“Like Going To Sunday School”: All The Funniest Tweets About Kanye’s New Album, ‘Jesus Is King’
The internet is not happy.
The new album from Kanye West, Jesus Is King, is here, and the reaction is already, well, mixed.
Perhaps that was inevitable. Kanye has only been growing more idiosyncratic since the release of Yeezus, one of the most idiosyncratic pop rap records of all time. His new material is — even at its very best — wormy, self-involved and strange.
Sure, The Life of Pablo might have opened with the single most uplifting song of Kanye’s career, but the rest of the thing was one long slog through narcissism and over-produced beats, dotted with misogynistic call-outs and lines about asshole bleach.
Well, at least Jesus Is King is a different kind of off-putting. A series of gospel songs about faith and love, the only asshole on this thing is Kanye himself — there’s not a drop of bleach to be seen. And even the usual aggressive, abrasive side to his character has been toned down. This is Kanye at his most self-effacing, a man lying prostrate at the feet of forces he claims to only just understand.
But it’s also Kanye at his most glib and unconvincing. Bars about homophobic restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A are some of the most memorable on the record purely on the basis that they’re funny — the rest of the thing slips out of your head like overflowing bathwater.
Understandably then, most fans are not happy, and they’re taking to Twitter to vent their frustrations.
So the new Kanye is finally out!#JesusIsKing pic.twitter.com/WmHYow9qwd
— Mister Morris (@mistermorris55) October 25, 2019
Me forcing Kanye out of my favorite rappers list after Jesus is King. pic.twitter.com/S4B5fV86Fy
— Jorge Lopez (@Jorpez97) October 25, 2019
gotta give credit where credit is due, the experience of listening to Jesus Is King perfectly replicated my experience of going to sunday school as a kid: i sat there, i listened, but i didn't absorb a word
— nathan escar smith (@trillmoregirls) October 25, 2019
Would’ve been a lot cooler if Kanye made an album about Satan
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) October 25, 2019
I feel like the 808s on Jesus Is King could have used some premarital sex
— kennybeats (@kennybeats) October 25, 2019
Kanye: *releases Jesus is King album*
Jesus, looking down from heaven: pic.twitter.com/cKz4vAoSiu
— trans dad bod (@itsjacksonbbz) October 25, 2019
On top of everything wrong with Jesus Is King musically, it has ruined my "guy who likes every Kanye album" bit. I don't know what to do.
— [On a vision quest to discover my Posting Animal] (@SeanRMoorhead) October 25, 2019
How I felt listening to #JesusIsKing pic.twitter.com/vWfWqxT9xg
— AJ (@aj_div) October 25, 2019
At the very least, fans do have some nice things to say about ‘Use This Gospel’, the album’s penultimate track. But those kudos aren’t being offered up to Kanye himself, but instead to the song’s secret weapon, Kenny G. G comes swinging into the thing wielding a saxophone like a battle axe, and injects some beauty and fire into what otherwise might be one more serve of grey slop.
The ending of Use This Gospel pic.twitter.com/weadPKzDzC
— fightmemoreo met Grave🎃🧛🏻♀️🐐 (@SoHelpMeKanye) October 25, 2019
Use This Gospel is fucking fire wow
— 𝖙𝖆𝖇𝖇𝖞 (@verypalehipster) October 25, 2019
When @kennyg came in on “Use This Gospel” though… #JesusIsKing pic.twitter.com/sdUcNXMfGR
— Def Jam Recordings (@defjam) October 25, 2019
Big ‘hmmm’ on this one so far, it seems.