If our politicians can be successful with a high degree of shallowness as they manipulate their constituents, I guess it is okay for entertainers. Does Kanye prove we are guillible on all sides?
Is Kanye West trying to revive his carrier? Being a new man of God with a huge Twitter account and profile is one way to do it. And then there are “men of God” that can extract some profits from the spectacle.
Kanye West is coming to Lakewood Church for Sunday service | abc13.com
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — We now know when mega-rapper Kanye West will make an appearance during Sunday service at Lakewood Church.
According to a church spokesperson, West will be at the 11 a.m. service this Sunday. Pastor Joel Osteen will sit down with West for a short interview in the auditorium early in the service.
The visit stems from a personal invite from Osteen back on Oct. 25.
The spokesperson said Osteen and West “do speak from time to time,” and according to an article published by TMZ, Osteen is a fan of West and believes his life is rooted in faith and love.West released a gospel album last month entitled “Jesus is King.”
Source: Kanye West is coming to Lakewood Church for Sunday service | abc13.com
The reality about Kanye is best expressed by Washington Post’s pop music critic Chris Richards’s review.
He still appeared to have no understanding of the trust he has betrayed by aligning himself with a president who, among other things, once insisted a lethal, white-supremacist march included some “very fine people.” Instead, West bragged about his little red hat, calling it “God’s practical joke to all liberals.” See how easy it is to slink out of responsibility and into God’s light?
By now, it’s clear that West has no real ideology. He only believes in provocation. Oh, and Jesus. So why does this album — which finally came out on Friday after West had blown through numerous self-imposed deadlines — sound so thin, so incoherent, so incomplete, so uncommitted, so insincere? As a producer, he’s worn out his tactics, from the crinkly soul samples, to the Auto-Tuned sneers, to the renta-choirs who always sound 20 times more prepared to do their job than West ever does. Is the stunt-solo from Kenny G on “Use This Gospel” really the most invigorating sound to be heard on this whole thing?
There are no curse words on the lyric sheet, and that’s a first. West has said he’s going to sanitize all the naughty parts of his old songs in future concerts, too. But this tiny gesture only underscores how morally superficial “Jesus Is King” ultimately feels, dividing the complexity of the human experience into good and bad, righteousness and sin. West doesn’t want his newfound faith to feel complicated. “[I’m] wrestling with God,” he raps on “Follow God,” a church organ keening in the corner of the room. “I don’t really wanna wrestle.”
That means “Jesus Is King” is either an attempt at self-erasure or an act of self-delusion. For anyone who ever believed that West’s most imaginative impulses blurted toward honesty, justice and utopian possibility, it’s an occasion to mourn a misplaced faith.
Just maybe when we learn to diss Kanye, we will as well learn to diss the president and other politicians who sadly do little for society yet benefit the most from what we have built. We can do better.