Kanye West to release ‘Jesus is King’ IMAX-only film on Friday
Kanye West will release an IMAX-only Gospel-themed film titled “Jesus is King,” based off of the Sunday services that the famed rapper has been overseeing this year.
A trailer for the IMAX release was uploaded to West’s official YouTube account on Saturday, getting as of Monday afternoon over 240,000 views and more than 13,000 likes.
The video opens with a blue screen with the caption “In the words of Jesus Christ, ‘The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel,'” quoting Mark 1:15.
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It shows some behind-the-scenes footage of filming during the summer at the Roden Crater, which features a large artistic facility in Arizona’s Painted Desert.
The trailer also showed a choir being filmed singing a Gospel song inside one of the chambers at the artistic desert facility.
“This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with new music from his forthcoming album 'JESUS IS KING' — all presented in the immersive sound and stunning clarity of The IMAX Experience®,” stated the film’s official website.
West began holding Sunday Service worship gatherings this year and announced that he was no longer planning to record secular music.
While largely centered on music, they have been known to occasionally include a pastor who gives a brief spiritual message.
Earlier this month, West held an outdoor Sunday Service in Salt Lake City, Utah, garnering thousands of attendees and talking about the topic of spiritual warfare.
“Spiritual warfare, there’s a war going on outside, no man is safe from,” Kanye sang at the gathering. “It's no longer a mystery, Jesus has already won the victory!”
West explained to those gathered that he was once beholden to “multiple gods,” namely the “god of ego, god of money, god of pride, the god of fame.”
“I'm an artist, I'm a creative, I'm a chef and I can only cook for one single God. I can only serve God,” he continued.
“When I was trying to serve multiple gods it drove me crazy. That's like the greatest chef in the world trying to make a seven-course meal and serve it at eight different houses.”
West’s current artistic and spiritual direction has garnered mixed opinions by observers, some of whom are skeptical of his claims of conversion while others express optimism.
“It appears that indulging in secular music would go against Kanye's newfound mission as a newfound Christian,” wrote Noah C. of the website Hot New Hip-Hop.
“We wish Ye the best on his mission, but it wouldn't be the first time he publicly expressed a thought on a whim that never ended up manifesting. Kanye also claimed The Life Of Pablo was a gospel album - which featured hip hop production and wildly raunchy lyrics - so his understanding of religious music might be quite broad.”
James Gardin, a rapper who writes for the website Rapzilla, attended a West Sunday Service held in Detroit, Michigan.
“Being a Michigander, this Sunday Service was super special to me,” he wrote, adding that “the crowd was filled with believers and non-believers.”
“These people probably would have never stepped foot in a church but the Church came to their turf this time."
