Kanye West has revealed that he asked those working on his new album Jesus is King not to have sex before marriage.
The rapper took part in a lengthy and controversial interview with Zane Lowe on his Apple Music Beats 1 show, in which he reflected on his career.
He said that he was exposed to pornography from a young age and became addicted to sex after the death of his mother in 2007.
“Some people drown themselves in drugs, and I drown myself in my addiction: sex,” he said.
1/10 “I was the best new artist this year”
Kanye asserted this after losing the New Artist of the Year award at the 2004 American Music Awards
Getty Images
2/10 “I am the number one human being in music. That means any person that’s living or breathing is number two.”
Kanye made this claim while appearing on the Wendy Williams show in 2007. He had recently released the album ‘Graduation’ to critical acclaim
Getty Images
3/10 “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!”
In arguably the most famous incident of his career, Kanye bravely stole the microphone from then 19 year old Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for the Female Music Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards
REUTERS
4/10 “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street and people look at me… like I’m Hitler”
Kanye said this during a mid-set rant while on stage at the Big Chill festival in 2011. Despite releasing the acclaimed ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ in 2010, he was still widely disliked following the Taylor Swift incident
PA Archive/PA Images
5/10 “I am Picasso. I am Michelangelo. I am Basquiat. I am Walt Disney. I am Steve Jobs”
Kanye compared himself to these visionaries in a mid-set rant on stage in Paris, 2013
AFP/Getty Images
6/10 “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.”
In 2013, Kanye opened up to reveal more Kanye. His pain is understandable, considering such performances as his at the BRITs in 2015, where he came on stage with an entourage of flamethrower wielding grime artists (pictured)
Getty Images
7/10 “I have to dress Kim everyday so she doesn’t embarrass me.”
Kanye tweeted this in 2014, around the time that he was designing the first Yeezy range
AFP/Getty Images
8/10 “By 50 percent [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso… f***ing Picasso and Escobar. By 50 per cent more influential than any other human being.”
Kanye made this claim backstage after appearing on Saturday Night Live in 2016, he did not show his working out
Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3
9/10 “My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself.”
This quote followed Kanye’s recent expression of love for Donald Trump on Twitter, in which he claimed that he and Trump were “dragon energy”
Getty Images
10/10 “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”
Kanye made this comment in a May 2018 interview with TMZ. He later clarified that, in saying slavery was a choice, he meant “we can make our own reality”
PA Wire/PA Images
1/10 “I was the best new artist this year”
Kanye asserted this after losing the New Artist of the Year award at the 2004 American Music Awards
Getty Images
2/10 “I am the number one human being in music. That means any person that’s living or breathing is number two.”
Kanye made this claim while appearing on the Wendy Williams show in 2007. He had recently released the album ‘Graduation’ to critical acclaim
Getty Images
3/10 “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!”
In arguably the most famous incident of his career, Kanye bravely stole the microphone from then 19 year old Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for the Female Music Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards
REUTERS
4/10 “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street and people look at me… like I’m Hitler”
Kanye said this during a mid-set rant while on stage at the Big Chill festival in 2011. Despite releasing the acclaimed ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ in 2010, he was still widely disliked following the Taylor Swift incident
PA Archive/PA Images
5/10 “I am Picasso. I am Michelangelo. I am Basquiat. I am Walt Disney. I am Steve Jobs”
Kanye compared himself to these visionaries in a mid-set rant on stage in Paris, 2013
AFP/Getty Images
6/10 “My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.”
In 2013, Kanye opened up to reveal more Kanye. His pain is understandable, considering such performances as his at the BRITs in 2015, where he came on stage with an entourage of flamethrower wielding grime artists (pictured)
Getty Images
7/10 “I have to dress Kim everyday so she doesn’t embarrass me.”
Kanye tweeted this in 2014, around the time that he was designing the first Yeezy range
AFP/Getty Images
8/10 “By 50 percent [I am more influential than] Stanley Kubrick, Apostle Paul, Picasso… f***ing Picasso and Escobar. By 50 per cent more influential than any other human being.”
Kanye made this claim backstage after appearing on Saturday Night Live in 2016, he did not show his working out
Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3
9/10 “My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself.”
This quote followed Kanye’s recent expression of love for Donald Trump on Twitter, in which he claimed that he and Trump were “dragon energy”
Getty Images
10/10 “When you hear about slavery for 400 years… for 400 years? That sounds like a choice.”
Kanye made this comment in a May 2018 interview with TMZ. He later clarified that, in saying slavery was a choice, he meant “we can make our own reality”
PA Wire/PA Images
West, who describes himself as a Christian and whose new album is heavily influenced by Gospel music, then explained that he told people working in his studio not to have pre-marital sex.
“There were times where I was asking people not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album,” he said.
“There were times where I went to people that were working on other projects and said, can you just work and focus on this? I thought if we could all focus and fast – families who pray together stay together.”
In the same interview, West said he refused to be shamed into keeping his opinions to himself, such as his support for US president Donald Trump.
“For the greatest artist in human existence to put a red hat on was God’s practical joke to all liberals. Like, ‘No! Not Kanye!’” he said.
In the same interview, West referred to himself as “unquestionably, undoubtedly the greatest human artist of all time”
Follow the latest on Kanye’s album release in our liveblog, below
Hello, and welcome to The Independent’s liveblog of the Kanye West album that may or may never be released.
He also claimed that his support for US president Donald Trump was ‘God’s practical joke to all liberals’. Because of course.
A reminder, or explanation for those who have better things to be getting on with than refreshing West’s Spotify page to see if he’s released his new album: West was supposed to release Jesus is King, a Gospel-inspired album, on 27 September – at least according to his wife, Kim Kardashian-West. She then promised the album would “definitely” be released on 29 September. Obviously that didn’t happen.
Which brings us to today, 25 October, the newly announced release date. Only, the record was supposed to drop at midnight Pacific time, which has now passed. West has since explained he’s decided to change some of the mixes on three tracks, but will “not sleep” until the album is finished and released.
Oh, and Kanye has also now revealed that he’s releasing ANOTHER album – that’s right, even while Jesus is King is yet to appear – on Christmas Day, titled Jesus is Born.
Fortunately, I’ve already drawn the short straw and will be working this Christmas. Otherwise I’d start to think Kanye is personally trying to ruin my life.
Here are the details on those wild “no sex before marriage” comments.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kanye-west-jesus-is-king-sex-marriage-new-album-release-tracklist-stream-date-a9170426.html
As you can imagine, fans aren’t too happy about the latest delays for the album. Some reactions below:
More gems from Kanye’s interview with Zane Lowe:
“Give me some other examples where someone is saying what isn’t culturally what you’re supposed to say…Give me an example where someone is saying what you’re not supposed to say. You don’t want to say it, do you liberal?”
“And now—I am unquestionably, undoubtedly, the greatest human artist of all time. It’s not even a question at this point. It’s just a fact. For the greatest artist in human existence to put a red hat on was God’s practical joke to all liberals. Like, ‘Nooo, not Kanye!’”
Kanye West on the lineage of hip hop, during his Zane Lowe interview:
I love all of these people but you gotta know there’s a lineage of Jay to Ye to Drake. This person is your idol, then you get to know em, then you be friends, then you turn to frenemies, then you turn to enemies, and then you gotta bring back the positive energy. But that’s the lineage of rap kings and inspirers, because Jay was my BIGGEST inspiration. By the time I got to New York and we had the throwbacks, Big Boi had throwbacks first, but there was a little stand at Lenox and I’d be going down there doing beats with Jermaine Dupri and I’d pull up with my throwback and Jay is be like ‘man that’s nice’ then I pull up the next day with another throwback, and then day four they say, ‘what, you stay in Atlanta?’
Another bold claim from the Zane Lowe interview:
He also claimed that he would one day become leader of the Free World, saying: “There will be a time when I will be the president of the US and I will remember – any founder that didn’t have the capacity to understand culturally what we were doing.”
The rapper, who identifies as a Christian, also revealed he tried to ban people working on his album from having pre-marital sex.
“I thought if we could all focus and fast – families who pray together stay together,” he said.
West also touched upon his exposure to pornography from a young age, and admitted he became addicted to sex following the death of his mother in 2007, which he has previously said had a profound effect on him.
It’s been five hours since Kanye said the album had been pushed back to later today and there’s been nothing since. There were rumours of some kind of Sunday Service performance going on in New York, and that the album would be released as that was going on, but so far it doesn’t seem to be happening.
This just in (non album-related)
Kim Kardashian-West has claimed Kanye has “banned” their daughter North from wearing makeup and crop tops due to his newfound religious beliefs.
“North is trying to get in on the makeup but she’s being blocked heavily because her dad has stopped all makeup for her until she is a teenager,” Kim said at a makeup launch event, adding that the discussion had turned into “a big fight in the household right now”.
Kanye previously said: “I don’t think North should wear crop tops just because I had her wearing a slip dress when she was two-years-old. I think and feel differently now, now that I’m Christian, now that I’m founder of a three billion dollar organisation and married for five years.”
Saying what we’re all thinking
I’ve actually forgotten what it was like to not be waiting for a Kanye West album.
A reminder that this is by no means the first time Kanye has failed to produce the goods when it comes to new music. His album Yandhi, which was supposed to be released last year, never appeared and there has been no indication that he intends on dropping it anytime soon.
For Jesus is King, the original release date was 27 September, then 29 September, and most recently 25 October. We’re about halfway into the day (at least in the UK) and there’s still no sign of it.
WHERE IS IT?
The greatest artist of all time would release his albums… on time.
