Kanye West - Jesus Walks (2004)
*** (of four)
I'm trying to fucking figure out what it is - I don't have a lot of respect for Kanye West in interviews and ego and overall rap ability and relevance, but every time the bastard makes a serious song and/or video, I lap it right up. "Jesus Walks" is probably my favorite example. Even though I know enough theology to know Kanye's interpretation of the New Testament is muddled and oddly self-centered at best. All through the song, West acts like he's talking about/to Jesus, but he's really talking about/to himself. A lot.
It's foolish shit, and to be taken with a grain of salt, but it kind of pulls on my emotion nontheless. Emotion can create the illusion of meaning. And "Jesus Walks," which cops a haunting, classic gospel hook, is still my favorite Kanye, and the video is up to par. Provided you fall, like I did, for the clip's grainy black-and-white mood. "Jesus Walks" has a timeless, culture-crossing monochrome beauty, in a way. Hard to turn off, if I'm the one with the remote.
That's not to say you might not chuckle as you see Kanye leave the front door of his project tenement building while Jesus, who's patiently sitting out in the hall waiting to personally guard Kanye, scrambles to his feet and hustles to get the rapper's back. This Christ seriously acts like a high-maintenance star's handler on serious speed, a true music video Messiah.
J.C. follows Kanye all through the video as he wanders the hood and, just so he doesn't get rusty on the whole miracle-working thing and get bored, Christ even makes food appear like magic in Kanye's refrigerator. I'm not joking. Name-brand and everything. No Jennie-O at this turkey feast!
The "Footsteps" poem gets referenced at one point, and there are choreographed kid dancers who break their steps when they see Herr Kanye walk out of the house. They seriously drop everything to run over and greet him with admiration. Jesus wisely stays out of that shot. He's inside, divinically refilling the toilet paper and unclogging the bathtub drain, like a good friend.
Kanye even delivers a frantic verse from the pulpit. It's the ego element that really drives this piece, you're reminded when the video closes on a two-shot of Kanye and Christ, with Kanye out front and Christ over his shoulder, looking off-camera in a Bergman-esque three-quarters shot. Kanye's staring into the lens while a white, cursive-script Thank You is imposed on the bottom of the screen.
Is that Thank You... from Kanye? To Jesus? No way. Thank you is what Kanye - who looms large in the shot, remember - hears the people gratefully projecting back at him for his brilliant, ghetto-redeeming opus. Of course, Kanye couldn't have done it without the divine protection of, shoot, what's that guy's name again? That olive-skinned white boy with the crown of thorns who's perched just over Kanye's shoulder. Pedro Something.
I'm trying to fucking figure out what it is - I don't have a lot of respect for Kanye West in interviews and ego and overall rap ability and relevance, but every time the bastard makes a serious song and/or video, I lap it right up. "Jesus Walks" is probably my favorite example. Even though I know enough theology to know Kanye's interpretation of the New Testament is muddled and oddly self-centered at best. All through the song, West acts like he's talking about/to Jesus, but he's really talking about/to himself. A lot.
It's foolish shit, and to be taken with a grain of salt, but it kind of pulls on my emotion nontheless. Emotion can create the illusion of meaning. And "Jesus Walks," which cops a haunting, classic gospel hook, is still my favorite Kanye, and the video is up to par. Provided you fall, like I did, for the clip's grainy black-and-white mood. "Jesus Walks" has a timeless, culture-crossing monochrome beauty, in a way. Hard to turn off, if I'm the one with the remote.
That's not to say you might not chuckle as you see Kanye leave the front door of his project tenement building while Jesus, who's patiently sitting out in the hall waiting to personally guard Kanye, scrambles to his feet and hustles to get the rapper's back. This Christ seriously acts like a high-maintenance star's handler on serious speed, a true music video Messiah.
J.C. follows Kanye all through the video as he wanders the hood and, just so he doesn't get rusty on the whole miracle-working thing and get bored, Christ even makes food appear like magic in Kanye's refrigerator. I'm not joking. Name-brand and everything. No Jennie-O at this turkey feast!
The "Footsteps" poem gets referenced at one point, and there are choreographed kid dancers who break their steps when they see Herr Kanye walk out of the house. They seriously drop everything to run over and greet him with admiration. Jesus wisely stays out of that shot. He's inside, divinically refilling the toilet paper and unclogging the bathtub drain, like a good friend.
Kanye even delivers a frantic verse from the pulpit. It's the ego element that really drives this piece, you're reminded when the video closes on a two-shot of Kanye and Christ, with Kanye out front and Christ over his shoulder, looking off-camera in a Bergman-esque three-quarters shot. Kanye's staring into the lens while a white, cursive-script Thank You is imposed on the bottom of the screen.
Is that Thank You... from Kanye? To Jesus? No way. Thank you is what Kanye - who looms large in the shot, remember - hears the people gratefully projecting back at him for his brilliant, ghetto-redeeming opus. Of course, Kanye couldn't have done it without the divine protection of, shoot, what's that guy's name again? That olive-skinned white boy with the crown of thorns who's perched just over Kanye's shoulder. Pedro Something.
posted by daytime at 12:42 AM
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