The Curious Case of Kanye West

Over the past couple of days, I've looked at hip-hop/rap artists and lyrics. I wanted to end that exploration with Kanye West, one of my favorite musicians and one that makes me the most sad.

Kanye is incredibly talented. He has great beats and has made some really popular songs. He's also generated beats for a number of other artists, including Jay-Z. But he's also generated something else — controversy.

What's always made me curiously drawn to Kanye West is his self-professed stance as a Christian. His faith was a big part of his earlier work. In fact, it was his first album that generated one of my favorite songs, "Jesus Walks." While that song is raw at times and flawed at times, as we all are, it is a beautiful profession of a Christian faith. Consider this section from the closing to the song:

Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly

I know he hear me when my feet get weary

Cause we're the almost nearly extinct

We rappers are role models we rap we don't think

I ain't here to argue about his facial features

Or here to convert atheists into believers

I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers

The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way I need Jesus

So here go my single dog radio needs this

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus

That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes

But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?

Well let this take away from my spins

Which will probably take away from my ends

Then I hope this take away from my sins

And bring the day that I'm dreaming about

Next time I'm in the club everybody screaming out

(Jesus Walks)

God show me the way because the devil trying to break me down

(Jesus Walks)

The only thing that that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now

(Jesus Walks)

And I don't thing there's nothing I can do now to right my wrongs

(Jesus walks with me... fades)

I want to talk to God but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long

There were, in fact, several songs on his early albums that were an insight into his faith. The song lyrics I included in Friday's post from J. Ivy were in a song on West's first album. But as time has gone by, he seems to have gone away from that.

Listening to the lyrics on his latest solo project, "My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy," are much darker, much more worldly, and much more reflective of someone walking away from the path. Doubtless turmoil in his personal life has taken a toll on West, but what's been sad for me, as a listener, is that his faith seems to be disappearing, at least from his art.

One can't help but think that's a situation that's worsened the more he collaborates with Jay-Z, who as I said seems more like an agnostic. The album Jay-Z and Kanye West released together, "Watch the Throne," is enjoyable for fans of the genre, but continues this pull away from the kind of raw faith West demonstrated on "Jesus Walks."

Consider the first track on the album, "Church in the Wild." The hook offers these thoughts:

Human beings in a mob

What's a mob to a king? What's a king to a God?

What's a God to a non-believer who don't believe in anything?

Will he make it out alive? Alright, alright, no church in the wild

Kanye's verse on that track, which isn't fit for print here, seems a million miles away from the faithful sentiment in earlier songs, like "Jesus Walks." He seems like a man who is lost. While I still enjoy his work from a musical standpoint, a part of me finds it sad. You can't help but hope he finds some answers to ease his obvious pain and restore his faith.