Kanye West says No. 1 ‘Jesus Is King’ album is God ‘showing out’; ABS giving free Bibles to his fans
Kanye West celebrated his new Gospel album reaching No. 1 on the Billboard charts and American Bible Society says they are committed to giving Bibles to any of his fans inquiring to read the Word.
With nine studio albums to his credit, West's Jesus is King, released October 25, is his ninth consecutive album to debut at the top slot of The Billboard 200. The chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in America. West’s ranking will reflect on the chart set to be released on Tuesday.
The rapper and fashion guru is now tied with Eminem for the “most consecutive No. 1's on the Billboard 200 charts,” says Billboard.
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His latest album, Jesus Is King also breaks West’s prior streaming record, giving him his biggest streaming week ever and the fifth largest overall in 2019, at 196.9 million on-demand streams, Billboard reported. The 27 minute music release garnered the second-largest sales week of the year for an R&B/Hip-Hop album, with over 100,000 copies sold.
“Number one in the country right now, number one in the world right now, Jesus is King,” West declared at his Baton Rouge, Sunday Service concert on Friday on Bethany Church grounds.
“Number one song, number one album and they told me I would (inaudible) if I gave my life to Christ but God is showing out,” he continued.
“Who's number one? Jesus is number one!” the rapper declared as his gospel choir sang the chorus "Father I stretch my hands to you." After the concert, 1,000 people reportedly came to faith in Jesus Christ.
For many years, West publicly projected a god complex through his blasphemous alter ego Yeezus. But in 2019 everything changed for him, and he began his Sunday Service events featuring a gospel choir that reimagined mainstream songs with Christian lyrics. West said he became a born again Christian during this process and has now devoted his life to “working for God.”
Due to the reaction to West's conversion and his newfound passion to weekly evangelize across the world with Sunday Service concerts, American Bible Society announced that they will send up to 1,000 free Bibles to anyone in the U.S. curious about the historical book and Christian faith.
“Kanye West’s album has had an immediate effect on the current news cycle. ‘Jesus is King’ was a trending internet search last week with over 1 million queries on Google alone,” said Dr. John Farquhar Plake, director of ministry intelligence at American Bible Society in a statement shared with The Christian Post.
“Coincidentally, something we’re seeing as a rising trend is that most Americans turn to Google as a de facto spiritual guide. Our goal with this campaign is to give Americans – and, yes, Kanye fans – the opportunity to look for answers to their most pertinent questions at the source.”
Since the release of the album, searches for the term “Jesus” and the phrase “What do Christians believe?” both spiked in the U.S. American Bible Society hopes to aide those searching for answers by offering free access to the Bible.
Rebecca Richman from ABS told CP that anyone interested in receiving a Bible – completely free of charge can do so by November 22 here.
West will reportedly continue to make faith-based music and is gearing up to release a holiday album. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music's Beats 1, the father of four announced his upcoming Christmas record is titled Jesus Is Born.
"I believe because God has given me a gift that I pray for and so many people love," West told Lowe, "that if I stop doing it, He might start to take all the things away."
