Kanye West Releases His Most Anticipated Gospel Album “Jesus Is King”

By Oba Williams-Cantine

The album clocks in at 27 minutes long, with 11 tracks in total. It’s the longest out of Kanye’s recent releases as his 2018 collaboration with Kid Cudi “Kids See Ghosts” and “Ye” are both 23 minutes long.

After months of speculation and controversy, Kanye “Yeezus” West released his long-awaited gospel album on October 25, titled “Jesus Is King”.

“I like it,” said Xavier “Ocho” George Music Director for WBCR radio. “He actually met my expectations by directing the choir first and foremost, man was doing his thing.”

Some listeners felt that the album was not worthy of being a Kanye project:

“I wish ‘Jesus Is King’ was way longer, had way more thought put into it, and was way better mixed,” said Brooklyn College student Mohammed Tabari.

The day “Jesus Is King” was officially released, Kanye had delayed the album to address production issues with a few songs. On October 25, at 1:18 am in classic Kanye fashion he tweeted:

“To my fans Thank you for being loyal & patient We are specifically fixing mixes on “Everything We Need”, “Follow God” & “Water” We not going to sleep until this album is out!”

Currently, according to Kanye’s Spotify ar tist page,“Follow God”, the third track off the album is his most listened to song and has been streamed over 34 million times.

According to Kanye, this album marks a new era of his life where he is trying to get closer to God. During the production of this album, he reportedly went as far as to ask that collaborators not have premarital sex while working on this project. Kanye himself allegedly even vowed not to curse in his songs or in concerts.

“If somebody cusses in his presence, I’ve heard him say a couple of times, ‘Hey, man, you can’t cuss when you’re with me. I’m a born-again Christian.’ Who’s gonna say that if they’re not meaning that they want Christ to be exalted in all that they do?” said Kanye’s Pastor, Adam Tyson, in an interview on the Pure Flix podcast.

Even though Kanye’s reasoning for this album is to get closer to God, and in turn bring his fans closer to God, some listeners, like Roc Nation Music Producer, Jamel Woodson, said that he could’ve “taken a different angle.”

“He should’ve dumbed it down for the people that don’t read the bible or go to church every day, instead of going into scriptures and speaking about biblical stuff,” Woodson said.