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Jesus Is King (stylized as JESUS IS KING and commonly abbreviated as JIK) is Kanye West's ninth studio album, released on October 25, 2019. It has 11 tracks and a runtime of just over 27 minutes.[1] The album features guest appearances from artists such as Clipse, Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons, and more.

The album comes after Ye's transition to gospel and Christian-oriented music, with some of its tracks originating as Yandhi songs. Because of the heavy religious theme throughout the album, there is no profanity or sexual references heard in any of the 11 tracks featured in the album. In the months leading up to the album's release, Ye performed with his Sunday Service Choir that he formed in January of the same year.

Like Yeezus and the scrapped Yandhi album, JIK's artwork depicts the album in one of its release mediums, this time as a blue vinyl. While the streaming and CD releases of the album feature the vinyl with a white background, the record is simply the vinyl itself.

Background[]

Ye's previous album releases came in early summer 2018 in the form of five albums that he executively produced, two of which were of his own: ye, a solo album; and KIDS SEE GHOSTS, with Kid Cudi as KIDS SEE GHOSTS. In fall 2018, Ye began the rollout for his ninth album titled Yandhi, which after a September and November release, was postponed indefinitely. Of the songs planned for that record, "Tripple X (Storm)" survived as "Everything We Need" and "Chakras" as "Selah" on JIK, with an additional two seeing release elsewhere.

On January 6, 2019, Ye debuted the Sunday Service Choir, a group that he performed with weekly. The group performs classic gospel music and "church-friendly" renditions of popular songs, some of which are Ye's own, including the then-unreleased "Water."[2][3] That May, Ye invited Clipse (Pusha T and No Malice) to his Wyoming ranch, the same site where he recorded and worked on his 2018 releases.[4]

On August 29, Kim Kardashian posted on Twitter both a handwritten version of the tracklist and its first planned release date: September 27.[5][6] Just days before its expected release, reports indicated that the album wasn't going to make its deadline.[7][8] That was obviously the case, and its extended deadline of September 29 was also missed.[9] At this point, "Selah" was re-recorded within two days and Ye was reported to have been waiting on a revised Nicki Minaj verse for an updated "New Body."[1]

Ye went to work on the album more in Wyoming the following month, setting forth a third and final release date, that being October 25. At that point, an updated "New Body," "Up From The Ashes," and "LA Monster" were cut from the album.[10]

Altogether, the following were planned release dates for the album: September 27,

Track list[]

No. Title Length
1. Every Hour(feat. Sunday Service Choir) 1:52
2. Selah 2:44
3. Follow God 1:44
4. Closed On Sunday 2:31
5. On God 2:16
6. Everything We Need(feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Ant Clemons) 1:56
7. Water(feat. Ant Clemons) 2:48
8. God Is 3:23
9. Hands On(feat. Fred Hammond) 3:23
10. Use This Gospel(feat. Clipse & Kenny G) 3:33
11. Jesus Is Lord 0:49
Total length: 27:04

Unreleased[]

The following songs were included in preliminary tracklists, but have not seen release:

"Up From The Ashes" was also cut from the album but was later released as part of Donda (Deluxe).

Trivia[]

  • While JESUS IS KING is not Ye's shortest album, it is Ye's only album in which every song has a length of under 4 minutes.

References[]

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