YE TELLS US WHERE HIS FAITH STANDS NOW
Ye (formerly Kanye West), surprised fans in February with the release of Vultures, his chart-topping collaboration album with Ty Dolla $ign. What caught everyone’s attention was the explicit nature of this album, a stark departure from his previous works like the Dove-Award winning Jesus is King and the faith-filled Donda. Ye had previously discussed how these projects marked a deliberate change in his career and personal journey, emphasizing that he felt compelled to share the impact of Jesus in his life.
“Now that I’m in service to Christ, my job is to spread the gospel, to let people know what Jesus has done for me,” he said to Zane Lowe in an interview in 2019. “I’ve spread a lot of things. There was a time I was letting you know what high fashion had done for me, I was letting you know what the Hennessey had done for me, but now I’m letting you know what Jesus has done for me, and in that I’m no longer a slave, I’m a son now, a son of God. I’m free.”
In his Jesus Is King documentary, he even proclaimed himself as a devoted evangelist for Christ.
“We’re here to spread the Gospel,” he said. “I’m not here for your entertainment. I’m an evangelist. So my music, my films—every conversation, every room I’m in—we’re here to save souls, save people from eternal damnation.”
Fans, particularly those who are Christians, were taken aback by the drastic change seen on Vultures. Is Kanye West abandoning his faith?
In a recent conversation with Big Boy, Ye shared his current thoughts on God.
“I have my issues with Jesus,” he admits. “There’s a lot of stuff I went through that I prayed and I didn’t see Jesus show up. I had to put my experience in this world, my experience with my children, my experience with other people, my experience with my accountant, my experience with my brand and my experience with the level of music that I was dealing with in my own hands.”
Ye then explained that he sees Christians rely “so much” on God that it sets them up for failure.
“A lot of times, I just feel like . . . Christians depend on Jesus so much that we won’t put the work in ourselves,” he said. “The main thing that really that I don’t rock with is it’s always saying, ‘I’m going to pray for you,’ and it’s just like, you can actually physically do something yourself, too. More than just pray.
“We’re so in this mentality that that’s all that needs to happen but we ain’t praying our way out of prison,” he continued. “We ain’t praying our way out of the abortion clinics. We ain’t praying our way to get our land back that was always ours after gentrification, after the Harlem Renaissance. Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. Them prayers ain’t working. We have to apply actual physical building partnerships and it doesn’t start unless we could really be real with each other and say, ‘This is what I did.’”
In a later part of the interview, Ye delved into his thoughts on why he despises being confined by labels and the influence of other producers. Interestingly, he also expressed his perplexity towards the concept of fearing God.
“It’s another thing I don’t like in Christianity — the fear of God,” he said. “If God is love, why should you fear Him? Because you place one fear and you get another fear, you get another fear, then what do you have? At that point, you’re easily controllable. You’re easily sellable. You’re easily contracted because you have this fear on you. Everybody is going to die eventually. But I’m going to live my entire life with zero fear.”
What do you think about the new Ye?
