{"id":5402,"date":"2019-11-03T05:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T05:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/?p=5402"},"modified":"2020-02-02T16:17:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T16:17:25","slug":"kanye-gets-pious-on-jesus-is-king-but-wont-bring-you-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/2019\/11\/03\/kanye-gets-pious-on-jesus-is-king-but-wont-bring-you-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye Gets Pious on ‘Jesus is King’, But Won’t Bring You Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kanye West has released his least-Kanye album yet. On Jesus is King<\/em>, there are no strippers, only psalms. Kanye\u2019s approach to his ninth solo record is centered around piety, and any hints of his past egotism are scarce. He takes some pages from his apprentice Chance the Rapper\u2019s 2016 mixtape Coloring Book<\/em>, bridging the gap between hip-hop and gospel. Alongside features from Ty Dolla $ign and Pusha T, some famous gospel singers come in to handle refrains evoking that Sunday service vision. It works… until the electronica kicks in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This far ahead in his discography, he realizes he needs to take a breath of fresh air with each release. Yeezus<\/em> banked on abrasive hyper-production, The Life of Pablo<\/em> mixed in some gospel aesthetic, and Jesus is King<\/em> is at best a half-baked B-side of the latter. While it presents itself as a gospel album, it\u2019s full of half-measures and unsure of what exactly it wants to sound like. The clash of occasional autotune paired with the pious vocals present Kanye\u2019s diocese as that church that\u2019s struggling to be hip to wrangle in a younger demographic. That\u2019s also why there isn\u2019t any form of foulmouth, understandable considering this is the story of an outspoken artist turning himself into a disciple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hearing Kanye praise God and actually not <\/em>be referring to himself for a change sounds like a fresh change of pace, but it\u2019s clear the vacancy of West\u2019s familiar arrogance leaves a huge gap. He went from being the life of the party to being that dad who\u2019s in bed by 8 PM. The old Kanye\u2019s cockiness has been met with occasional vulnerability before, and he tries that with \u201cHands On,\u201d a mea culpa that wishes it could carry the confessional weight of past classics like \u201cRunaway.\u201d He\u2019s aware that his models-and-raves lifestyle doesn\u2019t exactly fit the bill of a so-called \u201cgood Christian,\u201d and the track prepares itself to be an inspirational call of him devoting his life to God. It could work, but Kanye barely touches any of the tabloids with his name on it from the past year. When he interrupted Taylor Swift in a notorious VMA moment, we got My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy<\/em> as an apology letter. Recent bizarre TMZ interviews and eyebrow-raising Instagram posts barely get put under the microscope on Jesus is King<\/em>, disappointing from a musician we\u2019ve witnessed spin his past controversies into great records.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the appeal of his over-the-top ego was silly but astute one-liners. When he\u2019s not quoting the Bible, he\u2019s dabbling into some shallow hooks like the lazy chorus \u201cClosed on Sunday, you’re my Chick-fil-A.\u201d 2009\u2019s 808s & Heartbreak<\/em> was a turnoff to some for Ye abandoning his vulgar persona, though at least that LP had some flashy synth mixes to keep it rolling. The soundboard credits here go to artists further past their prime than West is becoming, like Timbaland and Labrinth. Even the lesser-appreciated Kanye LPs banked on a few club hits. They certainly weren\u2019t aiming to score your midnight rager this time, except it\u2019s not even worthy enough for a somewhat fancy post-Mass brunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an album missing a lot, and its 27-minute runtime comes off as a rushed and incomplete piece. Even numerous delays couldn\u2019t fix the issues West runs into. It\u2019s not that he couldn\u2019t succeed in this transition towards the light, but his journey doesn\u2019t feel earned by the LP\u2019s conclusion. Upon alienating himself from some of his base lately, reconciliation won\u2019t be found on Jesus is King<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.9<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kanye West has released his least-Kanye album yet. On Jesus is King, there are no strippers, only psalms. Kanye\u2019s approach to his ninth solo record is centered around piety, and any hints of his past egotism are scarce. He takes some pages from his apprentice Chance the Rapper\u2019s 2016 mixtape Coloring Book, bridging the gap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":5408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,530,32],"tags":[330,811,809,812,576,104,129,810],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5402"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5662,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions\/5662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scadradio.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}