Released on Christmas Day, the anticipated project by Kanye West's backing gospel choir delivers, well, deliverance with this wholly unironic gospel album. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that good stuff.
Whatever you think or feel about Kanye and his current musical mindset and motivation, it's been over a year since he started performing his "Sunday Service" initiative: weekly shows — backed by this very choir — where a gospel spin on his past and present discography confused many. When his Jesus Is King gospel project dropped this past fall, and now in the face of Jesus Is Born, it feels like Kanye is committed, all in.
Regardless of your level of faith or denomination, the 19-track album is accessible enough from a craft and sanctified standpoint. Whether it's for interpolations of Kanye tracks like "Fade," with "Follow Me – Faith" — itself a gospelized riff off the classic house track by Aly-Us — or for a new take on "Ultralight Beam," off 2016's The Life of Pablo, there's a lot here to vibe off of.
Check out the holy takes on '90s R&B classics (SWV's "Weak" or Ginuwine's "So Anxious"), or the new coat of paint put on the Soul II Soul jam "Back to Life." Jesus Is Born asks you to not question the intent of West, but to accept the spirituality the music espouses.
(INC)Whatever you think or feel about Kanye and his current musical mindset and motivation, it's been over a year since he started performing his "Sunday Service" initiative: weekly shows — backed by this very choir — where a gospel spin on his past and present discography confused many. When his Jesus Is King gospel project dropped this past fall, and now in the face of Jesus Is Born, it feels like Kanye is committed, all in.
Regardless of your level of faith or denomination, the 19-track album is accessible enough from a craft and sanctified standpoint. Whether it's for interpolations of Kanye tracks like "Fade," with "Follow Me – Faith" — itself a gospelized riff off the classic house track by Aly-Us — or for a new take on "Ultralight Beam," off 2016's The Life of Pablo, there's a lot here to vibe off of.
Check out the holy takes on '90s R&B classics (SWV's "Weak" or Ginuwine's "So Anxious"), or the new coat of paint put on the Soul II Soul jam "Back to Life." Jesus Is Born asks you to not question the intent of West, but to accept the spirituality the music espouses.