Kanye West’s new album has received the worst reviews from critics and listeners in the artist’s career. But it’s still great music. We’ll explain why that’s the case.
This lyric should have been out a week ago, when the whole internet was discussing Kanye’s new album. And has been reblogged so many times it’s embarrassing to say it out loud. For a long time I couldn’t figure out what it was that wasn’t working. And now it’s come to me: I can’t analyze “Jesus Is King”, take it apart and explain why “Kanye isn’t the same anymore” or vice versa.
Well, the man stopped cursing and gave up vulgar sex punches. So, he devoted an entire release to faith. Like his breakthrough hit wasn’t called “Jesus Walks”. Like he wasn’t already giving up swearing on “808s & Heartbreak.”
It’s still the same Kanye – with his love of soul (“Follow God”), 808’s minimalism (“Selah”) and spot-on use of guest guests (Ty Dolla $ign and the Clipse band). Die-hard fans didn’t hear anything new on “Jesus is King” at all.
Probably, in my ranking of Kanye albums, “Jesus is King” would have come in just last, 11th place. It can only be compared to “The Life of Pablo”. That too did not surprise the listener in any way and was remembered first and foremost for what surrounded its release: postponements, changes on the fly and coming out at the very last moment.
You could say there was nothing surprising about “ye” either. But that’s where Kanye first opened up from an unexpected angle and devoted a significant portion of that album to battling his inner demons.
“Honestly, sell the skills, I’d be Talib Kweli,” Jay-Z read in the 2003 song “Moment of Clarity.” Sean Carter in 2003 is one of the main rap stars and the man who packed Madison Square Garden for the launch of “The Black Album” (where he did not allow Kanye to perform, much to the chagrin of young West). Talib Kweli in 2003 was the golden child of the underground, the honor and conscience of conscious hip-hop. It was Talib who first gave Kanye a chance – called him up to warm up for his tour (sounds funny now, yeah) and let him rap on the “Get By” remix.
What does that have to do with “Jesus Is King” and today’s Kanye? He took Talib Kweli’s message – and brought it to the masses. He was never afraid to be a preacher. The song “All Falls Down” was about our dependence on material wealth. Is it much different from “Selah” with direct quotes from the Bible?
Is the message of this album much different from “Yeezus”? “Once they start liking you, you’ve never kissed anybody’s ass,” Kanye said on “I Am a God.” “Try to live right,” he says in the first line of “Follow God.”
It’s just that for the previous 16 years Kanye had been “preaching” in a fundamentally different language. But musically he has not changed at all – he refers to the sound of all his albums at once, it is easy to find points of intersection with “College Dropout” or “MBDTF”.
Kanye reminds the late Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese soccer coach was also an innovator and self-loving egomaniac for most of his career. He too took his first big trophy, the Champions League with Porto, in 2004, when College Dropout came out. For more than 10 years José was remembered for his provocative statements (“I am special”) and high-profile victories (he took the championship of every country in which he worked).
The last couple of years Mourinho is not so bright, narcissistic and uncompromising, but still a respected man (albeit with an army of devoted haters) and a quality specialist – not for nothing he is being actively welcomed to Bayern.
That’s what Kanye 2019 is all about. This is not 2010. Kanye West isn’t making breakthrough albums. Jose isn’t winning the league.
The sooner everyone stops drawing parallels to Kanye and his “divine essence,” the easier his music will be perceived.
Because “Jesus Is King” is a simple and cool album by a man who has turned this rap game around so many times in the last 16 years, enough is enough. It’s not the album of the year, it’s not the new word in Christian rap, and it’s not the album we’ll be summing up the decade with.
“Jesus Is King” is just good music. Just like that, without any extra words or a thousand arguments.
Let a man breathe. Kanye has been in the history of music for a long time as it is. So is Jesus in the history of mankind. Like Jose Mourinho in soccer history. And Kanye’s crown is long gone.