John Legend

Every major label passed on him in the early 2000s, including the ones that signed him later. The door opened because his college roommate was Kanye's cousin, which got him in front of Kanye right as The College Dropout was being made. GOOD Music signed him first, and Kanye executive-produced Get Lifted, released December 28, 2004. The three Grammys he swept that year, including Best New Artist, were for a sound the industry had already decided wasn't commercially viable.

In 2018 he became the first Black man to complete an EGOT, adding the Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert at age 39. That's the trophy shelf. The day-to-day is as much about politics as music: he founded the #FreeAmerica criminal justice reform campaign, called Trump a 'dyed-in-the-wool racist' at Democratic rallies, and rarely stays quiet. Currently touring in an intimate 'songs and stories' format for Get Lifted's 20th anniversary, which is an artist in legacy mode who doesn't feel the need to apologize for it.

His real name is John Roger Stephens. His mother homeschooled him; he skipped two grades, graduated high school at 16 as salutatorian, turned down Harvard and Georgetown for UPenn (magna cum laude), then took a job at Boston Consulting Group while performing at New York clubs on the side. The name came from poet J. Ivy, who called him 'John Legend' because of his old-school sound. Kanye picked it up until it stuck. He was reluctant to take a stage name at all, which tells you something about a man who has always been more strategist than showman.