. Legend was also a member of the Sphinx Senior Society and Onyx Senior Honor Society. While in college, Legend was introduced to Lauryn Hill by a friend. Hill hired him to play piano on " Everything Is Everything", a song from her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English with an emphasis on African-American literature in 1999. Career Career beginnings Īfter graduating from college, Legend worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and began producing, writing, and recording his own music. He released two albums independently: his self-titled demo (2000) and Live at Jimmy's Uptown (2001), which he sold at his shows. He subsequently began working on his demo and began sending his work to various record labels. In 2001, Devo Springsteen introduced Legend to Kanye West, then an up-and-coming hip-hop artist Legend was hired to sing during the hooks of West's music. After signing to West's label, he chose his stage name from an idea that was given to him by poet J. Ivy, due to what he perceived as an "old-school sound".
Ivy stated, "I heard your music and it reminds me of that music from the old school. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm going to call you from now on! I'm going to call you John Legend." After J. Ivy continued to call him by the new moniker "John Legend", others quickly caught on, including Kanye West.
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