Running head: ANALYSIS ESSAY 1

[Title Here, up to 12 Words, on One to Two Lines]

Jaylen D. Oneell

State College of Florida

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Kanye West is a rapper from Southside Chicago. Instead of just rapping about and in a

way exploiting the gun violence, murder and gang affiliation that goes on in that area, like most

rappers who grew up in that area, he instead raps about his internal conflicts like his addictions

and his depression, but when he does address external conflicts he talks about more than just the

problems in Southside Chicago. He tries to make his music universal, and he succeeds since his

demographic is teenagers and people his own age. Which all relates to his song “Jesus walks”

which explores the ideas of religion and faith by creating a conversation for the rappers who

made music focused on materialistic things. While criticizing police brutality and racial

profiling. He also questioned why were we destroying each other by going to war.

Religion and Faith

Kanye is a religious man, he shows his love for Christian faith and values in most of his

older music. He believes anyone could find god, to him it doesn’t matter what you do or what

you look like you could find god. “To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the

strippers/ (Jesus walks for them)/ To the victims of welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah/

(Jesus walks for them)” (Rhymefest & West, 2004, lines 36-39). In this song Kanye shares his

belief that anyone could find god if they had faith in Christianity. To him it doesn’t matter what

profession you have or what you’ve done in the past Jesus will walk for you. Kanye wanted

everyone to be included when he made this song, by saying everyone is living in hell even the

people living off of welfare. Even though it’s free government money people who have welfare

usually live in a community where violent and nonviolent crimes are common, so their life’s are

not as easy than what the people paying for their welfare think it is.
 Focusing on the materialistic things and not faith

During the early 2000’s the type of hip-hop that was popular was gangsta and bling rap.

Songs in this sub-genre of rap would focus on jewelry, women, clubs, and the gang life. Kanye

who growing up stayed away from that gang lifestyle, wanted to make music that was more than

just club music. “They said you can rap about anything except for Jesus/ That means guns, sex,

lies, video tape/ But if I talk about God my record won’t get played/ Huh?” (Rhymefest & West,

2004, lines 49-52). Someone on Kanye’s team told him to get a hit he could talk about anything

besides religion. Kanye being Kanye did the opposite of what they told him and still got a hit, he

didn’t want to follow the crowd of rappers making music about guns and sex. These lines in a

way is reverse psychology, by not playing this record radio hosts and DJs around the country

were proving him right. By trying to prove him wrong the song charted at number three on the

billboard top 100.

Police Brutality

Police brutality against minorities has been happening for many decades, the wrongful

injustice against black people will not be disappearing anytime soon. Kanye who lived in the

ghetto for his adolescence, undoubtedly seen it first hand. “Getting choked by detectives yeah,

yeah, now check the method/ They be asking us questions, harass, and arrest us/ Saying ‘We eat

pieces shit like you for breakfast!’/ Huh! Y’all eat pieces of shit? What’s the basis?” (Rhymefest

& West, 2004, lines 14-17). Not all cops are racist, but the ones that are will question and harass

for doing nothing. And if it gets physical and it doesn’t end in death then they’re usually beating

us with an Baton or spraying us with pepper spray. With the last line Kanye is asking why after
slavery and segregation, black people are still seen as nothing but pieces of feces to eat and spit

out to some people.

War

In late 2003, the US declared war on Iraq. Many people were against this, /just like the

Vietnam War. Kanye took this opportunity to talk about his beliefs on this touchy subject while

also talking about god. “Order, huh/ Yo we at war/ We at with terrorism, racism, but most of all

we at war with ourselves/ God show me the way because the Devil’s tryna bring me down”

(Rhymefest & West, 2004, lines 1-4). The first line is a general ordering his men, Kanye says

that we’re at war with ourselves, saying the conflict is internal and not external. He continues

with this idea by asking for God to show him the path. To Kanye the Devil is bringing us down

by putting terrorism and racism in our hearts.

Jesus Walks

Kanye West wanted to spread a message with this song and album it’s from. All of the

songs include a message about religious faith, people being focused on materialistic objects,

racial discrimination and external conflicts we have as a human race just because of our

differences. “Jesus Walks” touches on all of this and then some, the way Kanye ties all those

subjects together by sampling a church song. He wanted to create a path that a generation would

follow by creating a radio hit that talks about treating humans better and finding God. He wanted

the the next generation to grow up with this song and learn from the mistakes from the previous,

and he wanted his generation to wake and look at the errors of their ways. With this song, West

wanted us to change for the better and find our God given path because the Devil was clouding

our better judgement.

 References

West, K., Smith, C., (2004) Jesus walks [Performed by K. West] Retrieved from

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kanyewest/jesuswalks.html

Billboard information retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/music/kanye-west/chart-

history/digital-song-sales/song/544732