Kanye’s back with a new album, Jesus Is King

Kanye West has finally dropped his long-awaited ninth studio album

LISTEN TO THIS We’re still waiting for Yandhi, the album Kanye announced more than a year ago, but in the meantime Jesus is King is here.

It’s several months later than promised, but better late than never.

The day before the album was released Kanye gave a lengthy interview on Apple Music’s radio station, Beats 1. Here are a few highlights.

NEW DIRECTION Yeezy no longer sees himself as an entertainer, but as a Christian innovator, he told interviewer Zane Lowe.

“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,” the rapper said.

“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 [cognac] 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.”

FINDING RELIGION “People say, ‘Oh [religion] is going to kill your brand’, but my brand is expressing how I feel, whether it’s in line with what you thought the brand was even two days ago.

“A smart man has the ability to pivot and say, ‘I think something different now.’ “I think and feel differently now, now that I’m a Christian. Now that I’m the founder of a $3 billion (R45bn) organisation and married for five years,” he said.

MAKING THE ALBUM Kanye wanted this project to be his collaborators’ main and only priority.

“There were times where I went to people [who] were working on other projects and said, ‘Can you just work and focus on this?’” he said.

Kanye also said he’d asked people “not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album” and told them they needed to pray and fast together “so the power is increased”.

EMBRACING HUMILITY “I’m unquestionably, undoubtedly the greatest human artist of all time,” Kanye said in the interview.

“It’s just not even a question anymore at this point. It’s just a fact.”

‘I’m unquestionably, undoubtedly the greatest human artist of all time’