Kanye West’s artistic journey was a wild journey, is he undoubtedly one of the most important pop artists of the last twenty years?And certainly one of the most unpredictable.
It’s hard to know which Kanye will show up at some point. However, last year we witnessed an even more surprising change: Kanye says he has become a born-again Christian. Your programs now have “Sunday Services,” imbued with the gospel, and your new album is titled?Jesus Is King? (Jesus is king).
What do we think of Kanye’s journey?
Kanye took the stage in 2004 with her acclaimed debut album, College Dropout; however, Kanye’s rise to fame quickly linked to controversy and criticism, either for his strange public outbursts or offensive words. Convenient protest by saying that slavery for African-Americans for four hundred years “seems to be an option.
As Mike Cosper pointed out, Kanye’s life illustrates what Charles Taylor describes as “cross pressure” to live in a secular age, where are we protected, transcendent and always persecuted by her.
Has Kanye’s life been marked by some of the?Shields?the hardest thing to penetrate that our secular age offers: fame, wealth, importance. All of his studio albums have been certified platinum. He created a high-quality fashion line. He is married to American entertainment royalty Kim Kardashian. And Kanye stood by his social success. Your 2013 album, “Yeezus”, has a track called?(I am a God). Despite his status as a self-proclaimed “god,” Kanye struggles to find peace.
Accompanying his sixth album Yeezus, the seventh?Paul’s life? (2016), opens with the song “Ultralight Beam”, where it says, “But I’m looking for more/a place to feel safe and end my holy war. “
As ingrained as we are in our arrogance, fame and fortune, the anxiety of “seeking more” still haunts us. As the African-American writer and critic Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote about Kanye: “There is nothing original about this tale, and there is much evidence, apart from Kanye, that humans were not made to bear the weight of fame. “
Does Kanye’s erratic life and career speak of this inability to bear weight, not only celebrity, but self-confidence and self-justification?In every way. Let’s say what we say about Kanye’s music and public personality, at least we can see the obvious honesty and vulnerability: he knows it’s not right and doesn’t hide it behind a public relations front.
Some moments in Kanye’s life seem to have shaken him particularly, opening holes in the walls of his “immanent structure. “In 2007, at the height of Kanye’s fame, his beloved mother, Donda West, died of complications from plastic surgery. put Kanye in a dark state, reflected in the agonizing complaints of his native album 808s and Heartbreak (2008). On the song “Coldest Winter”, Kanye sings: “Goodbye, my friend / I never, ever again”. and for all those who have experienced it up close, death is the last break of simple worldly peace.
In 2013, another moment of transcendence came to Kanye when his first daughter, North (Kanye is now the father of four children) was born. Among other things, this life-changing event seemed to trigger a kind of moral awakening for Kanye. By mispageful interpretation of her music, Kanye recently avoided objectifying women into obsessively sexual lyrics. In Ye’s last piece (2018), “Violent Crimes”, Kanye prays: Father, forgive me, I am afraid of karma / Because now he sees women as something to feed, not to conquer.
And that brings us to Jesus Is King, an extraordinarily adorable collection of hip-hop psalms that captures who Kanye has become: a man focused solely on Jesus, a “Christian at all,” as I told Jimmy Kimmel.
Sonically, I think the production is Kanye at his best. It shows nostalgic recordings that come from soul, accompanied by choruses and harmony, a different change from the dark humor of his recent albums.
Lyrically, Kanye reminds us of the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) artists of the 1990s (and that’s no exaggeration). Does the opening song, every hour? begins with a chorus without Kanye repeating over and over again, “Sing, until the power of the Lord descends. “Other tracks, such as “Water”, carry this repetitive structure; it’s as if Kanye can’t stop worshipping. In “Selah” he refers to the scriptures to describe his new freedom in Christ: You must be delivered, John 8. 36 / whom the Son frees is truly free / Saved a wretch like me.
The album’s simple and enthusiastic lyrics express a childish, refreshing and direct faith that wants to be shared with the world Is it like the enthusiasm of the lame beggar of Acts 3 who, once healed, walked, jumped and praised God?(V. 8).
Anticipating criticism from skeptics, especially in church, Kanye raps “Hands On”: “They told me I should make a gospel album /” What did you hear from Christians? / Will they be the first to judge me, will they give the impression that no one loves me?
Indeed, many Christians are quickly skeptical of statements of extraordinary conversions; however, the scriptures and Christian history are full of stories of those who have lived lives of hatred for God (demons, Pharisees, Apostle Paul, etc. ) and yet they have become totally exuberant proclaimers of the grace of the gospel.
Instead of treating Kanye as a fraud, can we choose to see him as the tax collector?And we can, as a church, give Kanye what he asks: don’t throw me up, put my hands on / please pray for me. .
What can believers learn from Kanye’s curious case?Even if we don’t have to exalt the meaning of his story or claim it as a kind of new evangelical celebrity, can we usefully reflect on what Kanye’s conversion says about how souls sleep?Christ in our secular age.
We can reflect on how the triggers of sadness and family play their part in shaking up someone’s numb existence. How can the Church be prepared for people in these times by offering hope in Christ and a community of support?We can also reflect on how we preach, the gift of the gospel that frees us from the burden of a world where people are overwhelmed and exhausted by various cross pressures: realizing, being accepted, becoming gods of our own, constantly defining (and constantly redefining) ourselves in an expressive and innovative way.
Kanye can’t stand that crushing weight. No human being can do it
Or rather, only a human can? And he’s already taken the weight in our favor, to the point of dying. Is that why we declare praise, along with Kanye, on the last track?Jesus is the Lord ?, comes this true freedom when we take off the crown, give up our throne and pay tribute to the only monarch right: every knee must bend, every tongue must confess: Jesus is the Lord.