Get your soul sanctified on the Kanye West JESUS IS KING thread

the album is bad but I do find myself interested in it because one of my best friends went through a similar arc as Kanye

in his teens/early 20s he was pretty well-liked, known as a funny & smart dude who was generally very good at most of the things he tried. also very competitive and didn't take criticism well

later he got into drugs & compounded with some personal tragedies he started getting very odd. he's never been diagnosed as such but I am pretty sure he was bipolar. would have depressive phases where we wouldn't see him for weeks and manic phases where he'd say some pretty worrying shit. like I remember him laying on the floor in his bedroom saying he was the second coming of Christ and that he could bend the universe to his will.

obviously this scared the hell out of everyone since no one knew what he was gonna do. but he quit his job, stopped paying rent, and was acting very erratic so his roommates had no choice but to kick him out and call his parents. didn't see him for years after that.

now he is very religious, hangs out exclusively in church groups and is almost entirely clean (he drinks the occasional Bud Light). he's in a much better place mentally but still kinda...absent. like he has no clue what's really going on in the world. but he seems a lot happier than he was and we're all relieved to have our friend back. in some form at least

Has there been interesting reviews from christian perspectives? I don't follow that circle.

― Van Horn Street, Sunday, October 27, 2019 8:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

https://neemblog.home.blog/2019/10/26/the-apostle-kanye/

I'm considering this might be one of those records that's outsider or fascinatingly bad?

Also a question/observation for production people:
I'm curious about this new updated version of autotune. I'm also hearing it on Tyler The Creator "Black Magic Wand" and on the recent Lil B mixtape ("Crying In The Club"). I haven't heard it in any big radio/chart singles yet (to my knowledge). It performs the typical "enhancement" to make the vocal textures sound less robotic, but this new version changes the voice so drastically that it sounds like it's coming from an entirely different person.

pi'erre bourne's beat on 'on god' is good, but the rest is not worth hearing.

I'm considering this might be one of those records that's outsider or fascinatingly bad?

It's not. It's just boring.

I listen to a good amount of gospel and imho the parts of this that aren't completely horrible are still no better than 19000 other forgettable gospel-rap tapes out there. Only difference is Kanye seems to think no one has ever done it before.

Listened to this again this morning and the surprise Kenny G sax solo is honestly really hysterical

Snoop made the better gospel rap album.

said the same upthread!

Gospel Gangstaz are the gold standard

Which means Ron Paul loves them

what percent of this conversion is just so he can use his newfound piety as a cudgel to beat critics with

lol that this record is basically this Chick tract come to life

https://i.imgur.com/nmZAp7d.png

They really nailed the hipster pizza aesthetic with that one

lol, my paste from kanyetothe last week nailed that Pitchfork would give this 7.2!

Kanye West is cracking the culture code.@kanyewest’s new album #JesusIsKing is the epitome of fearless creativity and “dangerous, unapproved” ideas.

Leftists always try to silence those who are speaking truth. They’re waging a war on our family and culture.

Kanye is a pioneer pic.twitter.com/EmPgLqgGZJ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 29, 2019

lock thread imo

you silencer

lol is that the preferred don jr white knighting term? someone called me that.

jesus policing

What's Obama's take on the new one?

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/23/771864891/forgotten-the-things-we-lost-in-kanyes-gospel-year?fbclid=IwAR3coAVSNQeZBBPbHwErhtEefd17q2rNsjnXHFSl4WLIkNPZTE4yyllMjfw

good take

That's a really great piece, thanks for sharing.

Kanye says God rewarded him with $68 million tax refund for becoming born-again Christian: https://t.co/rUvvhztYZP #KanyeWest pic.twitter.com/ijfhcdaErD

— Consequence of Sound (@consequence) October 29, 2019

somehow this is the exact brand of Christianity I figured he was gonna practice

As has been true for the last few years with KW, the associated merch line adds the perfect note of hilarious lunacy. Not just because he made this shit and thinks it looks good, but because other people will buy it and swear that it does look good, and wear it in public where other people can see them.

New “Jesus Is King” merch available NOW‼️https://t.co/qWDAxx4QX8 pic.twitter.com/0rUCKxj9cQ

— Def Jam Recordings (@defjam) October 30, 2019

Graphic design and Jesus are my passions

okay lol

impressively that's a step well beyond anything he's done before with his merch

only god can judge

and lo he rated it a 3.1 and there was much bewailing and gnashing of teeth thru thy wire

omg the sweatgarb!!!

Deliberately bad to get our attention.

I was at a bar Saturday night and the DJ played "Power" and "Through the Wire" and it kinda hit me that Kanye is sort of the Michael Jackson of this generation, I feel my kids are gonna ask me one day why this guy is so popular and I'll have to explain that he was actually very good once

That is an interesting hypothesis, may I respond with a "what? fuck no"

I don't think this generation has a Michael Jackson but if it's anyone, I'd argue it's Chris Brown

If by Michael Jackson you mean "versatile successful male pop singer that appeals to kids" (but not in *that* way), then the answer is Bruno Mars.

I am pretty sure he means "one-time dominant pop figure who has devolved into ridicule"

("but still has a fervent fanbase who passionately defends any old bullshit s/he releases")

the difference is he's still a dominant figure in pop culture & if you're younger than 14 then you pretty much only know him as an increasingly erratic weirdo

he's still a dominant figure in pop culture

This is a phrase you can define any way you want to, which means it's effectively meaningless. Does "dominant" mean "spawns hordes of imitators"? Does it mean "sells a lot of records" (hint: no, it does not)? Does it mean "journalists like to write about him"? If it's the latter, then forget about it, because the only people more resistant than music journalists to dropping their pre-existing narrative frameworks and allowing new information in are journalists covering US electoral politics. "Kanye West, dominant figure in pop culture" = "Reagan Democrat". It was true once upon a time, but quite a few years have passed and it's time to re-calibrate.

He does sell a lot of records for modern standards. Pretty much every album he has released is at least Gold and he has several multi-platinum ones. The only album of his which can be considered a complete failure is Ye, although Jesus is King seems like it might be another one.

Does "dominant" mean "spawns hordes of imitators"? Does it mean "sells a lot of records" (hint: no, it does not)? Does it mean "journalists like to write about him"?

the answers to all of these questions is a definite yes.

kanye's career has lasted long enough and has been through enough phases that his acolytes come in many forms--J Cole directly springs from wholesome, soul-sampling kanye, and travis scott was a major beneficiary of the yeezus sound.

does he sell a lot of records? well, nobody does except taylor, adele, and tool. his new album is more-than-likely gonna debut at #1 when the Billboard 200 comes out this week.

and i'm pretty sure you know that journalists love writing about him.

he sells a lot of sweatshirts, which inspired famous rapper earl sweatshirt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxIvg0y6vCY

he's also just a big figure in pop culture beyond music

yeezy shoes probably made more money than any rapper except Drake

he's also married to one of the biggest figures in pop culture

I am very angry about how many ass jokes popped into my head after reading M@tt's post

I went to see the new Terminator and somehow the projector person skipped all of the previews, and then played the first eight minutes of this.

I was temporarily very confused as to the new direction of the franchise until I figured out what it was.

angry that you thought of them, or angry that you felt too polite to say them?

xpost

Oh shit I'm dying at that Designing Merch for Kanye vid.

God I just watched that, amazing

Is that the Dunkey video?