In his first solo full length album since the brutally honest “Ye”, Kanye West has returned in full force. After months of strange political activism, offhanded comments about slavery and femininity, and his avid support for President Donald Trump, Mr. West has released his first gospel album, Jesus is King. Although Kanye is no stranger to controversy, this past few years have brought on an unprecedented level of flack from the public.
Arguably his most high profile controversy was his infamous statement, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years … For 400 years? That sounds like a choice… You were there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned.” Many deemed these comments as tone deaf, ignorant, and racist, including famed director Spike Lee, who in an instagram post of himself and West, captioned “Where Is This Brother In The Picture Next To Me??? I Would Not Be Surprised If OUR Ancestors Are Not Pleased With Your Uneducated Comments… WAKE UP!”
However, most recently, Kanye has been in the news for his newfound religious identity. This new Kanye has been adamant about his Christian awakening, with his first full clean album ever, a plan to release clean versions of old songs and a controversial decision to advocate against premarital sex amongst his collaborators, saying “There were times where I was asking people not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album.” Kanye even name drops the Christian-rooted fast food chain Chick-fil-A on “Closed on Sunday”, singing “Closed on Sunday, you’re my Chick-fil-A,” to the delight of Twitter users, who flooded the web with memes about this lyric within minutes of its release.
The most important proponent of Kanye’s new identity as an artist is his Sunday Services. Brought to Coachella, Atlanta and Wyoming, the Sunday Service is a communal gospel performance that according to Kim Kardashian has “Christian vibes”. The Sunday Service is becoming a Whos-who of American celebrities. On any given Sunday, you could find multiple members of the Kar-Jenner clan, Brad Pitt, Travis Scott, Chance The Rapper, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Jaden Smith, and more, all who have attended Sunday Services in the past. This summer, the live Sunday Service at Coachella was live-streamed to audiences worldwide.
Kanye’s new, purer image is a sharp contrast to the Kanye many knew and loved for so long. Kanye’s new stance on his female family members not being too “sexy” or scandalous is a sharp contrast to his former image. Now he chides Kim Kardashian when she dresses too “sexy”, but in 2013, she appeared in his “Bound 2” music video completely topless. Kanye claims this is simply himself becoming a more enlightened Christian, but others have deemed it as hypocritical and sexist.
There will always be controversial figures in music. With social media, DailyMail, TMZ and other celebrity news outlets publicize almost everything a celebrity does. This makes it increasingly more difficult to be a non-controversial public figure, because no one will ever unanimously agree on anything, and when anything and everything is publicized, controversy can be cooked up with ease. And while this is the case, it still rings true that Kanye is Kanye. Whether it is the old Kanye or the new Kanye you prefer, there is no doubt that he is the most controversial artist of the 21st century, and that his unhinged quality is what makes him great.