Released: November 2, 2020

Pennsylvania! Some of you know I spent my formative years right here at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm a proud Penn alum, but don't hold me responsible for the behavior of all of our alumni. Some of them, you know, they slipped through the cracks.

Anyway, we've got to get down to business Philly. Tomorrow, Pennsylvania will determine not only who becomes the next President, but who we are as a county. This has been a difficult year. So many of us have experienced pain and struggle and loss. We've lost friends and family members, jobs and paychecks. Just last week we lost another black man, Walter Wallace Jr., right here in Philadelphia, to police violence. A man with mental health needs, who just like so many other Americans wasn't able to get the care he needed.

So yes, we've lost a lot, but Philadelphia, what we haven't lost is our ability to decide what happens next. In this election, you vote will decide whether we're a country that allows this pandemic to continue indefinitely or one with a plan to end it. A country where the president can go to court to kick 20 million people off of their healthcare or one where healthcare is a right for all Americans. A country where the president actively encourages police brutality and cannot bring himself to condemn white supremacists or neo-Nazis or one where we hold our police accountable and begin to root out the systemic racism in our society. A country that is small, mean, selfish, and divided or a country that is big, generous, kind, and decent. A country where we remember that while we may have different politics and different beliefs, we are all Americans. And that's why I already voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Joe Biden will be a president who doesn't take pleasure in dividing us, but one who works hard to bring us together in common cause and common effort, a president guided not by wishful thinking, but by belief in science and a commitment to justice.

Now, some people see the meanness, the bullying, the selfishness of Donald Trump and they mistake it for strength, a kind of twisted masculinity. Some see his greed and they mistake it for being good at business. Some of your former favorite rappers have been taken in by these lies. I think they've even founded a new supergroup. It's called the Sunken Place.

But Trump's Platinum Plan for black folks is nothing but fool's gold because you can't bank on a word he says. Ask the students of Trump University. Ask all of the contractors he stiffed. Ask the people his charity was supposed to help before it was shut down for being a fraud. Ask all the black and brown Americans who are dying from this virus and losing their jobs under his watch. The president isn't strong. He's a coward and his career in business and in government has been failure after failure after failure.

We need a president we can trust. That's the kind of president Joe Biden will be. And he won't only reverse the damage of the last four years, hand in hand with Senator Kamala Harris, they will build back a better economy and country than ever before. But Joe can not do this alone. He needs your help, and tomorrow he needs your vote.

Go to iwillvote.com right now to find your polling place and figure out where, when, and how you're casting your ballot if you haven't done it. And if you've already voted, make sure your friends and family members have a plan to do the same thing. Remember you have two options in Pennsylvania, you can vote in person tomorrow between 7 AM and 8PM or you can deliver your mail in ballot in person-in person, don't put it in the mail-in person- to one of the drop boxes or election offices located in your county by tomorrow at 8 PM. And make sure you read and follow the instructions. Put the ballot in a small envelope. Don't be caught out there naked. Then put the whole thing in the big envelope and sign it. That's the only way it will count.

Remember the other side would not be trying so hard to stop you from voting if they weren't so scared of what your vote could do. Don't let them take away your vote. Don't let them take away your voice. Philadelphia we have the power to put an end to this nightmare. If we win this state, then Donald Trump will be gone and Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. This is more than an election. As Joe says, "it's a battle for the soul of our nation." And together, with our voices and with our votes, we will win.

John Legend

John Legend was born in 1978 in Ohio. He became an in-demand session musician and songwriter, working with such artists as Alicia Keys, Twista and Janet Jackson. He was soon introduced to up-and-coming hip-hop artist Kanye West, and the two musicians collaborated on one another’s demos.

J. Ivy claims credit for bestowing the “Legend” moniker upon John Stephens (with an assist from Kanye West). Via

Kanye was like, ‘Have you heard of this singer called John Stephens?’ He played me this song from him, that I think will.i.am produced. It was so refreshing and soulful. An hour later, John Stephens comes into the studio. I told him, ‘I heard your music. It’s so amazing. It sounds old school. Man, you sound like one of the legends. You’re a legend. Matter of fact, that’s what I am going to call you from now The Legend. A couple days later, we were in the lounge of the studio (Record Plant) and John Stephens walks in and everyone shouts him out. I was like, ‘John Legend!’ Kanye then said, ‘You’re John Legend from now on. That’s your name!’”