A US pastor has revealed how Kanye West began to question his musical path after converting to Christianity, going so far as to label rap “the devil’s music”.
If you take a look throughout history, there are some pretty interesting stories about how religion and music have intertwined in ways many would’ve have expected.
In fact, there’s the famous story of how Cat Stevens converted to Islam in the late ’70s after he promised his life to God after being saved from a near-death experience. Soon after, Stevens all but abandoned his musical career for a few decades, only to return in 2006.
While it’s not quite the same, fans were a little shocked last month to learn that Kanye West had similarly turned his back on his musical history, having reportedly told fans in Chicago that he plans to no longer make “secular music”, with plans to only record gospel music due to his recent conversion to Christianity.
Although some were a bit shocked by this announcement, fans seemed to believe that the forthcoming release of his Jesus Is King album and film seem to have given some credence to this news.
Now, in a new interview with Apologia Studios (via Complex), Kanye’s pastor Adam Tyson has revealed how the music icon – who once called himself both a God and Yeezus – wanted to turn his back on rap due to it being “the devil’s music.”
Check out a video of Adam Tyson recalling his experience with Kanye West:
“One time, he told me that he wasn’t going to rap,” recalled Adam Tyson. “I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘That’s the devil’s music.’
“I said, ‘Hey, man. Rap is a genre. You can rap for God.’ I think he was already thinking about it a little bit, but I just definitely said, ‘Hey, bro. I think you need to use your talents that God’s given you and use that platform for God.'”
As for how the rapper got involved with the church, Tyson recalled the story of how associates of Kanye recommended he visit California’s Placerita Bible Church back in May, with the musician telling the pastor how he had been “radically saved” before he began attending the church.
Although this story seems to indicate that Kanye’s Sunday Services predated his conversion to Christianity, it definitely seems to lend truth to the idea that we’ll no longer hear of the classic rap music we’ve come to know from Kanye.
Of course, there’s every chance that he’ll find a way to be at peace with both religion and rap music in the future, and that the best may still be yet to come from Yeezy.
Check out ‘I Am A God’ by Kanye West:
