Kanye West: Artist In Modern Pop Culture

I believe that we would all agree that Kanye West is one of the most talked about artists in modern pop culture. However, throughout his many outbursts, media mishaps and questionable views of his image the media cannot deny his contributions to the Hip-Hop and music cultures. Kanye West successfully brought self-conscious, thought-provoking music to a genre that had pride in glorifying, violence, drug use, sex and negativity among African Americans. He was a successful contender to Gangster Rap when he surfaced early in his career.
“Jesus Walks” is a song that portrays the struggles of minorities that are exposed to violence, racism, classism, and victims of the circumstances in which they live. At the beginning of the song, Kanye West says,
“We’re at war. We’re at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all we’re at war with ourselves”. He goes on to describe the surrounding of where he lived as a place of crime and disadvantage where people would become victims of crimes committed by their own people. He then follows with the chorus of his song that represents him attempting to reach out to Jesus while struggling to “right his wrongs”.
In my opinion, this song references Kanye’s identity by acknowledging the circumstances that he – or people that he has encountered are exposed and their responses to those situations. Meaning, he believes in God, but also understands that he sins in order to “make ends meet” within the lyrics of this song. In addition, Kanye calls out the injustices within the prison system and racial issues within society. This song establishes Kanye West as a believer in Jesus that chose a song that could have been viewed as unacceptable by modern pop culture. In the song, he says, “They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus. That means guns, sex, lies videotape, but if I rap about God my music won’t get played”. In my opinion, this is reflective of Kanye’s passion for being portrayed as an African American artist that has the courage to release controversial art in hopes to bring attention to the struggles that he, African Americans and all people face. In addition, he is one of the trailblazers that went against the grain of the Hip-Hop genre to produce thought-provoking, self-conscious music.