Jesus saves and Kanye misses the rebound
Kanye’s turn to apparently deeply felt religious faith in his latest album Jesus is King may seem incongruous for a man who in magnificent blasphemy once called himself Yeezus. While he has professed his religious faith in music throughout his career, most notably in Jesus Walks, many have received this new phase of his life with extreme scepticism. His new Sunday Service can easily be interpreted as just another form of self-promotion, building hype and giving him a new slate to perform on, a terrifying self-published version of the Beyoncé Mass phenomenon.
While there may be some reasons for this scepticism there is no denying that this seems to be Kanye’s most self-effacing album. It is notable that on the album’s first track Every Hour Kanye is nowhere in sight. Instead, you are plunged into the middle of the Sunday Service Choir in full chorus so abruptly you can’t help but jump. To the sound of urgently dancing piano keys the lyrics themselves implore listeners: “Sing ’til the power of the Lord comes down”, a line repeated over and over with frenzied melodic urgency. It seems that Kanye who reportedly considered giving up rap considering it “the devil’s music” has decided his work must now be in service of the divine.
This is not to say Kanye absents himself from the album. The second track Selah starts abruptly transitioning briskly to slow organ tones and we hear Kanye’s voice for the first time. Taking centre stage Kanye makes the usual self-conscious references to his reputation and creative process before becoming more like a preacher firing off Biblical references. Notably it’s here that the song’s urgency grows. War drums set in and continue through a chorus of rapidly spiralling Hallelujahs building to a crescendo as Kanye offers a spiritual call to arms. This is a pattern for much of the album. Kanye’s usual self-conscious self-obsession is present, but for the first time he doesn’t necessarily seem to be playing the (anti-)hero.
The problem is that this new approach doesn’t seem to work. When Kanye turns to religion in his raps, too often he seems content with the occasional Biblical quotation. This is even more disappointing considering the truly affecting emotional rawness Kanye displayed in his previous album ye. Take the third track Follow God which trots along to a crisp constant drum beat and flowing lyrics. The bars themselves are messily opaque with little of the clever wordplay or startling self-revelation that used to define Kanye at his best. Only the backing repeating “Father, I stretch/Stretch my hands to You” gives a sense of emotional depth. It seems Kanye can no longer confidently rely on his own resources, in more ways than one.
In his next track, Closed on Sunday, Kanye can’t resist mixing trollish references to Chick-fil-a in with what’s otherwise a plod through some simplistic references to social media, family, and the Bible. Combined with him apparently lecturing his wife on wearing tight clothing it even came across as creepily sexist to me. Similarly, the bars of On God which attribute his success to God aren’t terribly interesting even if its swirling repeating rising electronic music fits beautifully. In particular the line proclaiming he has to change what he does because he can’t let his family starve comes across as hilariously lacking in self-awareness given the vast fortunes he and his wife Kim Kardashian enjoy.
Still, even at his best on the album Kanye seems overshadowed by his guest acts. The penultimate Use This Gospel sees the best bars of the album delivered by Pusha T and Malice, and the Kenny G sax solo is one of the album’s highlights. As usual there’s no denying Kanye’s talent as a producer and the boldness he shows using a constant almost discordant bleep to frame the track.
My instinct is that Kanye has not so much moved away from himself as a subject as expanded it to breaking point. In this album Kanye’s sense of personal salvation is paired with a belief that Jesus can redeem others, and even save African-Americans from racism and the legacies of slavery. In God Is Kanye proclaims: “Jesus brought a revolution/All captives are forgiven”. This ties to references to the 13th Amendment, which famously abolished slavery but is also seen as paving the way for a new form of slavery via mass incarceration of black Americans. Kanye has publicly attacked the 13th Amendment on these grounds in the past and explored themes of re-enslavement in tracks like New Slaves. Just as Kanye feels Jesus has washed away his sins he hopes Jesus can wash away the legacies of slavery.
The album was originally called Yandhi before it was reconceptualised and retitled. Kanye had originally planned to cast himself as Gandhi who led India on the road to freedom, and inspired Martin Luther King. Gandhi also famously accused Indians of being complicit in their own colonisation by the British in their failure to resist, and proclaimed Indians must first become mentally independent before they became politically independent. This echoes Kanye’s own wildly controversial comments that four hundred years of slavery “sounded like a choice” by black Americans. He has tweeted a quote attributed to the abolitionist Harriet Tubman who proclaimed she could have freed more slaves had they but realised their slavery.
In creating instead Jesus is King Kanye seems to accept that he cannot be the saviour he hoped to be and has turned instead to what he sees as a higher power to save himself and others. Kanye misses the opportunity to develop this more fully. He shows flashes of genius but the album seems frustratingly defined by a sense of wasted potential.