Kanye’s New Album Isn’t Great, But Maybe That’s Why It Is…

Tendai C
Tendai C
Nov 3 · 7 min read

I always remember the first time I told my friends at high school that I was going to church on a Friday night…

In predominantly Christian Zimbabwe, most teenagers were used to being dragged to church on Sunday morning by their parents (usually their mothers). Almost anyone could relate to that because most of us were raised on our parents’ beliefs. But whether we believed in it all ourselves was highly questionable. In some ways it was irrelevant, because in an African household you obey the rules of those who pay your bills. Going to church on Sunday was normal and non-threatening to your peers. It didn’t mean you believed what your parents did, it just meant you were doing what you needed to keep the authorities at home onside.

But if you went to church on Friday it was different.
Youth nights ran on Fridays. So if you went to church on Friday, it meant you were going because you wanted to. Going to ‘Friday church’ was like coming out. It meant faith was something you took reasonably seriously. You were ‘religious’, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that you’d obviously ‘changed’. You were ‘different’ — in a different sort of way…

“[Switched my] Switched my attitude,
[I’m so] I’m so radical…”


A declaration of faith is an inherent oxymoron.
It’s very simple and yet profoundly complex. It’s normal and yet extreme. It’s intensely personal, yet it becomes a label which defines you to the world.
We human beings change our minds all the time. In fact, there is mounting evidence that changing our beliefs is often much easier than we think. But not all changes of heart are made equal. Changing our minds sometimes forces people to re-evaluate their relationships with us. Some decisions to change can change everything. Changing our minds can be the hardest thing to do because it can involve social risk.

Kanye West has evolved through his career. He has often used a teddy bear character to represent himself in his album artwork
Kanye West has evolved through his career. He has often used a teddy bear character to represent himself in his album artwork

Kanye West is one of the most controversial celebrity figures of recent times. So when it comes to assessing his latest album ‘Jesus is King’, it becomes difficult to distinguish whether this is just another attention-grab or a genuine expression of a transformed worldview. But as is often the case, the most revealing clues lie in his music…

“Never listen to the songs,
If they listen to the wrongs…”


It goes without saying that Kanye West has one of the most fervent cult followings of any modern artist. The Kanye ‘fandom’ has two primary identifiers:

a) Creative people who often find themselves the ‘alternative’ in the room
b) Production obsessives — ‘crate-diggers’ — who idolise their hero‘s reputation as a deeply studious music sampler and fearless musical innovator.

You would be hard pressed to find a Hip-Hop fan who won’t have room for a Kanye album in their Top 10 or 20 of all time. As an illustration: Kanye West is the only artist to have 5 albums in XXL Magazine’s 50 Best Hip-Hop albums since 2000. However, as if to make a mockery of that legacy, his latest album ‘Jesus is King’ falls way short of his previous sonic achievements. A first look and listen at the album in detail lays this very bare.

The standout feature is how surprisingly short it is. I say ‘surprisingly’ because one would assume an album titled ‘Jesus is King’ by one of music’s biggest names would be a journey of epic proportions. As a listener, you want to find out where all of this came from. You definitely want to know how Kanye West came to this seemingly monumental point in his life!

Yet ‘Jesus is King’ is quite sparse lyrically, with large spaces for instrumentals and vocal choruses. In comparison, 2018’s ‘Ye’ album was even shorter. But ‘Ye’ was still densely packed with lyrical content and heavy subject matter which made it feel substantial. In contrast, Kanye doesn’t say very much on his latest record. In fact the project seems to go out of its way to leave room for pause throughout. So much so that it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t a deliberate creative decision…

Album art from Kanye West’s 2018 album ‘Ye’

Someone who’s listened to a Kanye West album before now could be forgiven for feeling underwhelmed. But perhaps this was the precisely the point in the first place. Maybe, just maybe, he’s overcome the biggest personal mountain he was facing. Not depression, or bi-polar disorder, but another consistent menace in Kanye’s dramatic life. Fame.

There is an old saying: “If you live off a man’s compliments, you will die by his criticism”. And there are hints throughout ‘Jesus is King’ that this album is about a personal breakthrough worth more to Kanye than artistic admiration. Perhaps, just maybe, faith has freed him from a craving for adoration and a desire to be revered. He feels, for likely the first time, liberated from a need for praise. And with that said, perhaps this album was a celebration for an audience of one. Instead of a public collection expressed for the world to consume and worship ‘Yeezus’, this might be a hymnal for Kanye himself to internalise in worship to Jesus

“All these people mad at dude,
This for who it matter to…”


‘Jesus is King’ is to me ‘An Album of Three Songs’. Because when you really listen, the essence of the album rests in three tracks — ‘Water’, ‘God Is’ and ‘Hands On’. ‘Water’ depicts an almost childlike prayer for God’s help. ‘God Is’ conveys the sense of a sudden spiritual realisation. ‘Hands on’ deals with the scrutiny Kanye already faces from both Christians and non-Christians as a result of his newly found perspective.

This album is about a man (not a celebrity) giving an insight into three fundamental vulnerabilities:
1. the vulnerability of suddenly needing God as a child needs their parent
2. the vulnerability of living under the weight of people’s expectations
3. the vulnerability of having a raw faith in God without extensive knowledge or vocabulary to artistically express what you want to express

“If I try lead you to Jesus,
We get called halfway believers…
…Only half way read Ephesians”


In the 1960s the famous media philosopher Marshall Mcluhan proclaimed a now seminal communications proverb — ‘the medium is the message’.
‘Jesus is King’ is a raw expression of a raw faith. In a culture which has drowned itself in consumerism, raw food is unpalatable and difficult to digest. Rich foods are often refined, processed and full of additives. A fitting analogy.

Kanye West used to serve the world indulgent music which allowed society to feed on his ego and grow fat on his bravado. Now he offers a different sort of meal. In his view, he used to serve a musical cuisine which pleased tastes and appetites, but was bad for people’s health. Now his aim is to enrich the soul as well as the body — but to achieve it, he’s put his audience on a crash diet.


While it can be expected that secular consumerism would find the new ‘Clean Eating Menu’ from Chef Kanye hard to swallow, what has been more fascinating has been the response from the Christian world.
There is a distinct tentativeness to celebrate the rap star’s apparent salvation. The church world is highly skeptical. And in some cases, there has been open ridicule that it is all a money-making stunt and nothing more than a pop cult.

“Nothing worse than a hypocrite,
Change? He ain’t really different…”


It is this palpable feeling of ‘rejection from all sides’ which has made me think hardest about this album…

This is largely because I’ve found in my life that raw, unrefined, open expressions of faith tend to upset almost everyone. Many secularists and humanists will be shaken because they often consider faith and spiritual belief inherently backwards if not regressive. The deeply religious world will be upset because traditional religion sustains itself on standardisation and unyielding consistency. And the liberal church seems to be so frightened by secularism that only safe, intellectualised, neatly polished and cleverly orated sermons can be recognised as gospel.

“He ain’t even asked for permission,
Asked for advice and they dissed him,
Said I wanna do a Gospel album,
What have you been hearing from the Christians?
They’ll be the first ones to judge me…”


It appears that today raw and public expressions of faith are becoming increasingly unacceptable. But what is also true is that very few people will ever know the pop-culture prison Kanye West has lived in for nearly two decades. Only a small number alive will ever know what it’s like to have fame beyond their wildest dreams. And only a handful will ever understand how faith can powerfully liberate a man from being a slave to celebrity.

It says much about society that many were happier consuming Kanye’s music while he was mentally and emotionally imploding before our eyes.
It says much about the church that Kanye felt he needed to form one himself to have a place his new found faith wouldn’t be judged.
It says much about Christians today that we could find ‘Jesus is King’ an unsettling statement for anyone to make.

Does music matter as much as the life of the person making it?

Does the institution of ‘the church’ matter as much as the people it exists for?

Does Christianity matter if it is timid about who Jesus is?

These to me are the enduring messages of ‘Jesus is King’…

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