Album Review: 'JESUS IS KING' Dethrones Kanye West from the Rap Royalty He Helped Create
Time has finally caught up to Kanye West: where once his music defined the rap genre and influenced the entire industry, his latest album JESUS IS KING is ill-conceived and spends its duration playing catch-up with itself.
Written by Minnah Zaheer
Photo courtesy of Getty Images
To put it incredibly mildly, Kanye West is no stranger to bold decisions. For over a decade, his musical prowess as well as his persona have been topics of hot discussion. West doesn’t do anything quietly, even in his public life — from interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Movie Awards in 2009, to the worldwide success of his Yeezy clothing and shoe line, to his absurd comments on race relations and his support for President Trump. Similarly, his music consistently exceeds expectations and blasts through the limitations and conventions of the rap genre.
Promotion for West’s highly anticipated follow-up to his collaboration with Kid Cudi, KIDS SEE GHOSTS, began in August 2018. West let two release dates come and go, followed by two more in 2019 when the album name was changed from Yandhi to JESUS IS KING. The night of Oct. 25th, its final and actual release date, the album was delayed a few more hours.
In true West fashion, his newest project is a loud declaration of West’s newfound dedication to God and Christianity. Religion has often been an underlying theme of West’s music, but JESUS IS KING takes it to new levels of gospel-inspired beats and lyrics straight out of a church service.
Despite West’s best effort to spread the word of God, his execution falls flat.
Where once Kanye was able to blend samples and genre-defying compositions to create unique and revolutionary tracks, JESUS IS KING is squarely the opposite: an overwhelmingly safe and boring layering of Christian messages over typical rap beats. For the most part, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the construction of any of the songs (the most notable exception being the unimaginative lyrics “Closed on Sunday, you're my Chick-fil-A” on the track named “Closed on Sunday” after the fast-food giant’s long-running dedication to Christian values). But the album as a whole lacks the innovation of production that presents itself on West’s previous projects.
JESUS IS KING contains the groundwork for a lot of very interesting production techniques and cross-genre elements. The song “Use This Gospel” reunites rap duo Clipse, consisting of brothers Pusha T and No Malice, and features a stripped-down saxophone solo from jazz legend Kenny G. One of only three tracks on the album to cross the three-minute threshold, the minimalist approach to the instrumental is reminiscent of previous West tracks like “Ultralight Beam” and “Love Lockdown,” but it feels like a long climb to nowhere. At least “Use This Gospel” makes the climb, a feat the rest of the tracks don’t even attempt.
Image courtesy of Hype Bae
Since 2016’s The Life of Pablo, West has released three projects: ye in 2018, KIDS SEE GHOSTS only a few months later, and now JESUS IS KING. All three albums clock in at less than 30 minutes and consist of songs mostly under three minutes long. Herein lies a key to understanding what may have started West’s decline: some of his most innovative tracks, including “Blood On The Leaves” off of Yeezus, “Monster” off of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and “Stronger” off of Homecoming, run for over five minutes. West’s most revolutionary moments come when he doesn’t think about the clock and instead lets his genius roam as long as it may need. Although West would risk angering fans even more than he already has by letting release dates come and go, JESUS IS KING’s strong concept would have been much more successful with just a little more time in the oven.
Despite features and samples from a plethora of artists, the elements of the album feel disjointed and thrown together at the last second which, West himself admitted, is at least partially true. The chorus of “Everything We Need” feels like it comes from a completely different song from its verses, a concept not foreign to West — Bound 2, off West’s 2013 album Yeezus, accomplishes this masterfully. But this track, which features Ty Dolla $ign and frequent West collaborator Ant Clemons, doesn’t take nearly as many risks as it should and feels half-baked.
West is one of the most critically acclaimed artists of the 21st century, and his songs often achieve commercial success as well. His influence on the rap genre goes without saying, as many famous rappers have cited West as a key inspiration. But with JESUS IS KING, West signals a change in tune — stepping too far into his comfort zone of gospel-inspired tracks may work for megachurches across the world, but it fails to deliver tracks we can really sink our teeth into the way his previous work has done. Maybe if West stops making projects for the sake of keeping his name in the headlines and instead focuses on the music itself, the way he once did, he’d get back to the level of mastery where he once operated.