Why You Should Care about Kanye

Most of you, like me, do not have your finger on the pulse of hip hop and rap.  But you’d have to be living under a rock not to know that mega-star Kanye West named his most recent album “Jesus is King” after his recent conversion to Christianity.  

He sold a shocking 264,000 albums in the first week, making it his ninth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200.   Unusually, the same album appeared as #1 on the Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums chart, according to Billboard. 

What to make of this?

Let’s not overthink it.  In the Bible, it’s called a conversion.  Kanye committed his life to Christ, and he’s telling everyone.  In fact, I’d suggest you listen to “Jesus is King” if you need a little inspiration.  But don’t take my word for it.  

Recently, James Corden interviewed Kanye on a plane full of gospel singers who were traveling for one of his now-famous “Sunday Services.”  (I wrote about these services previously here.). The interview is well worth a watch — I’ll embed it at the bottom of this article – but let me tell you the quotes that really jumped out at me.

I’ll start with this.

“God’s always had a plan for me and he always wanted to use me,” Kanye told Corden. “But I think he wanted me to suffer more and wanted people to see my suffering and see my pain … to put stigmas on me.”  He went on to describe how he went bankrupt, suffered through mental illness, and went onstage with the Hennessey bottle.  “So now when I talk about how Jesus saved me more people can relate to that experience.”

Corden asked Kayne if he looked back at parts of his life with embarrassment.  He responded, “I have no regrets and no shame. Only God is perfect.”

Isn’t that great?

Later, Kanye explained how much debt he’d been in, only to recently a staggering amount back on his taxes. “Last year I made $115 million and still ended up $35 million in debt. This year I looked up and I just got $68 million returned to me on my tax returns.” He gives the credit to God for this as well.  “He’s just showing off.”

Corden asked Kanye to respond to critics who don’t believe that Kanye could possibly have changed this much.  

Kanye’s response was downright poetic.  “Would you agree that when you go to sleep, that you are asleep?  And when you are awake, that you are awake?  Would you agree that those are two different states? People who don’t believe are walking dead. They are asleep and this is the awakening.”

I love this interview so much I’ve watched it multiple times. 

First, I love the look of pure delight on James Corden’s face as he interacts with Kanye. It’s unadulterated child-like joy on his face.  He even admits that he is profoundly impacted by what is going on that plane.  He said he wasn’t sure if it was simply the altitude, but he felt closer to God.

(Narrator: it wasn’t the altitude.)

Second, I love seeing a man trying to become better in all aspects of life.  He is trying to be a better husband, son, and father.  Everyone should celebrate this.  If you are not a Christian, it’s gratifying and encouraging to see someone give up truly bad habits and life choices and try to live more virtuously.  If you are a Christian, a conversion is just downright amazing – a true cause for celebration.

Sometimes, in an attempt to make people feel okay, I’ll say, “It’s all good.”  In fact, it’s a catch-all phrase, my version of “no worries.”  But now I want to say, “It’s all good,” and actually mean that every second of the below video is “all good.”  Nothing bad about it.  

Watch this and I bet you’ll feel a stirring in your soul like I did.  

It’s truly, all good.