It’s a Christmas Miracle – Kanye West has released an album on the day he said he would. Jesus Is Born, a companion piece to the much-delayed Jesus Is King, hit shelves and streaming services on Christmas Day, as was promised by West.
Jesus Is Born is West’s first full-length collaboration with his Sunday Service Choir. The choir have been singing at West’s Sunday Services each Sunday in 2019 and featured intermittently on Jesus Is King.
West’s Sunday Service Choir enjoyed a high profile in 2019, becoming synonymous with the rapper’s renewed interest in Christianity. The choir performed free shows at churches across America in the lead-up to Jesus Is King. More recently, they have experimented with more abstract, ambitious performance stylings. The most recent of these came last Sunday at the Lincoln Centre in New York City, where West, backed by the choir and dancers, read from the bible.
Following up Jesus Is King
Jesus Is King wasn’t the first time that Kanye West left fans frustrated at his inability to meet his own deadlines. He did the same just twelve months before promising that Yandhi would be the rapper’s ninth studio album. It never made it to shelves.
After months of speculation, Jesus Is King, was finally released on October 25th, accompanied by the promise that Jesus Is Born would be released on Christmas Day. Like Jesus Is King, West’s latest record features strong gospel influences and religious lyrical subject matter.
At 84 minutes in length, however, Jesus Is Born, is almost three times the length of its predecessor. Its release date also means that unlike Jesus Is King, Jesus Is Born, can be classified a Christmas album. As Mariah Carey or Michael Bublé will tell you, this could bode well financially for the rapper in festive seasons to come. In any case, West’s record is poised to feature heavily in today’s Boxing Day sales.
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