Album Review: Kanye West - Jesus Is King

Yeezy season is upon us once again, as last Friday Kanye West finally released his greatly-anticipated ninth solo studio album, Jesus is King. After numerous delays, tracklist changes, leaks, and radio silence from the Chicago rapper, the album finally hit streaming services to mixed reviews from fans and critics alike. 

Initially announced as YANDHI in 2018, West’s newest record has gone through a multitude of extreme changes since its earliest inception. When YANDHI failed to release after several missed release dates in September and November, it seemed as if the album was scrapped entirely for reasons outside of fans’ control. In January of 2019, West began arranging exclusive events called ‘Sunday Service’, which featured a mix of church music, sermons, and acoustic gospel interpolations of tracks spanning the past fifteen years of West’s discography. Every Sunday, West would invite a small handful of Hollywood’s elite to witness a relaxed performance by him and an ever-growing choir directed by James White, until he brought the event to Coachella in April. Dressed in faded earth tones and accompanied by artists like DMX, Kid Cudi, and Ty Dolla $ign, Kanye performed at Coachella on top of a large grassy mountain that invoked themes of nature and grace (like YANDHI).

In the months that followed, YANDHI in its entirety leaked online in various forums that made users participate in a “group-buy”, a process that would lead to the well-known leaks of songs like ‘New Body’ and ‘The Storm’. Despite this, in September West tweeted a new tracklist and a new release date for his ninth album, which had been renamed to Jesus is King. After another failed release date, radio silence and Sunday Service events in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Salt Lake City, and even Kingston Jamaica, Kanye West re-appeared to finally release the album coinciding with the release of his newest IMAX film Jesus is King: A Kanye West Film at the end of October. 

Jesus is King clocks in at just-over 27 minutes across the record’s eleven tracks, and features what many outlets are describing as the most dramatic Kanye change yet. While Kanye West has always been a very religion-oriented rapper, this is his first record that is absent of profanity. While some argue that this is the next step in the rapper’s career, it seems much more likely that this album is simply reactive to the past 1-2 years of Kanye’s life. Between West’s mental illness diagnosis and increased presence in “church”, Jesus is King is a love-letter to the force that West attributes his ‘saving’ to: God. In interviews with Zane Lowe and Big Boy, West notes constantly about how he feels like he has been a slave to hip-hop culture, and this record is a catharsis from the person he was a year ago, attending the Pornhub awards and rapping with Lil Pump about sex on the track ‘I Love It’. Today, West stands liberated from the culture that he has been consistently redefining for the entirety of his career, though whether or not Jesus is King will withstand the test of time is yet to be seen.

The album begins with ‘Every Hour’ featuring the Sunday Service choir. While the track is a beautiful gospel arrangement with bright and powerful piano melodies, it seems to begin out of nowhere, abruptly beginning the album by dropping us into the middle of church. This is a small complaint however, as the track is enjoyable while it’s on, though the chance it will see play at the next party you attend is probably unlikely. The track precedes ‘Selah’, an ambient and cinematic track with ominous pad harmonies and West both rapping and citing Bible verses. The citations paired with West’s line “If you woke don’t wake up” may roll eyes, but this track has a very strong emotional register that persists throughout the album as a whole. There is a religious message here that wasn’t present on the version of Selah that leaked online weeks prior, one that is almost critical of the fans and culture that he perceives as limiting to his own growth. 

Though there is a seed of truth in this observation, West is trying to send a well-intentioned personal message using a comically poor universal metaphor of religion. This is not the first time he has fallen victim to putting his foot in his mouth like this, as he has been guilty of this exact sentiment numerous times whether it arises from supporting a poor political candidate in order to preach tolerance, or by drawing parallels between the behavioral limitations of the status quo and *actual* slavery. It is important in these instances that we go beyond the initial shock of these poorly phrased statements in order to extract a deeper message for several reasons, most notably to gain some insight inside West’s commentary that the media may not provide. 

Next on the record is ‘Follow God’, a formulaic Kanye West banger that synthesizes soul samples and hip-hop percussion. West criticizes his relationship to hip-hop culture with the lines “Only ever seeing me / Only when they needed me ... Searching for a deity / Now you wanna see a freak”, and in doing so provides an interesting look at what it is like to be the person that has been the centerpiece of hip-hop for over a decade. Though this may seem like an exaggeration to the listener, it forces a kind of mindfulness into the relationship between consumer and artist, as the song title perhaps mirrors West’s desire for the consumer to follow God instead of a celebrity. There are a few glaring shortcomings with this track: the tone and delivery of West’s rapping does not deviate too much throughout the track, and the mixing seems to be fairly poor as the 808s and kicks get drowned out by the soul sample. Despite this, ‘Follow God’ is an energetic and fun track that features West doing what he does best.

Very few tracks on the record have received criticism like ‘Closed On Sunday’, a beautifully composed track whose Achilles heel is found in the pseudo-humorous lyricism. The fated chorus “Closed on Sunday / You my Chick Fil-A” attracted a huge amount of attention during the public listening events held before the album’s release, and though many reduce the song to that one irony, there is something about this track that reads as entirely new. While it could be the dramatic aural profile bestowed upon the song by its haunting gospel choirs, acoustic guitar, and synthesizers, it could also simply be the Jezebel and Chick Fil-A references in tandem. Though West is almost certainly being tongue-in-cheek with this one, it is strange to hear “No more living for the culture / We nobody’s slave” in one moment, and “You my number one / With the lemonade” together. The impressive production features guest efforts from legend Timbaland, and the track ends as quickly as it began with A$AP Bari yelling “Chick Fil-A!”.

The fifth track on Jesus is King is ‘On God’, a futuristic and sleek track produced by none other than Pi’erre Bourne. The song features rapid arpeggiated synths and chiptune melodies existing in harmony alongside sparse percussion and West’s rapping, as he begins the track by rapping "‘How you get so much favor on your side?’ / ‘Accept Him as your Lord and Savior’ I replied”. The track is a fairly straightforward, and though West’s verses feature clever one liners, like “Follow God” the flow rarely features any variation.

“Everything We Need” follows, featuring Ant Clemons, Ty Dolla $ign, and even production from Ronny J. Though the track was leaked long ago as ‘The Storm’ which also featured a verse from the late XXXTentacion, this version feels much more coherent. West has an additional verse, the lyrics seem much more consistent, and though Kanye’s vocals come off as a little rough, the track is much more consonant with the theme of Jesus is King. 

The following track, ‘Water’ featuring Ant Clemons, was first debuted at Coachella, and though many fans were worried, it managed to make the final cut of the record. Ant Clemons’ vocals sound amazing, the instrumental and gospel harmonies are beautiful, and the track’s unique vintage feel gives Jesus is King some much-needed variety. For whatever reason, it seems like West and camp decided to squeeze in a new verse last-minute which sits on the track unmixed, poorly written, and monotonous on an otherwise powerful emotional track. West’s begging to Jesus for strength and wealth makes their relationship seem much more toxic and overly dependent, and stands at odds with the message of their mutualistic relationship that is found in so many other moments on the record. Though this new verse is as unwelcome as it is confusing, a CDQ version ‘Water’ was worth the wait.

‘God Is’ is a bouncy and upbeat track laden with Pharrell-esque 808s and heavy choir usage. There is not too much to note about this song, as West’s line “I know Christ is the fountain that fills my cup” encapsulates the entire theme of praise on this three and a half minute performance. While enjoyable, “God Is” feels like filler because there is not too much on this track that is not able to be found elsewhere, and the timbre of West’s vocals feels rough and poorly-executed. ‘Hands On’ featuring Fred Hammond and Francis and the Lights is similar in this respect because though the track helps provide a window into West’s mind, it does little more than highlight West’s messiah/victim complex. The track features vocoder vocals and lurching synth melodies, both of which serve to convey a dejected and menacing emotional tone. Neither of these two tracks take away from the record, but neither of them contribute too much to Jesus is King either. 

The penultimate track ‘Use This Gospel’ is one of the highlights of the album for many. The song is a handful of random elements: Kanye sings about God on the hook, Clipse reunites with both Pusha T and No Malice delivering great verses, Kenny G has his own saxophone solo, and the instrumental even samples a car chime sound with West’s classic transposed vocoder-esque vocals along with it. Despite this, the track actually comes together pretty well, though the weak link is definitely West’s unmixed hook about gospel music. This track initially leaked as ‘Chakras / Law of Attraction’, and featured a much stronger hook by Ty Dolla $ign. Though Clipse did not appear on that earlier YANDHI demo, West did have an erratic and hype verse where he yells about “Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto! / We in the game, we in the game!... / Money ain’t real! / Time aint real!”. Though some prefer the older version, the updated vocals during No Malice’s verse were beautiful and the additional drums on the closing moments of the track gave the song a much more enjoyable feel to it. 

The album ends with ‘Jesus is Lord’, a brass heavy track where Kanye sings about Jesus and how he is lord. At under a minute, it ends quickly, and Jesus is King is over. 

Many of the complaints of this album stem from it feeling ‘unfinished’ (an intentionally vague term that I hate to use), but there is truth to this judgement. Some of the verses are unmixed, and feature weak writing full of religious platitudes and moments that feel dissonant with the album’s coherent message. It seems obvious that this record went through a strong period of rushing to get it finished on time, and because of that many fans are left unsatisfied wishing that they had received YANDHI, and tracks like the leaked ‘New Body’ (featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Nicki Minaj) instead. While those criticisms are all valid, it seems apparent as well that many of the negative judgements surrounding this album exist in the realm of comparison and hypotheticals. It does not take a Kanye West apologist to stand back and appreciate the album for what it is, as many of the tracks on this album are still largely enjoyable despite having glaring flaws. Overall, this record marks what could be a strong turning point in Kanye’s career, and though this album will likely receive mixing updates (it has already received one, mere days after its release), many tracks still stand strong and leave many optimistic for what Kanye has in store for the future.

Stream the album below.

Reviewed by: Carter Fife