Kanye West is one of the most famous rappers on the planet, married to one of the most famous women on the planet. So when he says he’s been ‘saved’ and found Jesus in a secular entertainment industry and comes out against the very thing that made his wife famous – Social Media – it’s a very big deal. It has the potential to completely upend culture, and by proxy, commerce. If Kim Kardashian can influence millions of dollars of product purchasing with a single Tweet, Kanye can influence millions of people’s behaviors and opinions with one too.
Sure, Kanye’s a naturally ‘controversial’ guy: from interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech to his boisterous and stunning soliloquies on the Ellen Show and at the White House; to shocking song lyrics like ‘You’re such a f-ing hoe, I love it’; and even calling himself a god. The question is, is his newfound ‘salvation’ even real? And if so, what will it cost him?
So whether Kanye is having some sort of bi-polar meltdown or he’s just a shrewd attention-getting self-promoter, like Trump, he knows how to get attention.
The last time he had a massive explosion of attention was when he Tweeted those infamous 7 words ‘I love the way Candace Owens thinks’, whereupon all hell broke loose, for both of them. It put Candace Owens on the map and made her internationally known, and it put a target on Kanye’s back. Many of his celebrity friends stopped following him on social media immediately when they realized he was lauding the outspoken Trump supporter; prominent rappers ‘cancelled’ him and tried to pull his black card; and even the Crips putting out a call to ‘f- Kanye up’. The attention from that situation was relatively short lived and Kanye retreated off of social media again, saying he liked Trump personally but wasn’t involved in politics. Fences were mended and most shrugged it off as either ‘Kanye being Kanye’ or him just trying to stir up controversy to sell his new record and things went back to ‘normal’.
Well, it appears Kanye is ready to stir things up yet again, except this time it’s even more serious, it’s life, literally. Kanye claims he’s been ‘saved’ and is now a Christian, and has been holding ‘Sunday services’ for a while, but in the last week, he’s stirred up the hornet’s nest once again by talking politics.
At his Sunday Service in Salt Lake he said “Abraham Lincoln was the Whig Party—that’s the Republican Party that freed the slaves,” before telling the crowd he refused to oppose Trump simply because he was black. “I ain’t never make a decision based only on my color. That’s a form of slavery — mental slavery. I ain’t drink from the white person fountain…I ain’t playing with them. All these mind controllers, the media, all of these mind controllers. I find that wherever Christ is where I’ve got my mind at. We find that the love of Christ is where I’ve got my mind back.” He also said “Do not read comments on the internet,” he said. “These people don’t know you like that. Social media is designed to make you think slower…They want to slow you down and control you.”
While I happen to heartily agree with the last part of his comments, it’s rather comical for the person who is married to one of if not the most shallow and narcissistic people persons on the planet – Kim Kardashian – who could probably not brush her teeth without posing in the mirror, to be dissing social media like that. Much like Warren Beatty said about Madonna: “She doesn’t want to be seen off camera, much less talk,” Mr. Beatty observes caustically. “What would you say if it’s off camera? What point is there in existing?’ It’s the same with Kim Kardashian. She needs to be on social media, like a vampire needs blood. Needs the attention and adulation from strangers. So was Kanye talking about her too?
Obviously the whole ‘Kanye finds Jesus’ thing could be just the latest in a long line of headline-grabbing, passing-phases Kanyeisms, but what if it’s not? What does that mean?
While I personally don’t listen to his music, I understand how important he is to the industry and to culture. And to have an extremely popular rapper who’s a very influential black man married to a woman who’s just shy of a porn star become a born-again Christian in an increasingly debauch and secular world is a huge deal and should not be discounted. It may, in fact – if he’s actually serious – cost him his marriage.
In a recent episode of the family’s show, he said of an outfit she’d worn to the Met Gala last year: “Like the corset, underwear, all that vibe, I just feel like I just went through this transition from being a rapper, lookin’ at all these girls — and looking at my wife,” he said. “Like, ‘My girl needs to be just like the other girls, showing her body off, showing this, showing that. I didn’t realize that that was affecting like, my soul and my spirit, as someone that’s married and loved and the father of now, about to be four kids,” he continued. “A corset is like, a form of underwear, it’s hot — it’s like, it’s hot for who, though?” Coming from the guy who did a video with his wife on a motorcycle while she was topless, if he really feels this way, it’s a big deal, and though not obvious to most, has tremendous implications for the culture at large.
I’ve been hoping for a ‘modesty movement’ as the culture has become increasingly more debased, with the level of exhibitionism reaching astonishing heights.
From fashion to music videos to movies, it’s more sexualized and raunchy, with ever more vulgar displays of tits and ass. The ‘cleavage’ of old would be like a nun’s habit compared to what’s out there now.
It’s disgusting and depraved, and Kim Kardashian is in many ways at the forefront of that. If Kanye West doesn’t like her taking ultra-sexy pictures and she not only refuses to stop, but it’s part of her brand, eventually that would make it impossible for him to stay with her. He couldn’t profess to be a Christian with his wife out there looking like a prostitute. It might play in the short run, because people like the gospel music he’s making, (which is pretty awesome I admit) but eventually he’d be called out, as would she. They would be as the Bible says, unequally yoked and unless she herself changed, they’d fall apart. Which might actually be the best possible thing to happen to the culture.
The culture needs cleansing. It needs a spiritual revival, a refocus on God instead of people making themselves gods. And the self-worship isn’t working anyway. People aren’t any happier, more people are dying of drug overdoses each year than died in all of the years of the Vietnam War. Young people are so desperate for attention they’ll risk having a felony on their record by calling in a school shooting threat. We are sick. We have more ability to ‘connect’ with technology than ever, but people feel more lonely. The schools are driving children insane with gender confusion and climate change hysteria which they’ve replaced God with. We need God. There is no substitute. If Kanye West is for real, he could help with that. And though I hate that it might originate from a rapper, it is what it is, you bloom where you’re planted. Paul was Saul at one time after all.
The question thus becomes whether it’s real. Is Kanye truly experiencing the psychic and spiritual change or is it just a diabolical marketing tool? If he is doing it for that it would be disappointing but not surprising. If not, and I hope not, he could usher in a cultural revolution the likes that haven’t been seen since Billy Graham’s Crusades. He has that type of influence. But would he be willing to make the sacrifice and endure the losses that will likely come from those who don’t understand or are unwilling to accept his new direction, including his own wife?
Would Kim change in order to make it work with him? After all, when he voiced his (newfound) disapproval of her sexy pictures she said ‘Just because you’re on a journey and transformation doesn’t mean I’m in the same spot with you”. So as according to Matthew 10:39 – ‘Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it’, it’ll be interesting to see what’s in the ‘lost and found’ at the end of this story.
Comments