Jesus is King
| Kanye West
Jesus is King
Jesus Is King is the ninth studio album by American rapper Kanye West. The album follows a Christian theme, with West describing it as "an expression of the gospel." West had formed his Sunday Service group in January 2019, performing gospel songs and covers of songs from his discography. Sunday Service performed the songs "Water" and "Everything We Need" live prior to release. The album features guest appearances from Clipse, Ty Dolla Sign, Kenny G, Fred Hammond, Ant Clemons, and Sunday Service. The album features production from West, Benny Blanco, E*vax, Finatik N Zac, Francis Starlite, Labrinth, Pi'erre Bourne, Ronny J, Timbaland, and Warryn Campbell, among others.
West began recording in August 2018, originally announcing the album as Yandhi. The album missed two initial release dates in September and November 2018 under its original title, before being delayed indefinitely. In August 2019, West's wife Kim Kardashian reannounced the album as Jesus Is King but it missed two planned release dates for late September 2019. The album was released on October 25, 2019 through GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings; its release was simultaneous with that of a concert film of the same name.-"Wikipedia"
American rapper Kanye West released his ninth studio album—Jesus Is King—on October 25, 2019 through Def Jam Recordings and GOOD Music. West started recording the album in August of 2018, with multiple missed releases and an eventual indefinite delay. The album’s release was at the same time as that of his concert film sharing the same name.
Jesus Is King follows a Christian theme, with West turning to religion as his muse, describing a man’s love for his Lord. West formed a Sunday Service group at the beginning of 2019 where they performed gospel songs as well as covers from his discography. Read Kanye West’s album reviews here!
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Christianity is the unwavering focus of Kanye’s gospel album, a richly produced but largely flawed record about one man’s love of the Lord (and himself).
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Rolling Stone
On his ninth album, West turns to religion as his muse. It leads to moments of undeniable beauty, but little to hold onto. If West really, truly believed that it could save someone’s — everyone’s — immortal soul, you wish he had tried a little harder.
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NPR
On one of the most traditional gospel songs on the album, "God Is," he sings alongside the Sunday Service choir, his voice wavering and warbling. It's an imperfect performance, but it feels like this is West trying to bare himself, to put aside ego and perfectionism in the face of something greater. For a moment, you can almost believe him.
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Vulture
At 11 songs in 27 minutes, Jesus Is King feels even choppier than Ye, though it houses better beats and less embarrassing lyrics. The temptation to call it a serviceable Christian trap project and a necessary step back from the brink of destruction hinted at in songs like “Yikes” is strong, but the (orange) elephant in the room and the gaping hole in the logic animating this project deserve mention.
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Slate
On Jesus Is King, the spirit is willing, but the lyrics are weak.
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The Atlantic
The rapper’s Christian album is not a departure from his values but an intensification of them: boldness over coherence. Between the brash-beautiful production and the propagandistic lyrics, Jesus Is King doesn’t depict one man’s faith journey, but rather one man’s continuing Messiah complex—even as he professes new humility. He’s not coming to Christianity; he’s coming to conquer it.
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Hiphop DX
Kanye West's "Jesus Is King" Is A Sunday Service That Needed More Soul. While the album is admirable for its conviction and consistency, Mr. West’s musical sermon is lacking in high-impact spirituality à la The College Dropout.
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The Washington post
so thin, so incoherent, so incomplete, so uncommitted, so insincere.
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Consequence of Sound
Kanye West Even Bores God with the Passionless Jesus Is King Twenty-seven minutes of cliches, half-finished thoughts, and vaguely religious gesturing
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Complex
This is an album for the believers, except he doesn’t spend much time proselytizing on his own. When he’s made Christian music in the past, he’s always seemed more interested in signifying Christianity than practicing it. That doesn’t really change here. Jesus Is King is the least messy aspect of this current iteration of Kanye West. It’s a relatively inoffensive record created when every Kanye public appearance has his fans walking on pins and needles. This album doesn’t assuage those fears, but it doesn’t make them worse, either.
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The Guardian
Undercooked tracks on this gospel album don’t delve deep enough into West’s spiritual enlightenment. Jesus Is King might be the definitive assertion that West’s golden period is over. Being reborn as a preacher might be good for his soul, but don’t expect it to be good for his ends.
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NME
Like many great rock stars before him, Kanye West has cranked up God's jukebox. 'Jesus Is King' lacks his trademark goofball sense of humour, but that's partly compensated for with warmth and hope for the future
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NY Times
A more engaged and vivid album than “Ye,” from last year, though nowhere as robust as “The Life of Pablo” from 2016, it is bare-bones and curiously effective, emotionally forceful and structurally scant. It has the scent of haste, and also of urgency — these songs work familiar West turf, but with almost no filigree beyond faith.
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Telegraph
Kanye West has found God, and it turns out it is not himself. A producer-rapper who can be as divisively arrogant as he is dazzlingly brilliant, West has confounded expectations once again with a set of dramatic, evangelical hip hop testimonials.
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Esquire
Kanye West's Jesus Is King Is a Beautiful, If Twisted, Religious Testimony. We'll be unpacking Kanye's faith, his music, his lyrics, his all-encompassing persona and his shadow over music and pop culture. And, no matter what the consensus is, at least the music still sounds incredible.
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Time
While the best of West’s records are intensely personal and self-aware, Jesus Is King has a glazed-over quality, as if being delivered through stained glasses, or from the Sunken Place, the fictional purgatory from Get Out that West fears the most. While he professes to be “so radical” on “Everything We Need,” Jesus is King is strictly functional. It’s an album, ironically, weighed down by its lack of demons.
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Entertainment Weekly
It’s as unimaginative about its hollow ideas as Ye, but it is a comparatively tuneful 27 minutes that isn’t as crippled by prideful ugliness. That improvement from teetering on repugnant to okay means Kanye gets it together at least once.
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Independent
It’s no surprise, but still no less disappointing, that with all of West’s last-minute meddling of the album’s mixes the record lacks cohesion. Jesus is King feels more like a collection of well-produced skits than a full studio album, and fans will no doubt be wondering whether all the hype and stress that preceded its unveiling was worth it.
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Paste Magazine
For the first time in his career, Kanye has released something entirely boring and forgettable
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NOW
Jesus Is King provides an undeniably moving and distinct new chapter in the book of Kanye. Whether you choose to skip it or place it high on your mantel, its cultural significance is only bound to grow.
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USA Today
In some regards, "Jesus is King" is West's riskiest effort yet. Here, he completely abandons his provocative rhymes about fame, women and mental health, and potentially alienates longtime fans with chaste lyrics about God, heaven and staying on the straight and narrow. Interpolating Bible verses and Christian hymns, and frequently backed by a church organ and choir, the album suggests a bold new direction for the now-father of four (a musical path he looks to continue on with the just-announced "Jesus is Born," out Christmas Day.)
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Stereogum
Jesus Is King is a full-throated embrace of the gospel strain that’s been running through Kanye West’s music since the very beginning. West has, of course, been doing Sunday Service shows with a full gospel choir since the beginning of 2019, and that choir is all over Jesus Is King.
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The 405
While Kanye West recording his first true gospel album following a career of religious moments could, surely, have been deeply rewarding, Jesus is King is only a gospel album in name and gilded presentation. Kanye is still very much Kanye, and, more than ever, he's getting in his own way.
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Chicago Tribune
this sounds like a walk-through to West’s next destination, a tentative step that feels neither accomplished nor particularly memorable. As Pablo/Paul found, the road to Damascus is long.
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Las Angeles Times
West knows how to craft bangers, and there are plenty on “Jesus Is King”: “Follow God” and “On God” fall in line with the heady foot-stompers he’s been making for years. What’s certain is that West’s spiritual journey — whatever it may be — isn’t for us to judge. That lies between him and his god. But if his awakening has shown us anything, it’s how far we are from the Kanye West we once believed we knew.
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The Line of Best Fit
JESUS IS KING – which, at only twenty-seven minutes, is a short album at best – is a little average but mostly terrible. However, “Follow God” is a solid gold winner, and a sickening reminder of how good Ye has been in the past. Bulletproof beats, scratchy rapid-fire rapping, tight rhymes.
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Sputnik Music
Every aspect feels half-baked and rushed, but obviously more time in the oven didn’t help. I can only imagine, but I have a feeling like Kanye couldn’t make up his mind when it came to this artistic statement of worship and, as such, constantly fiddled with it, leaving the finished product haphazard and poorly constructed.
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Treble Zine
Jesus is King is not so much good as it is significant. Don’t listen to this record thinking this is nostalgia’s time-defying spaceship returning to Earth to bring you back to 2007. To appreciate Jesus is King, you need to sew Kanye’s misanthropic disillusion very tightly to the music. This is not the next phase of Kanye’s brilliance; this is devil-may-care exile from a job that can no longer maintain an illusion of nobility.
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MIC
Jesus Is King is not a gospel record per se, but it features the Sunday Service choir in several prominent spots and samples at least one other church group; it chops up old songs of praise and brings in organs where appropriate. The primary subject, as always, is Kanye West, but God is a very close second. It is musically coherent and thematically rote, a worthy counterweight to expensive shoes.
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The Musically Hype
the album has its moments, even though it never achieves the same level of excellence and master craft that characterized his best work. West never goes into depth regarding his faith – it’s mostly surface level – which doesn’t take JESUS IS KING to the next level. That said, he makes his point, and he is much less offensive on this project as he tries to live holy.
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Exclaim
Kanye's foray into gospel should have been a heavenly experience, but it's half-baked, incoherent and ultimately falls short of godly. Kanye stans will certainly get their fix from Jesus Is King, but for everyone else, it leaves much to be desired.
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