Kanye West moves toward Jesus
Kanye West performs for his fans at a recent concert.
Most people are familiar with Kanye Omari West, an African-American rapper born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Southern Chicago. He grew up in a middle-class background and has been in the news numerous times for a variety of reasons. Over the years, Kanye has made nine albums. His most popular album is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010).
Back in October 2019, Kanye dropped his ninth studio album, Jesus is King. From August 2018- September 2019, Kanye started working on this unique album at his ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In a New York Times article, he described this album as “an expression of the gospel.” This Gospel Rap album appeals to a wide audience, has nine songs, and features Clipse, Ty Dolla Sign, Kenny G, Fred Hammond, Ant Clemons, and his Sunday Service Choir in which he formed in January 2019.
The cover art is a blue vinyl with “Jesus is King” written on it. The cover art was inspired by Rubye Shelton’s I Want the World to Know Jesus vinyl from 1970. Jesus is King left many listeners confused because he wasn’t rapping any curse words or sexual references like he usually does. People were also confused because he said he will not be making any more secular music (non-religious music). Many Christians loved Kanye’s idea of trying to spread Christianity, while traditional Christians, or “old school Christians,” were against him sampling classic/old Christian songs.
While this album has not won any awards yet, it has been streamed nearly 200,000 million times and sold over 100,000 copies. My favorite song on this album is the song #1, “Every Hour,” because it reminds me of a traditional Sunday service and the vocals make the song 10x more powerful. My least favorite song on this album would have to be “Closed on Sunday” because the lyrics weren’t really as powerful as the lyrics on all the other songs.
