It’s not every day that Times Square in New York is lit up with huge advertisements proclaiming ‘Jesus is King’. It has been recently however following the release of the new album with that title by Kanye West. If you’re not familiar with him, the 42-year-old is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He’s also well-known for his marriage to reality TV star Kim Kardashian. What he’s not known for are album titles that sound like the sort of thing the Covenanters of South-West Scotland once emblazoned on their banners.
Kanye has moved from ‘I am a God’ to ‘Jesus is King’
In 2006, Kanye was accused of blasphemy after he appeared on the front cover of Rolling Stone wearing a crown of thorns, with the headline ‘The Passion of Kanye West’. His 2013 album ‘Yeezus’ played on the name Jesus and included a track entitled ‘I am a God’. Now his life appears to be heading in a completely different direction. According to his wife, he’s been ‘born again and saved by Christ’. His concerts have become weekly ‘Sunday services’, featuring a short sermon delivered by a previously unknown Reformed pastor, Adam Tyson.
West has been very open about his newfound faith in a number of interviews, including one with James Corden, which is currently trending on YouTube with 11 million views in less than a week. Kanye tells Corden that the new night-time routine in the West household is Kim watching Dateline (an American news show) and him reading the Bible. Corden responds: ‘Seriously?’. Corden also speaks for many who will be sceptical about the change, asking ‘What do you say to people who will say I don’t believe it?’ ‘That you would one day be living your life in a certain way and now saying that everything is for [God]?’ Kanye responds by describing it as the difference between being asleep and awake.
Yet although he has experienced a radical transformation, it also seems to be something Kanye has long been searching for, even if he didn’t realise it. In his 2004 single ‘Jesus walks’ he prays ‘God show me the way because the Devil’s tryna break me down’. He says ‘I wanna talk to God but I’m afraid ‘cause we ain’t spoke in so long’. Now, looking back, he says ‘I didn’t know what it was to be saved’, adding ‘people want something but there isn’t anyone telling them how to do it’.
Unsurprisingly, Kanye’s transformation has met with mixed reactions – and not just from those who don’t share his new mission to ‘turn atheists into believers’. Many, both Christians and non-Christians, wonder whether it’s all just a stunt. Others wonder whether it will last. He wouldn’t be the first artist to go through a temporary ‘born again’ period – many will remember Bob Dylan’s 3-year Christian phase when he too began to preach at concerts. Kanye anticipates such reservations, singing on the new album that Christians will be ‘the first ones to judge me’. ‘To sing of change, you think I’m joking / to praise His name, you ask what I’m smoking’.
While only time will tell if his conversion is the real deal, there are reasons to be optimistic. Kanye seems different from the many celebrities who merely pay lip-service to God. He seems to have a clear understanding of what conversion, saying ‘the road to hell is paved with “Oh, I’m just a good person”’. In an interview with former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe he says that whether people will get into heaven or not depends on whether they have accepted Jesus. He has spoken a number of times about the need for ‘radical obedience’. Kanye is also remarkably clear-sighted about his previous life, saying: ‘I thought I was the God of culture, but culture was my God’. ‘I worshipped the idea of labels, brand names, I worshipped cars’. Now he says ‘nothing beats God’. Nor does he present himself as the finished article; he talks candidly with Lowe about his ongoing struggles with pornography addiction, even as a Christian. In Tyson, Kanye also has the counsel of a solid pastor.
Whatever way it all pans out, it’s certainly refreshing to see the phrase ‘Jesus is King’ trending on social media, and to hear a celebrity like Kanye talking about the change God has brought about in his life. Long-term fans may be disappointed. Many reviewers have slated the new album, with Time Magazine complaining it’s ‘weighed down by its lack of demons’. But for those tired of battling their demons that might sound like no bad thing.
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 14th November 2019