Take It, Yeezy: The Ecstasy and Agony of Kanye West

Kevin Winter / Getty Images for ABA – Jesus Is King
Kanye at the Forum

It’s been 16 years since Kanye West burst on the scene with his debut single “Through the Wire,” which touched on a car accident that forced his jaw to be wired shut, featuring a head-inhabiting Chaka sample. Through the years, even some of his most ardent fans may have wished at times that medical procedure could happen again after some of his outlandish comments regarding slavery, Donald Trump and whatever other brainstorms he cooked up in his febrile imagination.

After summoning the media to Wyoming 16 months ago to introduce Ye, his previous album, West turned the L.A.’s Fabulous Forum into his own rousing church service – apparently much like the Sunday Services he’s conducted in Calabasas, Coachella and his hometown of Chicago – complete with a soaring gospel choir. The occasion, dubbed “The Jesus Is King Album & Film Experience,” was a free listening party for his new album of the same name, slated to come out this Friday (but given Kanye’s penchant to tinker, who knows?), and accompanying 30-minute-plus IMAX film, which was projected across one wall of the venue.

The floor of the Forum resembled an African savannah consisting of individual clumps of pastel shrubs and brush, forming a pattern of islands in the stream, with Kanye popping up on one, surrounded by fans, as he used a hand-held device to boom out the thudding, bass-heavy tracks over the Forum’s mighty sound system. After an hour delay, due to massive lines at the VIP Will Call booth – accompanied by recordings of chirping birds and crickets — the movie unspooled with a thunderous blast of stacked gospel harmonies, using the circular image of the blue vinyl version of the album to maximum effect.

Shot during a service held at “light and space” artist James Turrell’s Roden Crater, a natural cinder cone crater art temple and work-in-progress located outside Flagstaff, Ariz., and directed by British fashion photographer Nick Knight OBE, the abstract art piece makes use of the heavenly blue skies above and full-gospel choir to create a sense of soaring divinity, interspersed with quotes from the Bible as to the glory of his savior and Lord, the son of God. Can anyone say messianic complex?

The film features virtually no Kanye raps, save for a piano take on “Street Lights” (from 2008’s 808s and Heartbreak) and a closing segment offering a lullaby to a baby being clutched by a pair of hands, presumably his 5-year-old son, the appropriately named for the occasion Psalm.

Segueing straight from the ecstatic reach of the experimental, almost abstract film, “Jesus Is King” kicks in with the agony portion of the evening, as West seemingly submits to a higher power. He introduced a new song, “Closed on Sunday,” offering one of the evening’s only moments of levity, as West adds to the title chorus, “Closed on Sunday/you my Chick-Fil-A.” Corny, maybe, but still one of the only lyrical signs of the man’s always-provocative personality, followed by the line, “No more living for the culture/We’re nobody’s slave,” as the audience chanted along.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images for ABA – Kanye West
Kanye West’s ‘Jesus Is King’ album and film experience at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., Oct. 23.

The other tracks went from electronic squiggles to “New Body,” which was reported to include a Nicki Minaj verse, though this version, which addresses the criticism he expects to face with his current direction brings to mind Dylan’s own controversial Christian conversion album on Slow Train Coming. Kanye abandons that record’s ambiguity to declare, “Satan get behind me/Jesus take the wheel,” while the finale boasts, “Use the gospel for protection/It’s a hard road to get to heaven,” concluding with a soaring sax solo from none other than Kenny G.

Kanye’s tour history is impressive, with regular arena sellouts in recent years, including six shows at the Forum in Oct. and Nov. in 2016 that grossed $8.2 million and moved 97K tickets. The 2016 “Saint Pablo Tour” was unfortunately cut short after bizarre behavior and hospitalization, although it still grossed $52.8 million on 41 shows.

Thank goodness, then, Kanye’s back. Certainly, the fans feel so and at one point during the Forum event they pushed in on him to the degree that he had to ask everyone to step back. While West’s gospel come-to-Jesus move seems sincere (all that was missing was a collection plate being passed around), is it too much to ask the old Kanye to show up soon with his transcendent—if more terrestrial—back catalog?