Jesus Is King

Kanye West has taken fans and listeners of his music on a wild adventure throughout his career. He came out being a humble Chicago rapper who was just happy to be able to let some things off his chest. He came out the gate exploring the possibilities of him being able to make a Gospel song hot enough for the clubs and radio with "Jesus Walks", and using that to establish his brand as a rapper whose music held truth, consciousness, fun, and just a realness you would get from everyday individuals.

Then Kanye transitioned from the guy who was just happy with being in the room to the always braggadocious volunteer to elaborate on his greatness even when unwarranted with albums like Graduation, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus, and Life of Pablo. He was hell bent on trying to make sure people saw him as he saw himself, because "Ye Loves Ye". However, he never took away the soul elements of his music even when he would dive deep into the narcissistic portion of himself. You could always still tell that Kanye was not just a guy who was validated or affirmed through material gains. He made it a point though to express that he did feel that being able to buy the things you love did bring you a form of euphoria.

Kanye lately has been on a stream of consciousness about people learning and desiring a need to be transparent. He has been willing to let people know about his mental health issues, how he has felt betrayed by his friends in the industry, expressing his controversial view points, yet establishing that his point in being controversial is to show that it's cool for people to differ and not all think and act the same, while maintaining a high level of mental acumen to still be creative and make music.

Shocking to me, with his history of being controversial and standing up for black people in America, with statements that outright persecuted the representatives of America for not caring about the disenfranchised living here, when he said things that black people did not agree with his history became nothing and he was met with hate. The same man who started his career based around the premise of being different and not thinking like everyone else, in the end gets slammed for being just that. But for Kanye, going from his interviews with Big Boy, Charlamagne the God, and others, he was willing to deal with whatever there was to come with his new found awakening.

Leading us to Jesus Is King, where again Kanye is able to make a great musical production piece. However, when picking a part the raps on this album, although with moments on his songs "Follow God" and "Hands On", his raps left me unimpressed like many of his projects post MBDTF. However, the message that Kanye West wanted to spread which was how he saw God making things change in his life and where he feels God should have the highest authority, came across very clear despite the dry rapping.

It was nice for once to remember that Kanye could rap about things that had nothing to do with materials or appeal. Since College Dropout and Late Registration, you had not really experienced the "backpack conscious" Ye, so it was good to get a reflection of that, even if it was all under the content of spirituality and religion instead of politics and stories built around living life without.

The album still had some very laughable moments like Kanye screaming out "Chik-Fil-A" at the end of "Closed on Sunday", or his dreadful singing on "God Is". Easily the best hip-hop song on this album was "Follow God", and it would probably be argued as the best song on the entire album. It was the one song on the album where you got the braggadocious Kanye feel, except just rapping about God and his relationship with him. It was clear that Kanye was hoping that him being ye could carry this album, but it did not have the total Gospel feel I was hoping Kanye could pull off.

The album came off as a first attempt. Take that how you may. It does leave me wanting to hear if Kanye can make a Gospel MBDTF, and that is what ultimately saves this album. All in all it was not a bad album but it was not great. The production was great but the rapping left moments undesirable. I like that Kanye is going back to making it a priority that his music has a point and that he is not "making the devils music", but just because you are talking about God, that does not make it good music.

Tribe Rating:

7/10

JESUS IS KING