Jesus Is Born

With the release of Jesus Is King, Kanye West emerged reborn, having found new creative inspiration and more personal fulfillment. Presented two months later on Christmas Day as a companion album to that Christian rap career-pivot piece, Jesus Is Born shifts the attention away from himself and instead shines the spotlight on the choir that featured both on that prior album and in his Sunday Service live events. A far cry from the sacrilegious bars of Yeezus, this nearly 90-minute vocal and piano set from the Los Angeles-based group seeks to bring home the African American gospel church experience that has informed the rapper’s pop-up revivals. As those who’ve attended these events would attest, the song selections can surprise—and here they do so with reimaginings of West’s oeuvre like “Ultralight Beam” and clever interpolations of R&B favorites like the Ginuwine-derived rework “Souls Anchored.”