John Legend

Does it take a genius to be an R&B star? Well, maybe. Meet John Legend, former consultant for the elite Boston Consulting Group, friend of Kanye West and the real thing. Really.

A piano player at age three, John Stephen graduated high school at the top of his class before going to the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania to study literature by day and perform popular covers of Prince songs by night. It was a pattern he continued after college, working as a high-powered consultant in New York and Boston while moonlighting as an R&B artist, until the stars aligned and his former college roommate, producer Devo Springsteen, hooked him up with Springsteen's cousin, the then up-and-coming Kanye West.

A year later, West signed Legend to his Sony Music-backed G.O.O.D. Music label which subsequently released his Platinum certified and Grammy award-winning debut Get Lifted. On this and his follow-up Once Again, Legend's performances and lyrics bring a grace and confidence unheard of in pop music since Stevie Wonder made the 70s his own. Songs like Ordinary People and Heaven are sincere without being obvious and layered without being complicated.

Not surprisingly, Legend's range isn't just on display in his musical output. Active in charities and politics, he's the spokesperson for the Show Me Campaign, an organization dedicated to fighting world poverty and performed at the National Democratic Convention in support of presidential candidate Barack Obama.

In a few weeks, he'll drop Evolver, an album that lives up to its progressive title with club jams like Green Light (featuring Andre 3000) and collaborations featuring Kanye West, Estelle and Brandy. Oozing confidence and class, the man who calls himself Legend says the method to his music-making is to just do it: "I don't really have a huge plan going in… I just go in there and try to write some good songs."