Kanye West’s only 2021 Grammy nomination is in a surprising category: Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for “Jesus Is King”.
The divisive album – which scored 53/100 on the Metacritic aggregator rating – is likely to be overshadowed in the musician’s legacy by his bizarre 2020 presidential race and the breakup of his marriage to Kim Kardashian, but it represents a crucial turning point in West’s personal life. : His conversion to Christianity born again.
West’s Christianity was never hidden, obviously: we’re talking about an artist who said in one of his most beloved songs (“Jesus Walks”): “They say you can rap about anything except Jesus / That means guns, sex, lies, videotape / But if I talk about God my record will not be played. ”
In 2004, “Jesus Walks” became West 20’s third single in the Top 20 in a row, won the Grammy for Best Rap Song and ended up winning a double platinum record by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Another line of the song – “My mother used to say that only Jesus can save us” – sheds light on the religious education of the star while offering a preview of her fixation on sin and salvation. He would end up rapping on “Otis”, from his collaboration with Jay-Z “Watch the Throne”, “I did ‘Jesus Walks’, I will never go to hell.”
Warning: Explicit language
But West would take a detour before returning to Jesus. Although his 2005 album “Late Registration” featured tracks like “Heard ‘Em Say” and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”, which addressed broader social issues as his career progressed, it would be difficult for anyone, given the song titles – “ Champion ”,“ Stronger ”,“ Can’t Tell Me Nothing ”,“ Amazing, ”“ Power ”- to think that West was focused on something other than Ser Kanye West. (He stated that “enough drugs for me / p – y and religion is all I need” in “Hell of A Life”.)
In “Yeezus” in 2013, he was declaring: “I am a God”, in which he tapped: “I just spoke to Jesus, He said:” What’s up, Yeezus? “/ I said,” S – t, I’m relaxing trying to stack those millions “/ I know he’s the tallest, but I’m high,” which prefigures West’s later association with mega-church pastor Joel Osteen .
But as his career was on the rise, West spoke with a little more nuance about his evolving relationship with God in interviews.
“I am like a vase and God chose me to be the voice and the connector,” he told The Fader in 2008. “I cannot be responsible. I’m fine, but I’m not that good. So my job is just to be in the studio and make videos, and I just stay here and let God do the rest. “
A year later, he was saying to Vibe: “I don’t believe in religion and giving everything to Jesus and things like that. I do not believe that. I simply believe in God. I would never say that it is in the hands of Jesus. ”
He expanded on this in an excluded interview with Bossip, also in 2009, saying that although he was “taught to believe that everyone is going to hell” and that he “[believed] in Jesus as an icon ”, he“[didn’t] I feel a responsibility to put my life in Jesus. ”
“I feel like I need to take responsibility for my own successes and failures,” he continued. “What I say: ‘I don’t give everything to Jesus’ is because there are many people who do not take responsibility for their lives and always think that Jesus will take care of that. And that is what I refuse to do ”.
The sequel to “Yeezus”, “The Life of Pablo” 2016, pushed West’s recorded production further in explicitly religious directions. The gospel and the samples adjacent to the gospel have always been part of his production arsenal, but “Pablo’s” single “Ultralight Beam” made it explicit with the presence of contemporary gospel superstar Kirk Franklin and Chance the Rapper, who he also moved away from Christianity before making it a central part of his artistic identity.
Warning: Explicit language
The album’s title, West stated, was nebulously a reference to Apostle Paul (“Pablo” being a Spanish form of “Paulo”). And while Kanye continued to exalt Kanye with “Famous” and “I Love Kanye” – even though the latter was an ironic jab to himself – “Father Stretch My Hands” was centered around a sample of gospel musician and preacher TL Barrett, juxtaposed as he was against the typically Western raunch.
The non-religious aspects of West’s life came to light after “Pablo”. He postponed the album’s support tour dates after Kardashian was mugged in Paris in October 2016, ending everything in November after a week of missing dates, short presentations and increasingly long speeches on stage. West was hospitalized shortly thereafter, after reporting that he suffered a nervous breakdown and went on to take a prolonged break from the public.
In 2018, his support for President Donald Trump, controversial comments about slavery to TMZ and a series of promises about albums that would never materialize were monopolizing conversations about his career.
In 2019, the first tip about West’s new direction emerged. His invitation-only Sunday Service series, during which he reworked his old hits in a more gospel style, became a hit and he finally brought the extravagant show to Coachella in April 2019. The series had its own bad publicity, though , with many mocking, for example, West’s service merchandise, which included a $ 225 sweatshirt with the words “trust God”
And while West could complain in September 2020 that he spent $ 50 million on the series in 2019, the rapper was hit in two class actions alleging mistreatment of artists and staff, including non-payment.
In the summer of 2019, the news of West’s apparent conversion was starting to spread. In July, during an interview with Chance the Rapper on her Queen Radio show, Nicki Minaj revealed that West had personally described himself as a born-again Christian for her. The following week, during an interview with Zane Lowe, Chance said he may have influenced West’s religious views, saying, “I can’t identify a time when it was like, yes, there is your – I don’t even know what to call it – your revelation, but he always likes to refer to me when he talks about it. “
In late August, Kardashian announced that West’s new album would be released in September and would be called “Jesus Is King”. As the release date came and went, some Christians went online to express their discontent with West’s newfound religious zeal, but more news flowed to reassure them.
In October, Kardashian revealed that she and the children were baptized during a trip to Armenia, where their father’s ancestors are, shortly after Adam Tyson, a Southern California pastor, told Fox News that he was leading the West in a Bible study for months. Tyson also revealed that West told him that he wanted to stop rapping, referring to it as “the devil’s music”.
Also in October, West went to Lowe’s Beats 1, giving his most in-depth interview about his rediscovered faith. He said he started reading the Bible during his hospitalization in 2016 for mental health problems and started “writing and copying Bible verses”, adding: “Now that I am in the service of Christ, my job is to spread the Gospel, to let people people know what Jesus did for me. ”
“I just had to hand this over to God,” he said of the personal low points, adding: “The more I am in the service of God, I just clear my head and wake up more empty each day and let God drive and just use me. as he can. “
“I know that God has been calling me for a long time and the devil has been distracting me for a long time,” West continued to say in November during an interview with the pastor of the Osteen mega-church in Houston. He again traced his awakening until his hospitalization, saying that God “was there with me, sending me visions, inspiring me”.
Not everyone was convinced by “Jesus is the king”. Some refused to give way to West, such as minister, educator and activist Alicia Crosby, who told Time in November 2019 that “You can have ‘Hallelujah’ on a banner, but that doesn’t mean it is a gospel. It is a weak theology, it is not substantive, it is not glorifying ”and he called the album“ boring ”.
University of Virginia professor Ashon Crawley failed to reconcile West’s previous comments with his gift, writing in an NPR opinion piece that “Kanye West used the concept of salvation … to prohibit thoughtful involvement in his policy “.
As 2019 entered a new decade, West’s insistence on running for president in the 2020 election began to overshadow his religion. He told GQ in May that he “was definitely born again”, adding: “Now, all this energy and creativity that I channeled and put into practice comes from my surrender to God and saying that everything is in God’s will. ”But as his“ campaign ”progressed, his faith took a back seat to the damage he seemed to be doing to his personal life.
In July, at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, West burst into tears when he said that he and Kardashian had discussed the abortion of their first daughter, daughter North, a moment that left Kardashian “mortified” – and “desperately worried. “with your state of mind. West would continue to focus on abortion while continuing the “campaign”, telling Nick Cannon in September that God had revealed to him “the black genocide that is abortion”.
West “granted” the election in November in a tweet that apparently also announced its intention to run again in 2024, but the damage was done. Sources told Page Six that her erratic campaign made Kardashian realize that she “needed to end the marriage for the sake of her children and her own sanity”. She finally filed for divorce in February 2021, a month after Page Six revealed exclusively that a separation was imminent.
West reportedly has an album, in honor of his mother Donda, in the works. Although he has been seen in Los Angeles since the separation and visits his children in Calabasas, California, he has been quiet on social media and has not given new interviews.
Given the weird post-COVID shape of the Grammy in 2021, West’s presence is a question mark. None of the nominees in their category have won before, so the field is open. Whether West’s revival in Christianity will mark a lasting change in his life or just another left turn in a career full of them remains to be seen, but for a time it was his own ultralight beam, shining brightly through a long and dark night.