Does Kanye West's 'Famous' Video Cross the Line With Christians?
Kanye West is thanking God for the release of his controversial "Famous" music video, but is the rapper who is a self-professed Christian crossing the line by claiming that God helped him create his latest album?
"The ongoing argument musically and lyrically (for Christians) is, 'what is considered ungodly or unrighteous as it pertains to music, videos and other content platforms," David L. Moody, Ph.D, the author of Political Melodies in the Pews?: The Voice of the Black Christian Rapper in the Twenty-first-Century Church told The Christian Post. "I really don't think Kanye had any intentions of spreading the Gospel message of Jesus Christ when he produced 'Famous.'"
In West's music video, life-like wax figures bearing an uncanny likeness to some of the most recognized faces in popular culture are laying naked with one another in a huge bed. His wife, Kim Kardashian, her singer ex-boyfriend Ray-J, former President George Bush, presidential hopeful Donald Trump, singer Taylor Swift, West's ex-girlfriend Amber Rose and disgraced comedian Bill Cosby all have wax figures sprawled across the sheets in the visuals for "Famous."
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In an interview with Big Boy Radio earlier this year, West described The Life Of Pablo album that features "Famous" as "a gospel album with a whole lot of cursing on it. ... I'm only doing 1 percent, 2 percent of the work and God is doing the rest of the work."
The release of West's latest visuals that accompany his album might lead people to question whether his artistic expression falls in line with his self-professed Christian values.
Moody, a professor at SUNY Oswego, said "The bigger question is what Kanye West perceives his relationship with the Lord to be. How genuine is his walk with Jesus Christ?"
The "Famous" music video is an interpretation of artist Vincent Desiderio's 2008 painting "Sleep," where figures are laying naked next to one another in similar fashion. But West's particular vision has reportedly offended friends of Taylor Swift and singer Ray-J who claimed it has caused a rift in his engagement.
Despite the backlash that the rapper has received, Desiderio said West's interpretation of his painting was brilliant.
"Kanye saw things in it that I don't know how he could've seen. Kanye is truly an artist," he told The New York Times. "Talking to him was like speaking to any of my peers in the art world — actually, more like talking to the brightest art students that have their eyes wide open."
West seemed proud of his own work when he took to Twitter to thank God while editing the video.
"I feel so blessed thank God for every up and every down," West wrote. "Making final tweaks to the edit. Feeling very inspired."
While the world might never know West's spiritual convictions about the music video, Moody surmised that the rapper could have had a conversation with God before its release.
"Perhaps Kanye had a conversation with God before he released the [video] for 'Famous'' and maybe God said, 'In time we will all stand in judgment before the throne of the anointed, the liberating king, to receive what is just for our conduct (whether it be good or bad) while we lived in this temporary body (2 Corinthians 5:10 )," said Moody, the author of The Complexity and Progression of Black Representation in Film and Television.
