Why 'Jesus is King' is the Anti-'Yeezus'
Six years apart, Kanye demonstrates two completely different personas with Yeezus and JESUS IS KING.
Written by Thomas Galindo
Illustrated by Mark Yoder
Do you remember those “Fairly OddParents” episodes where Cosmo and Wanda would butt heads with their counterparts, Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda? If not, in the Nickelodeon show from my childhood, Cosmo and Wanda were fairy godparents who came from a fairy universe, that had an alternate universe, which was full of anti-fairies. They were the complete opposite of Cosmo and Wanda, in terms of personality, intellect, and morals. Kanye West has managed to complete this dynamic in the real world, with only one person — himself. In different times in his life, Kanye has been Kanye, and he has been Anti-Kanye, Yeezy, and Anti-Yeezy. To mark these points in his life, he released two albums that perfectly represent who Kanye was at these moments in time. In 2013, we had Yeezus. Now in 2019, we have JESUS IS KING, or what I like to call Anti-Yeezus.
Let’s get some of the blaring opposites out of the way between these two albums to start off. First, Yeezus is a clear play on the name Jesus, where Kanye compares himself to the Christian deity. And then there’s JESUS IS KING, a title meant to praise the Christian figure. The third song on the tracklist for JESUS IS KING is titled “Follow God.” The third song on Yeezus? “I Am a God (feat. God).” The first song on Yeezus, titled “On Sight,” shows Kanye boastfully bragging about his sexual prowess and displays misogynistic themes, with the premise of the song being that he can have sex with any woman “on sight.” This is in great contrast to his verse in “Hands On” on JESUS IS KING, where he says “told the devil when I see him, on sight.” And lastly, the cover of Yeezus is the shining CD in its clear case, while JESUS IS KING is a dark blue vinyl record.
While those may seem like superficial reasons to suggest these albums are complete opposites, the theme and lyrics are what drive home this idea. Yeezus is a 40 minute, 10 song album full of futuristic, electronic-sounding production and some of the raunchiest, most distasteful lyrics hip-hop has ever heard in a project. It is full of themes of Black power, clever wordplay of sexual conquests such as “put my fist in her like a civil rights sign,” and an overall statement against racism in the fashion industry. JESUS IS KING, on the other hand, is a 27 minute, 11 song album full of choir hymns, praying to Jesus, and statements of Kanye trying to drive home the idea that he has been reborn into a Christian lifestyle. One album gives blatant spite for everyone that isn’t Kanye West, while the other gives us a Kanye begging Jesus to cleanse him, and taking jabs at modern Christians that don’t accept his conversion. The themes of these albums are completely different, and there are many instances of lyrics that are complete heel turns in terms of morals and priorities in Kanye’s life.
In the first song on Yeezus, “On Sight,” the chorus is actually a choir that sings “Oh, he’ll give us what we need, it may not be what we want” clearly referring to God and his plan for his children, us humans. But Kanye uses this to refer to himself, and to demonstrate that he is basically going to give us whatever music he wants to give us, and we are going to like it, because he is a godly figure — which is clear, blatant heresy. The first song on JESUS IS KING also contains a choir, but the entire song is just the choir singing about God’s power. We don’t see Kanye rapping on JESUS IS KING until the second track “Selah,” where he spits the bar, “everybody wanted Yandhi, then Jesus Christ did the laundry.” Yes, Kanye gave us JESUS IS KING instead of his highly-anticipated album Yandhi, where again in the title, he compares himself to Mahatma Gandhi, another spiritual and political figure. But he had a change of heart. While on JESUS IS KING he talks about Jesus’ healing power, in Yeezus on “Send It Up” he says “Yeezus just rose again,” once again comparing himself in a blasphemous way to Jesus. He does this a lot on Yeezus, where he compares himself and his aura to Jesus. On “I Am a God,” he says, “I know he the most high, but I am a close high.” And not only that, instead of the series of prayers calling out to Jesus for help that are prominent on the song “Water” on JESUS IS KING, on Yeezus he gives commands to an unnamed woman or subordinate to make it seem like he is godlike — “hurry up with my damn massage, hurry up with with my damn menage, get the Porsche out the damn garage.”
Other examples of lyrical pivots from Yeezus to JESUS IS KING include on the song “I’m In It” from Yeezus where he spits “I’m a Raplic (wordplay of Catholic) priest, getting head by the nuns” compared to “use this gospel for protection, it’s a hard road to heaven” on JESUS IS KING’s “Use This Gospel.” This song also has a feature from Clipse, the rap group comprised of frequent Kanye collaborator Pusha T and his brother, now Christian rapper No Malice. Pusha T spits a Christian rap verse here, a year after spitting the bar “I got the devil flow n----, 666” on his Drake diss “The Story of Adidon.” Another change Kanye has made from 2013 to 2019 is his stance on drugs and alcohol, where in Yeezus on the song “Hold My Liquor” he says “I can’t handle no liquor, but these bitches can’t handle me” and then on JESUS IS KING he says “pour the lean out slower, got us clean out of soda,” demonstrating that he rejects these vices now.
Yes, Yeezus and JESUS IS KING are polar opposites. As No Malice says in “Use This Gospel,” one gives you “wraith talk,” and the other gives you “faith talk.” But just like the anti-fairies, there is one similarity between the two. For Anti-fairies, the fairies and anti-fairies look exactly alike, just in a different color. For Yeezus and Anti-Yeezus, it is the nature of the criticism that Kanye gripes about from traditional Christians. On “Black Skinhead” from Yeezus, Kanye spits “if I don’t get ran out by Catholics, here come some conservative Baptists” meaning if it’s not one Christian denomination criticizing him, it’s another. And on “Hands On” from JESUS IS KING, he spits “said I’m finna do a gospel album, what have you been hearing from the Christians?/They’ll be the first ones to judge me, make it feel like nobody love me.” While we’re getting two completely different Kanyes, one thing still remains true six years later: he gets no love from Christians, even after naming his album JESUS IS KING.
The dynamic of Yeezus and JESUS IS KING is much like the fairies and the anti-fairies. Cosmo is a naive, fun-loving, unintelligent idiot, while Anti-Cosmo is a serious, short-tempered, sharp-witted character. Wanda is a responsible, practical, and respectable fairy, while Anti-Wanda is a stupid, silly, and irritating character. Much like these comparisons, Yeezus is a brash, in-your-face, irreverent album where Kanye’s motivation is to spite anybody who is opposed to him, while JESUS IS KING is a graceful, non-explicit, religious album where Kanye seeks redemption for his past.