Kanye West Says That He’s Only Making Gospel Music From Now On

This weekend, Kanye West hosted a Jesus Is King event in Detroit, during which he played his new album. It was expected that the record would be released on Sunday, but it’s Monday morning now, and as of this post, Jesus Is King is not out yet. It’s not clear when the album will drop, but what we do know is that Kanye is apparently only making gospel music from now on.

Fake Shore Drive’s Andrew Barber was at the Jesus Is King event, and he shared some details from the presentation, tweeting, “Just heard Kanye’s new album Jesus Is King and saw the accompanying film. My favorite track is the last song and it features the Clipse. Both Push & No Malice. Kenny G is also on it. ‘New Body’ has been cut from the album.” He added in another tweet, “Kanye also announced that he is no longer making secular music. Only Gospel from here on out.”

Barber went on to say that based on his first impressions, the album has strong beats: “The beats on Jesus Is King sounded fire. He definitely pulled from elements of previous sounds that people loved from WTT, 808s, Yeezus, Cruel Summer & MBDTF and put a gospel spin on them. Of course I need to hear them again, but they were knocking on the sound system he had.”

It’s worth noting, though, that this isn’t the first time Kanye has referred to his music as gospel music, as he used that term to describe his 2016 album The Life Of Pablo as well. He previously said, “When I was sitting in the studio with Kirk, Kirk Franklin, and we’re just going through it. I said this is a gospel album, with a whole lot of cursing on it, but it’s still a gospel album. The gospel according to Ye. It’s not exactly what happened in the Bible, but it’s this story idea of Mary Magdalene becoming Mary. […] I’m only doing 1 percent, 2 percent of the work, and God is doing the rest of the work.”

Chance The Rapper also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! recently and said he was impressed by Kanye’s knowledge of the Bible, saying, “Kanye is so devoted right now. He’s very well-versed in the Bible at this point. […] The way he talks to me now, it seems like he’s just had [passages] memorized for years. To my knowledge, a lot of that stuff he learned recently. The Sunday Service thing he’s doing and the album that comes out next week, […] he’s talking about what I believe in, and it’s that Jesus is king. He’s spreading the good news and I appreciate it.”