Kanye West surprises with Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance, but not that album

Nick Romano

Kanye West made a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live during the show’s Brooklyn stint on Thursday. One thing that didn’t? His new album.

West came on to promote the release of Jesus Is King, which was supposed to drop at midnight on Friday morning. At least, that’s what he announced to the crowd. That didn’t happen, though. For the majority of his appearance, he spoke about God and creating a new Renaissance of Christian music, referencing the 15th century Medici family.

“I wanna say I love the fact that my daughter wants to go to church,” West said. “She has such a positive thought association about going to church because it’s outside of the traditional four walls and outside of the pews. Now that God has called me and now I’ve given my life to Jesus Christ and I work for God, now we have Christian innovation in our time. There was a time the Medici family and all the greatest artists did work for the church and now it seems like all the best designs and everything have this adult edge to it.”

“I feel that God is using me and using the choir and using my family to show off,” he added later, in terms of being in service to God. When Jimmy Kimmel asked the rapper if he’s now a Christian musician, West said, “I’m a Christian everything.”

West will return to Jimmy Kimmel Live for Friday’s episode for a special Jesus Is King performance. As for that album, West tweeted after Thursday’s Kimmel, “To my fans, Thank you for being loyal & patient,. We are specifically fixing mixes on ‘Everything We Need’ ‘Follow God’ & ‘Water’ We not going to sleep until this album is out!”

So, we’ll see.

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