About God Is

“God Is” is a soulful continuation of the spiritual themes present throughout Kanye West’s ninth studio album JESUS IS KING. The track originally appeared on the tentative tracklist that was teased via Kim Kardashian’s Twitter and on Kanye’s website. On October 6th, 2019, Kanye previewed a part of the song during his Sunday Service session in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the choir performed the speculated chorus. The uplifting track was originally expected to be scrapped since it didn’t appear on the updated tracklist, but the Utah performance makes an appearance on the album likely. It may appear disorienting that Kanye West, at age 42, has made a hard turn toward worship music. But West has always been making worship music, both in his literal embrace of religious themes and iconography, and also in his belief that songs should be a vehicle for moral tugs of war, philosophical reckoning and ecstatic praise. The only thing that has changed is the packaging. “Jesus Is King,” his ninth album, released last week after a string of delays, is very much of the West oeuvre. A more engaged and vivid album than “Ye,” from last year, though nowhere as robust as “The Life of Pablo” from 2016, it is bare-bones and curiously effective, emotionally forceful and structurally scant. It has the scent of haste, and also of urgency — these songs work familiar West turf, but with almost no filigree beyond faith. Since 2008, when he deconstructed his bluster on “808s & Heartbreak,” but particularly since the tectonic, industrial shift of “Yeezus” in 2013, West has made texture his palette far more than rhyme, subject matter or melody. His verses have gotten terser and snarlier (and he has spoken of not always writing them himself), and his best songs work primarily on visceral, nontextual levels. The result is “Yeezus” for Jesus, packed with hard sonic jolts. West understands the weapons-grade power of a gospel choir, and deploys it from the album’s opener, “Every Hour” — quite simply, a ringing alarm clock shaking off the fatigue of the last couple of years. The choir recurs throughout this very brief, 27-minute album — West recently announced that he would release a full album with his Sunday Service choir in December — but it is not the sole motif. “Selah” swells until West cites Bible verses over door-slam percussion, suggesting an explosion of religious awakening. “Use This Gospel” begins with a persistent, needling drone that bespeaks anxiety, disorientation and a pressing need for healing. “Use this gospel for protection/It’s a hard road to heaven,” he sings, with the vulnerability he channeled on “808s & Heartbreak.” West alternates between singing and rapping — his vocals are tentative and sometimes meek, like a toddler taking first steps. Sometimes his rapping is tart — “Everybody wanted ‘Yandhi’/Then Jesus Christ did the laundry,” he raps on “Selah,” referring to the album he scrapped for this one. On “Hands On,” he raps about redemption with the same fervor he once applied to excess: “Told the devil that I’m going on a strike/Told the devil when I see him, on sight/I’ve been working for you my whole life.”