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At his third listening party in three days, the rapper showed off a fresh side of himself with a gospel-tinged record that has yet to be released.
On Sunday night in Upper Manhattan, in a display of controlled chaos that has by now become routine, Kanye West once again ignored a promised album release date, opting instead to play the work-in-progress for a hastily assembled congregation of true believers.
“Jesus Is King,” the rapper’s gospel-influenced ninth album, was originally slated for release on Friday, Sept. 27, according to social media and his official website; after the day came and went, his wife, Kim Kardashian West, said via a post on Instagram stories that the LP would arrive on Sunday. By Monday morning, no new music was commercially available.
Instead, West opted to spend the weekend hosting impromptu listening parties for the unfinished album in three cities — Detroit on Friday, Chicago on Saturday, New York on Sunday — sticking with the seat-of-his-pants rollout strategy that he employed for his previous two albums, “The Life of Pablo” in 2016 and “Ye” last year.
But while West’s events for previous releases were live-streamed online for the broader public — from Madison Square Garden and an idyllic Wyoming ranch — his celebrations for “Jesus Is King” were more decidedly intimate. He invited V.I.P.s (Chris Rock, Alexander Wang) and fans who snagged free tickets released a few hours before to landmark theaters for a playback with brief commentary. Each gathering had its own line of “Jesus Is King” merchandise for sale.
The new album, which grew out of West’s recent Sunday Service church performances around the country, represents a thematic shift for the rapper, who has long melded black gospel sounds with secular hip-hop but said on Sunday that, up until now, he “wasn’t quite delivered and fully saved.”
“This has been an incredible journey,” West told the crowd at the United Palace Theater, which also hosts church events in Washington Heights.
“By having the luxury of having an amazing choir around me every Sunday,” he continued, “I came to know the truth and the joy of Jesus Christ. This album has been made to be an expression of the gospel and to share the gospel and the truth of what Jesus has done to me. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he does for me, my soul cries out.”
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In fact, the album’s lyrics contained no curse words from either West or his collaborators (Ty Dolla Sign, Pusha T, No Malice) and instead focused almost exclusively on religious salvation. Across 10 tracks, with titles like “On God,” “Water” and “Use This Gospel,” West repeatedly invoked Jesus Christ, declaring on the opening track, “Beauty From Ashes,” “Your light has healed me” and “I could tell you/He could show you.”
“Can I bring the gospel to New York right quick?” West asked the responsive crowd, which included members of his roving choir, whose exaltations blended with and encouraged those of his fans. (Earlier in the day, West had brought his pop-up Sunday Service to the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York, in Queens.)
In song, West also alluded to his public struggles in recent years with lines like “I came to you empty/free of my pride” and “Told the devil that I’m going on a strike/I’ve been working for him my whole life.” On the track “Selah,” he referenced “Yandhi,” the album he had planned to release last November, and seemed to point to religion as the reason it was shelved: “Everybody wanted ‘Yandhi,’” he rapped, “and Jesus did the laundry.”
Even the song “New Body,” a demo of which had leaked online, had been altered for content, turning its more secular, sexual lyrics to something more chaste and respectful.
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West, who has been criticized for his unpredictable pronouncements on subjects like slavery and mental health and his support of President Donald J. Trump, faced the harshest reviews and lowest sales of his career in the wake of “Ye” last year. But instead of confronting his detractors head-on, as he has been prone to do, he opted largely for messages of hope and positivity in his new music. “No more living for the culture,” he declares on “Jesus Is King.” “We nobody’s slave.”
At the event on Sunday, there were moments of levity, as well. Before playing the music, West showed clips from two upcoming documentary projects — one on the dome-like housing community he experimented with in California, and the other, due in Imax theaters on Oct. 25, capturing a Sunday Service performance — as two of his children, North and Saint, flailed, sang and cartwheeled along onstage.
Later, West led the crowd in a brief singalong that brought his typical humor to his latest subject matter: “Closed on Sunday,” he sang. “You my Chick-fil-A.” And during a saxophone section on the final song, “Use This Gospel,” West interrupted to add, “That’s Kenny G, by the way.”
As the album ended, West beamed, but did not say whether “Jesus Is King” was complete or when the rest of the world might be able to hear it. His label, Def Jam Recordings, declined to comment.
Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter with a focus on pop music. His work seeks to pull back the curtain on how hit songs and emerging artists are discovered, made and marketed. He previously worked at New York magazine and The Village Voice. @joecoscarelli