Kanye West Talks Losing Fans, Getting Canceled, and More With Big Boy
'Jesus Is King' isn't streaming though.
Rumor has it that Kanye West's all-Jesus'd-up new album is supposed to be available to the public at this very moment. At the time of this writing, that is not the case. Still, a new West interview with Big Boy is available if that's something you're into on a Friday morning.
"I told you I'm only afraid of God," West said, notably, when asked if he feared losing his audience amid all the God and Trump stuff. "I'm only afraid of my daddy, God. I done been 15 years. I'm telling you that God is showing you that you can have your own thoughts, bro. I been canceled before there was cancel culture."
West also discussed how seeing ASAP Rocky rock some not-culty attire helped him decide to set aside the cult look himself, his judgmental opinions on Instagram, and the thing we all wish he'd say much less about: Trump.
The Christian scorecard West has talked so much about recently also took a few hits during this latest interview, particularly during a moment in which West dismissed portions of his own discography for their lyrical content.
"It got to the point where literally I went from 'Jesus Walks' to 'You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it,'" he said, referencing his Lil Pump collab. "I bet you the devil was happy on that day. And where that record went? Straight to what? Number one quick. This is exactly what we want. This fits right in with whatever else we got. This fits right in with everything we got to deal with with opioids. This fits right in with everything we got that promotes killings so that we can have more slaves in the . . . mass incarceration never-ended slave system."
Another noteworthy moment came about when Big Boy delivered an inquiry that's surely on the minds of fans: Will we ever hear pre-God tracks being performed live again?
"They made movies about Steve Jobs so y'all could understand who I am," he said. "Now, when you go to the Apple store, I don't be seeing no iPod 4 . . . Take you to eBay and get you the old Kanye and get you a vintage iPod 4 while you're at it, a Sega 8-bit."
West added that "we can play the beat" but he would now adjust it, citing a lyric change he now utilizes in "Jesus Walks" in which he vows to somehow turn all atheists into "believers." Previously, the line carried a much different meaning, with West stating on the original 2004 studio version "I ain't here to argue about his facial features or here to convert atheists into believers."
Sigh. Here are some more clips:
And here's the full thing, just in case:
Notably, I guess, is around four minutes in when West mentions a recent conversation he had with James Corden about how what the Late Late Show host pointed out as the wide disconnect between supposedly Christian values and the ideology of the Trump machine.
"Last year, y'all tried to tell me who I'm supposed to vote for because I'm black," he said. "Now, this year, white liberals are trying to tell me who I'm supposed to vote for because I'm Christian." He then compared this to the idea of driving a convertible simply because he lives in Calabasas, followed up by a reference to Family Guy spoofs about Christianity.
Around 21 minutes in, Big Boy pressed West on matters of Trump. "I'd rather deal with somebody who call me the n-word to my face than a person that signed me for a lifetime deal on a 255-page contract," West said in response. "I'd rather know what I'm dealing with."
As for Jesus Is King, when you really think about it, the fan-frustrating delays and outright missed dates actually fall perfectly within the whole Jesus theme. After all, people have been waiting on that dude to allegedly "return" to Earth for thousands of years or whatever.
At the time of this writing, Mr. Christ—like Jesus Is King—had yet to materialize.
