John Legend

If you're gonna call yourself "Legend" you'd best have the goods to back up the boast. Well, you can bet that the former child prodigy John Stephens has done his adopted moniker proud, proving over and over since his multiple-GRAMMY®-winning 2004 debut — with its anything-but-everyday single "Ordinary People" — that he has talent, imagination, and soul to spare. It shines in each one of our John Legend Basics, from "Let's Get Lifted," the neo-soul love song with a smooth retro boost; to the golden-age flavor of his slow-jam special "Slow Dance"; to the inspirational call-to-action (and unofficial Obama anthem) "If You're Out There."

More music from a Legend awaits in Next Steps.

It's the mark of a true artist — the sort of restless creativity that moves John Legend to explore the outer reaches of his talent in everything from the tricky tempos of the modern R&B beauty "Show Me," to the glorious gospel spirit of "It Don't Have to Change (Featuring The Stephens Family)," to the super-funky surprise of a live cover of Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House." Fact is, when you radiate that kind of genius, others want to get next to it — others like country giants Big & Rich, who enlist Legend for the soul-soaked country-pop ballad "Eternity."

If John Legend's stage name points to the hand of destiny in his own success, it also hints at the icons who inspire this new-school soul superstar. He was barely out of his teens when the likes of Janet Jackson and Kanye West were recruiting the former child prodigy as a go-to session guy; and when Legend finally went solo, sensual stunners like "Stay With You" brought comparisons to such storied artists as Marvin, Curtis, and Stevie. Legend may keep those forefathers close to his musical heart, but he's too busy loving up his own muse to be anything but an individual, one who's as happy getting "Selfish" with Slum Village and hip-hop god West as he is grooving on the warm, bluesy feel of "Sun Comes Up" and the mythic proportions of the epic pop declaration "This Time."