![]() ![]() It’s no secret that Kanye isn’t a great lyricist. It’s so frustrating to see Kanye move from one of his most vulnerable projects, Ye (2018), to one of his least in Jesus Is King. ![]() I feel like it’s already been discussed at length, ad nauseam (here are a few articles which talk about Kanye’s politics, his lack of respect for fans, and his obvious media pandering if that’s what you’re here for), and so I feel less qualified to problematize listening to Kanye than I do to problematize the quality of the music, which in many ways hinges on Kanye’s personhood and just how unavailable it is across this album. I wish I was smart enough to make this article about the rightness or wrongness of listening to Kanye in our current landscape, or even to ethically justify my own listening, but I’m not, so I won’t. Listening to Kanye’s music right now is a complicated political and ethical issue, and it’s one I’ve wrestled with. I get that talking about this album primarily as music rather than in the context of Kanye’s public antics over the last two years is troubling. It fails to be good music, and then it fails to be good Christian music. ![]() I have worshipped to Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.” I have worshipped to Julien Baker’s “Rejoice.” I have worshipped to my childhood pastor’s rendition of “Come Thou Fount.” Anything that provides a framework upon which to toggle with God, to better define my relationship to him, is worship.Īll of this is why Jesus Is King (2019) is so monumentally disappointing to me. I’m a firm believer that anything can be worship, which is why I am consistently drawn back to a Jaques Maritain quote from his book, Art and Scholasticism, about making religious art: “If you want to make a Christian work, then be Christian, and simply try to make a beautiful work, into which your heart will pass do not try to ‘make Christian.’” The idea that the heart will pass, and that trying to “make Christian” is futile, is so important to my conception of worship. Not many Christian artists write music that functions this way-they have to think about radio plays and megachurch performances on Sunday mornings. My favorite Christian music depicts this messy tangle of faith. It’s a path mediated by blemish and regret and a love large enough to keep you attempting, failing, and repeating the process. Faith does not provide a simple or immediate path to purity, and it’s a deceptively difficult ideal towards which to strive. It’s seductive and crass, but also clearly in pursuit of something greater. Here’s an album, with cover art proudly displaying someone’s whole ass, that begins, entirely earnestly, with a gospel choir and a prayer. I had listened to Christian Rap music before, but this was different. It’s at once sparse and lush, autotuned and authentic, commercial and Christian. “Ultralight Beam” was (and continues to be) an infinite well of intrigue. For the next few days, it was on constant repeat in my headphones. I’m sure there were plenty of snippets floating around on television or at school dances, but the first time I sought out and listened to a Kanye track was in my AP Comparative Government class, pretending to read my textbook while listening to “Ultralight Beam.” I was a senior the first time I listened to a Kanye West song. I was ravenous about music in high school, desperately clawing to make up for lost time. It was my stepping stone into this massive, artistic world, one which I soon found I’d barely scratched the surface of. It had no words, so it existed in a blank space of religiosity. ![]() As a junior high boy, I went through the same dubstep phase everyone did (oh God, please tell me it was everyone), but for me, it was a transition into the world of secular music. The local Christian radio station, 91.7 KBNJ, was the number one preset in every car, and we listened to it daily on the way to school.Īs I got older, fewer restrictions were placed on my music consumption. Harmony-driven gospel and alternative, hip-hop fusion were my Christian genres of choice, so my musical life consisted primarily of artists like TobyMac, DC Talk, and the Gaither Vocal Band. Growing up, my brothers and I were only allowed to listen to Christian music, excluding the occasional Whitney Houston song my dad would smuggle onto a long car ride. ![]()
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