Kanye West has changed the music industry in a lot of ways. He has become one of the most influential artists of all time. Some people say he is the genius of hip-hop & rap. But one thing that no one was expecting was for him to release a gospel album.
This came as a shock to a lot of people as the West didn’t seem like the type of artist to release a Gospel album. There isn’t even any information or source saying that he even had a gospel background. So why is there this sudden shift from secular to the gospel? We may not ever know the answer to that.
When listening to the album you can tell right off the bat that it’s definitely a mix of hip-hop, trap and gospel all in one. It’s definitely nothing new as there are plenty of gospel rap artists. But none are really as well-known or have really popular songs such as West.
When you listen to the first song “Every Hour” it’s definitely a more traditional gospel song than you would expect. As soon as you get down to the song “Everything We Need” you can tell that he definitely put his Kanye spice on it. Especially with the surprising appearance of Ty Dolla Sign on the track.
Justin Henry, a junior business major, said he thought the song “Everything We Need’, was the best song on the album.
“I like the beat of the song. I’m able to bop my head to it as I walk to class,” said Henry. “Everything we need” has actually become one of the most popular songs on the album. It’s even reached the billboard top 100 as did a lot of the other songs. The whole album even made history as becoming one of the most popular faith-based albums on the billboard top 100.
The only real problem with the album is that it seems that it kinda feels like a publicity stunt. Only two of the songs on the album seemed as if they had some kind of passion in them.
Kayla Kulp, sophomore business major, said she didn’t really like the album because she likes West’s rap and hip-hop style.
“He does put some of his own flavor into the album but I just don’t see the point in switching genres at this point in his career,” said Kulp. “Which is understandable because from doing years of hip-hop and then just switching to gospel seems like such a sudden transition. But as said before, the album seems like it was only made as a publicity stunt and not an actually awakening of God’s word.
Raymond Brown, sophomore accounting major, said he felt the album wasn’t really genuine and that it felt manufactured.
“It’s an okay album but it feels so produced,” said Brown. None of the albums really felt genuine as if he actually cared about the word of god. You can tell when something is genuine or when it’s just being made for money.
“This was definitely one of Kanye’s weirdest entrees to date but you gotta respect the man for going outside his comfort zone,” sophomore biology major Danielle Perkins said.
