Only one year after the release of his last album, \u201cYe,\u201d Kanye West dropped his ninth studio album last Friday, Oct. 25. This album is drastically different than any other West has released. The album titled \u201cJesus is King\u201d is a Christian rap album. \u201cJesus is King\u201d is only about 27 minutes long and features gospel choirs and songs about transformation and Chick-fil-A.
\nWest begins the album with \u201cEvery Hour,\u201d a song that features Sunday Service Gospel Choir. Sunday Service is a gospel-rap group led by West that performs every Sunday morning as part of a nonlinear church service. The gospel choir is undoubtedly the best part of the album and arguably underutilized by West, only having main features on \u201cEvery Hour\u201d and \u201cSelah.\u201d The choir adds a level to the songs that helps merge these two genres together while still giving West the platform to communicate bigger philosophical struggles throughout the songs.
\nOn James Corden\u2019s \u201cLate Late Show,\u201d he did a version of Carpool Karaoke called Airpool Karaoke in which the entirety of the Sunday Service choir accompanied West and Corden to sing a few of the songs from \u201cJesus is King,\u201d and the result was beautiful and impactful music.
\nSongs on \u201cJesus is King\u201d tell stories of the trials and struggles West went through before he was a Christian and during his walk to becoming a Christian. \u201cWater\u201d talks about the renewing powers of baptism and alludes to John 4:13-14, in which Jesus speaks about living water and everlasting life. \u201cHands On\u201d addresses the judgment West faces from other Christians on his own Christian philosophy when he says, \u201cWhat have you been hearing from the Christians? \/ They\u2019ll be the first one to judge me \/ Make it seem like nobody love me.\u201d And \u201cFollow God\u201d makes a statement about how people are willing to tell you when you aren\u2019t being Christ like, but no one gives you affirmation when you are being a good Christian.
\n\u201cClosed on Sunday\u201d is easily the most talked about song on the album, partially because listeners can\u2019t tell if it is a joke or not. In the song, West presumably sings to Kim Kardashian West telling her, \u201cClosed on Sunday, you my Chick-fil-A\/ Hold the selfies, put the Gram away\/ Get your family, y\u2019all hold hands and pray.\u201d While the overall message is a good one, it\u2019s lost in the silliness of the Chick-fil-A reference.
\nOverall, the album is revolutionary for the Christian rap genre. For anyone to be talking about a Christian rap album in the first place is a huge step forward for the entire genre. West pushes the envelope of Christian rap and adds elements of gospel music and testimony to create an honest and open minded project. Other than the genre, for West, \u201cJesus is King\u201d is very similar to his previous albums \u201cYe\u201d and \u201cThe Life of Pablo.\u201d His journey is well communicated through \u201cJesus is King,\u201d but the album is carried by his lyrics alone, with the music and production quality seeming almost like an afterthought.
\n\u201cJesus is King\u201d provides new and refreshing conversation about what it takes to be a Christian in both the Christian and secular communities, but the music itself fell a little flat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Only one year after the release of his last album, \u201cYe,\u201d Kanye West dropped his ninth studio album last Friday, Oct. 25. This album is drastically different than any other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15119,"featured_media":13910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13894,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13893\/revisions\/13894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}