Skip to main content

Most people were first introduced to Kanye West in the 2000’s when he rose to fame with popular singles like “Gold Digger,” “Stronger,” “Love Lockdown,” and “Heartless.” A lot of West’s songs also used to be classified as explicit since he often rapped about sex and used an obscene amount of curse words.

However, these days, West seems to be a changed man. The rapper has been making gospel music, and he even released his second gospel-themed album recently.

Kanye West has shown a lot of his religious side this past year

Kanye West speaks onstage
Steven Smith and Kanye West | Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company

Earlier this year, West made headlines when he started his now-famous Sunday Services. These services are a gathering of people that include a lot of gospel and music praising God. West has invited a lot of celebrities to the services as well, and people have spotted the likes of Brad Pitt, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, and Tyler the Creator in attendance.

West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, explained the reason why West decided to start his services. She once said on The View: “Kanye started this, I think, just to heal himself. It was a really personal thing, and it was just friends and family. He has had an amazing evolution of being born again and being saved by Christ.”

West himself has also opened up about how religion helped him beat his pornography and sex addiction.

“Playboy was my gateway into full-blown pornography addiction,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1. “My dad had a Playboy left out at age 5, and it’s affected almost every choice I made for the rest of my life… With God, I’ve been able to beat things that had a full control of me.”

Kanye West released his first gospel-themed album in October

It’s clear that religion is now very important to West, which explains why the rapper decided to change the course of his music. Instead of releasing another album with explicit songs about sex, West decided to share gospel messages instead.

In October, West released his first Christian album, Jesus Is King. It consists of 11 tracks that talk about West’s religious experience and praise God.

Although Jesus Is King is different than West’s other releases, the album did quite well with fans. It charted at number one, sold over 109,000 copies, and has been streamed over 196.9 million times.

Kanye West’s second gospel-themed album was released on Christmas Day

When West released Jesus Is King, he promised that he would return with another album on Christmas Day. The rapper managed to deliver on that promise, and his second Christian album, Jesus Is Born, came out on Christmas as expected.

Unlike Jesus Is King, however, Jesus Is Born is not technically a Kanye West album. Rather, the artist is credited as the Sunday Service Choir, and West does not rap on this album at all.

Jesus Is Born also contains some rework on West’s previously-released songs, such as “Ultralight Beam” and “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1.” West’s Sunday Service Choir has been singing these tracks during the Sunday Services, so it is not surprising that they made it to this new album.

Is Kanye West’s newfound faith just a PR stunt?

West’s venture into being a Christian artist has not come without criticism. Many Christian onlookers have questioned whether his intentions are sincere or not.

He has also been accused of pulling a PR stunt with these Christian concepts, especially since he has been known to do some outrageous things in the past.

However, a writer for Christian Post decided to give West the benefit of the doubt and pointed out that West is “different from other celebrities who thank God in one breath and mock Him the next.” The key here seems to be that West has made religion a big part of his life and his faith plays a role in many things that he does.

Best in Entertainment