5 Takeaways from Kanye West’s New Album, Jesus Is King

Sheldon Pearce

After another round of delays, tweaks, soundbites, and controversies, Kanye West’s new album, Jesus Is King, is finally here, along with an accompanying IMAX movie. Spirituality has been a constant in Kanye’s music from the start, but this is his first full-on gospel-rap record, largely filled with clean and uplifting praise music. The choir from his recent Sunday Service processions is backing him once again, though more sparingly than one might expect. They are joined by a ranging cast of singers and producers, including some who are new to Ye’s orbit, to help count blessings.

At some point this year, Kanye was “radically saved,” according to his pastor, and with his abandoned 2018 album Yandhi firmly in the rearview, he finished Jesus Is King on his Wyoming ranch. “I didn’t know how to rap for God,” he admitted to Zane Lowe in a Beats 1 interview this week, but with some assistance from his team of collaborators, he was able to realize his vision of a curse-free hymnal. Across 11 songs, in just over 27 minutes, Kanye seeks to use rap as a vessel for worship. Here are six things to expect from the Jesus Is King experience.

Holy War

Even amid his turn toward being saved—or perhaps because of it—there are still a few things in the secular world Kanye has beef with. After calling slavery “a choice” and pushing for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment, prompting confusion and outrage, he continues to try to clarify himself here. The 13th amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for commiting a crime, and on the album he repeatedly makes it known that his issue is with that last part: “Went from one-in-four to one-in-three/13th amendment, gotta end it, that’s on me.” Kanye is taking aim at the for-profit prison industrial complex, which he sees as a loophole in the 13th amendment. In his own way, he has joined a movement that includes 13th director Ava Duvernay, Meek Mill, and his friend Pusha-T, who are fighting the unjust practices that lead to higher mass incarceration rates for black men and women. This has become a family issue for the Wests; earlier this year, his wife, Kim Kardashian, went to the White House to promote the First Step Act, which seeks to reform the federal prison system and reduce the risk that offenders will return to prison after they’ve been released.

Something Kanye seems to find nearly as damaging as the prison industrial complex is Instagram, an app that has apparently been feeding his sex addiction. In his Beats 1 interview, Kanye all but blamed social media for increasing the temptation. Across the album, when he isn’t praising, he’s decrying that window into desire. “Hold the selfies, put the ’Gram away/Get your family, y’all hold hands and pray,” he sings on “Closed on Sunday,” before warding off Jezebels. Now that he’s given himself to the Lord, he refuses to succumb, and as repayment for his dedication he seems to want spiritual liberation from the IRS. There are tax exemptions for religious organizations, but those don’t (yet) apply to Yeezy wearers.

All the King’s Men

On Jesus Is King, Kanye’s rap world becomes one big Sunday Service. Bold-name producers (Timbaland, Pi’erre Bourne, Ronny J, FNZ) and members of the long-running Kanye think tank (Consequence, CyHi the Prynce, Mike Dean, Ty Dolla $ign) join gospel artist Fred Hammond, singer Ant Clemons, and the Sunday Service Choir in transforming rap songs into Christian ones. (In the Beats 1 interview, Kanye mentioned a desire to go back and sanitize his old songs, too.) The best illustration of this symbiosis is the reunion of Clipse’s Thronton brothers—the god-fearing No Malice and the apathetic Pusha-T—on “Use This Gospel.” No Malice sums it up best: “They give you Wraith talk, I give you faith talk.”

Kanye apparently asked his collaborators to fast and refrain from premarital sex while working on the album, and Jesus Is King is also a reflection of the clergy in one of the worst ways: There is a rather conspicuous lack of women in the credits. (The only female performers are in the choir.) The song “New Body,” which was played at an album event in Los Angeles shortly before the release, featured a Nicki Minaj verse and was cut due to creative differences. “I done wrote three different verses chile, and I don’t know. We ain’t seeing eye to eye on it,” she explained. Finding time for a random Kenny G saxophone solo but not a single woman feels like more than an oversight.

Same Old Kanye

Kanye’s been pitching Jesus Is King as the moment when he sets aside his ego and dedicates himself to a higher power. “Now that I’m in service to Christ, my job is to spread the gospel, to let people know what Jesus has done for me,” he told Zane Lowe. The thing is, throughout the record, the scales tip more toward Kanye than Jesus; it’s about Jesus’ proximity to him and not vice versa. While the album is a devotional, it’s hardly a selfless offering, and Kanye’s faith often seems conditioned on what he’s received in return. He’s worried about judgment from other Christians, he’s comparing himself to Noah, and he’s still dubbing himself “the greatest artist restin’ or alive.” Jesus preached humility, but that concept still eludes Kanye.

Kanye seems spiritually goal-oriented now—“I will no longer entertain—I’m not here for anyone’s entertainment,” he told Lowe—but in his efforts to spread the gospel he returns to a catalog of sounds fans are familiar with. He hasn’t broken much new ground musically since before The Life of Pablo, but Jesus Is King is a lot like last year’s ye in its attempts to repurpose old Kanye tics. The shriek that closes “Follow God” is reminiscent of Yeezus. “Selah” seeks the heights of “Ultralight Beam.” “Closed on Sunday” offers shades of 808s & Heartbreak’s brooding minimalism. Too-short outro “Jesus Is Lord” could flow seamlessly into the sampled horns of “Touch the Sky.” The message may be new, but the delivery is anything but.

Coming to a Theater Near You: Sunday Service—The Movie

Shot mostly through the same pinhole lens as Kanye’s Coachella set, the Jesus Is King IMAX film is largely a Sunday Service performance with a new setlist. Different bible scriptures bookmark a beautiful, albeit perplexing, audio-visual experience that includes images of a prancing deer, flowers, and Kanye singing to one of his children. Ye and his Jason White-led choir work through a dozen songs, some from the new album (“Selah,” “Use This Gospel”), some newly spiritual reworks of old songs (“Say You Will,” “Street Lights”), and some classic gospel fare (“Perfect Peace,” “When I Think of His Goodness”). The visual feels like a performance-art piece, largely due to its chosen venue: the Roden Crater.

Since 1977, artist James Turrell has been working on the mile-and-a-half wide art installation in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Roden Crater is a large construction of rooms, tunnels, and apertures that, when completed, will contain 21 viewing spaces for celestial events. It has become the most significant work in Turrell’s prolific career and, in its incomplete state, has largely remained inaccessible to outsiders. It is somewhat fitting that Kanye and his choir will be the first to bring eyes to the carefully designed observatory for celestial bodies, since Turrell, a Christian himself, has said that the purpose of the Crater is “to bring the light of the heavens down to earth.”

The Crater is the film’s real star. There are few sites more apt for creating a spiritual experience. The installation’s spaces provide every opportunity for the camera to present the bodies of the performers in stunning, natural mood lighting. The acoustics bring a rich, full-bodied sound out of the choir; the dynamics are felt to extremes. When all of these factors swirl into a unified vision, the results can be breathtaking. In one moment, a camera looking straight up catches Jason White in the Crater’s Eye; his body cast entirely in shadow as an overcast sky slowly cycles by overhead. As he swings his arms dramatically, directing the choir to swell or go quiet, their voices seem to rise through the opening above them. The movie doesn’t have any purpose beyond conferring the holy spirit unto viewers (and performers, many of whom were crying by the end). The film definitely won’t move hardened cynics, but those it does reach will likely be inspired by the beauty of its otherworldly setting.

The Gospel, According to Kanye

  • “Before the flood, people judge/They did the same thing to Noah/Everybody wanted Yandhi/Then Jesus Christ did the laundry” – “Selah”

  • “I was looking at the ’Gram and I don’t even like likes/I was screamin’ at my dad, he told me, ‘It ain’t Christ-like’” – “Follow God”

  • “Off the 350s He supplied/The IRS want they 50 plus our tithe/Man, that’s over half of the pie/I felt dry, that’s on God/That’s why I charge the prices that I charge/I can’t be out here dancin’ with the stars/No, I cannot let my family starve” – “On God”

  • “What if Eve made apple juice?/You gon’ do what Adam do?/Or say, ‘Baby, let’s put this back on the tree’” – “Everything We Need”

  • “This ain’t ’bout a damn religion/Jesus brought a revolution/All the captives are forgiven/Time to break down all the prisons” – “God Is”

  • “Cut out all the lights, He the light/Got pulled over, see the brights/What you doin’ on the street at night?/Wonder if they’re gonna read your rights/13th Amendment, three strikes” – “Hands On”

Originally Appeared on Pitchfork