Kanye West releases gospel-themed album on Friday
For some artists, a blown deadline is a problem. For Kanye West, it is a marketing opportunity. After West missed a selfimposed deadline a month ago to release his latest album, the gospel-influenced “Jesus Is King,” his fans went on high alert, tracking his every move and speculating about when, or whether, the album would ever come out. West further stoked the press by previewing the album at a series of public events.
“This album has been made to be an expression of the gospel and to share the gospel and the truth of what Jesus has done to me,” West told a Manhattan crowd last month, after his first promised release date passed.
On Thursday, Apple’s Beats 1 online radio station broadcast a rambling two-hour interview in which West declared himself “unquestionably, undoubtedly, the greatest human artist of all time,” spoke about the roots of what he said was a “full-on pornography addiction” and called his dispute with Drake “painful,” but barely talked about “Jesus Is King.”
West then tweeted that the album was coming at midnight, only to miss that deadline, too. (He was still working on a few songs, he said at 1:18 a.m.)
Around noon on Friday, “Jesus Is King,” his ninth release, finally appeared on streaming services. The album features a gospel choir, performing with piano and organ, sometimes intermingled with hip-hop beats and rapping by West. None of its 11 songs has explicit lyrics. During his Apple interview Thursday, West also announced another new album, “Jesus Is Born,” saying it would capture one of his Sunday Services.
He gave it a release date of Christmas, which fans took with a grain of salt.