In 2008, there was a sure way to lure Kanye West into interviews from a dozing apathy. At the time, he was releasing his 808 & Heartbreak album, which could be said to have brought us the whole autotune boom in modern hip-hop. When Kanye was asked if he did not dare to sing properly, because he alienated his voice with an electronic device to hit the notes, he was suddenly wide awake: through the dark glasses of his then just lush blinds sunglasses sparkled he started one - and began to sing a little bit demonstratively: of course he could sing, but hello!
On "Jesus Is King," his ninth album released on Friday, Kanye West, 42, is singing very nicely, sometimes, for example, in the intro of "Water," with Autotune, sometimes even in "God Is." without, but with audible effort in the voice. It's the most beautiful and truest moment on the 27-minute album, because it reveals real feeling, soul, if you will. West sings with a lump in his throat, "listen to the words I'm sayin ', Jesus saved me, now I'm sane". Faith in Jesus saved him and made him well. Oh, one wishes so much that it is true.
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Photo gallery: The Change of Kanye WestBut it lacks faith. Because "Jesus Is King" may pretend spiritual awakening with ecstatic Hallelujah choirs, a transcendent or even pious soul or gospel album is frustratingly not. West can still call "Jesus Is Lord" or claim that God is everything He needs now ("Everything We Need"). On Sundays he can still so cheerfully call for his "Sunday Services" in the church or hold gospel services in picturesque desert craters as in the film also released on Friday: Relaxed, saved, does not sound that all, rather driven.
Evidence of this is the volatility of the individual pieces, which are barely more than three minutes long. There are only sketches, as last, on the album "Ye", with which he processed his mental illness, allegedly a bipolar disorder. So now his alleged purification through the belief in God and Jesus, where West, lovable megalomaniac as he is, leaves open, whether he is not perhaps even, God's representative on earth.
Nobody can deny its achievements in hip-hop and R & B over the past decade: After "808 & Heartbreak" anticipating the mumbling autotune trap, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" 2010 was its opulent, powerful Opus Magnum, a brilliant fusion of Pop and ego that brought hip-hop from the street to art galleries and salons. "Yeezus" established quite harshly the 2013 African-American identity search, which Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and others later formulated. But even "The Life Of Pablo" kept the fabric, the West for the publication made (delays, fumble until after the appearance) musically no longer stand.
And that's how it has stayed since then. West mutated from musical genius to gossip-alien, the crude theses on slavery and Trump spread, the songs he published, many seem only to serve as an explanation and justification attempts for all the nonsense, which he taps in between. But that's not very original.
Thus, even half an hour of "Jesus Is King" remains pale and unsatisfactory in the face of the spectacle of self-marketing and emotional drama, which West staged or staged in advance.
This is also because the whole redemption story of the misguided rapper, who is oriented towards Jesus in order to get on the right path, is a very old hat. Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper, to name but two recent examples, have already conveyed their spirituality more credibly and hauntingly in rap songs than West now.
In 2004, on his first album "The College Dropout", he already said: "They say you can rap except anything except for Jesus / That means guns, sex, read, video tape / But if I talk about God my record does not get played, huh? ", It says in" Jesus Walks ", according to the motto: We'll see, if you do not get into the playlists and charts with lyrics about Jesus and God.
"Jesus Is King" now looks more like the revanchist redemption of this private bet than a truly profound preoccupation with the faith. The only thing Kanye West really believes in is his claim to be the greatest and most ingenious artist of all time. No wonder that he always expresses the fixed idea of someday becoming President of the USA, most recently in an interview with radio DJ Zane Lowe. This is reminiscent of Grisu, the little cartoon dragon, defiantly euphoric, "I want to become a firefighter!"
But just as a fire-breathing dragon naturally remains an arsonist, Kanye West remains an ego-centrist who can not subordinate his ego to any higher authority. The lyrics of "Jesus Is King" are about him, an old leg about religion with his father, his claim to educate children in faith and to ban Instagram on Sundays or his dissatisfaction with Christians who do not buy his holiness from him ("Hands On"): I, I, me, me, me, me - now just without expressions in the texts, that would be unchristian.
Fair enough: Without narcissistic personality disorder you will not get very far in hip hop games. But with truly humble gospel albums released by West's musical ancestors like Al Green and Marvin Gaye, "Jesus Is King" has little in common, no matter how nice Kanye may sing about his own church day.
His soul remains the soap opera of a fame junkie, his gospel is not a service, but a dazzlingly produced ego trip. Ten years ago, one would probably have been hanging on his lips, today Reverend Kanye is likely to have trouble getting the masses in front of his pulpit: you just do not buy the sermon from him.