Has Kanye West, In The Name Of Yeezus, Weaselled His Way Back Into Our Good Graces?
If you are a Black woman and Kanye West fan (which I believe deep…deep down, is a majority of you), you may have spent far too much time arguing with people and yourselves about Kanye and the plight being a supporter somehow creates for your life.
If you delve a little deeper and perhaps pull back a third layer, that is, your spiritual practice, belief system or in this specific case Christianity, you may even find yourself questioning how the two notions can co-exist – hats off to you, I can relate to your bewilderment.
If Joan Morgan and the crusaders of hip-hop feminism have done well to explain the nuance that is identifying with two seemingly opposing schools of thought, then you - my friend, aren’t delusional or ignoring the reality of your faith, you are just …well…experiencing cognitive dissonance.
The problem with this though is that at the intersection of Kanye supporter, Black woman, womanist and Christian is YOU MAY BE FAR TOO FORGIVING!
So I ask, Black women, a fan of Ye or not, are you buying the “saved” Kanye propaganda or do you believe this is another album selling scheme, unfortunately using Black women of the church as the catalyst to propel him back into our hearts?
But First, The Album Listening Party
On Sunday, September 29th, 2019 I had the pleasure of attending Kanye’s New York City Jesus Is King album listening event at United Palace in Manhattan. Two days prior, news broke that Kanye would be premiering a few tracks from his highly anticipated album in Detroit, his hometown of Chicago and New York. The locations were not yet released, so you could imagine my angst as those tickets dropped on Ticketmaster 5 pm sharp Sunday evening. GOTTTTTT’EMMMMMM. Shout out to my sister, my girls and the forces that be who conspired to GET ME IN 'EM SEATS.
The number of people swarmed in anticipation to hear the latest pairs of rhymes and couplets from said rap prophet were wrapped around the building, so much so that I started to question whether the organizers gave out too many tickets.
Conversations rippling through the crowds were all variations about what folks that hadn’t quite canceled Ye (if he was canceled at all) anticipated the event to be and his album to sound. There was no way spirit-filled gospel snippets from Kanye’s Sunday Service were exaggerations or figments of our imagination. People came in numbers to either see a choir or hear one’s heavenly roars from a mixed and mastered album, which by that point, was to be released in a few hours (it wasn't released). Fans were falling over from catching the Holy Spirit simply from waiting in reverence or from potential heatstroke.
A fan even went so far as to pretend he was on the phone, claiming his friend was getting arrested as he made his way to the front of the line. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you that it is never, ever that serious, by “it” I’m referring to every and anything in life. If it was not the second coming from Christ, because I promise you if it was you and I both would have no clue and tickets would not be free for general admission on the internet.
Finally, I made it through the metal detectors, got my phone encased in some safety locked pouch, never to be seen again until after the presentation (of course, folks found a loophole to that one). I pat myself on the back, took a deep breath and tried not to let excitement swallow me whole. Besides, this was no different than the other times I’ve seen Kanye and well, he’s a regular person just like you and I (see Exodus 20:3-5).
As I made my way to the theatre seats, a bright screen was playing what I quickly pieced together as Kanye’s film set to hit select IMAX theatres, also titled Jesus Is King on October 25th, 2019. Although only a portion of the film was shown, there were breathtaking, close-up images through a peephole camera lens of trees, the birds, bees and Kanye’s acres of land in Wyoming. It was as if I was watching the Discovery channel, but with hymns playing in the background. The color pay-off was pale and realistic, not to be mistaken with glamour Hollywood shots.
Behold: Black Women Going To Bat, Again
Kanye’s Sunday Service choir known as The Samples, lead by Jason White, are the main people shown at the beginning of the film, especially the faces of Black women, at some parts with tears running down their faces immersed in worship. Truly beautiful imagery really, but all I could think of was how Black women’s vulnerability was potentially being used as a prop to lead Kanye back into our hearts. The connection between Black women worshipping God and Kanye was not direct, as from what I saw, Kanye was barely in the film, but this entire ordeal is attached to his name.
Black women make up a majority of Kanye’s support and continued to show up for him despite his antics over the years, but the last “slavery was a choice” comments might have thrown them off the bandwagon. Yet and still, look who is represented as the heart of the Lord’s people, God’s choir and well Kanye’s prayer warriors ready to stand with him against the world and bring him closer to the light, again. Or perhaps, these women were minding their business winning souls for Christ because what does it matter what avenue the message is coming from as long as the intentions of the message are pure and true?
Currently, I stand somewhere in the middle and my thoughts on this remain convoluted. If we don’t care, who will? It is not our responsibility to get Ye back on track, I mean that’s probably up to his family (and uhm, that other family) but I do also know that when folks were kicking our once, beloved hip-hop revolutionist it saddened me. Somewhere, in there Kanye is the same unapologetic, overly confident, rash, creative we all grew to support in some form or fashion.
via Giphy
Back To The Album
Jesus Is King is a Christian rap album. Kanye gives us less of the braggadocios, which is a whole lot for him – okay?, and more of the uplifting Jesus talk we’ve heard on songs like “Jesus Walks” and “Ultra-light beam”, except he doesn’t off-put it with any profanity. I had to double back and ask myself if I was listening to a Lecrae album.
The songs are honest and vulnerable in a way we haven’t heard Kanye before, almost like he’s finally reached that point we envisioned he’d be at after Graduation, where he isn’t in the business of impressing anyone but has finally taken a calling to his purpose to turn “atheists into believers”. We are given wholesome choir hooks, 808 heavy-production, and those stand out bars that will have you chuckle upon realization, like “closed on Sunday’s like Chic-fil-a” , “I bow down to the king upon the throne, my life is His, I’m no longer my own”, or my personal favorite (paraphrased) “Jezebels no longer have power over me”.
The album even includes an impressive feature from Clipse, where Pusha’s usual drug dealer bars are kept to a bare minimum and we hear from [No] Malice, who hasn’t made a secular music feature since forever. To me, “Jesus Is King” seemed a little incoherent like Kanye’s last few projects, but I think it’s about time we stop waiting on another "College Dropout" because works that are pieced together without skits or immaculate song order are also Ye. That's all I got though because listening to the album surrounded by a majority of hypebeasts and wypipo was honestly distracting - I do not recommend it. So, I'll listen properly whenever West decides to officially drop the album.
