Kanye West speaks on the decision to have an actor play Jesus at his recent shows, his relationship with God, and the “White” voice he uses in interviews.
Kanye West is having a good week. He just launched his highly anticipatedYeezus tour last weekend, and yesterday proposed to his girlfriend Kim Kardashian. Ye was definitely in good spirits during his recent interview on the JV show, where he spoke of the choice to bring Jesus onstage during his shows, his own relationship with God, and his infamous “white voice”.
Yeezy explained that a lot of thought was put into Jesus’ appearance at his show. “I had a friend of mine that’s a pastor there as we started discussing how we wanted to deliver it,” he said. “My girl even asked afterwards, ‘Is that weird that Jesus comes on stage?’,” he revealed, but stressed that it wasn’t all that out of the ordinary. “We do plays all the time where people play Jesus.”
Ye expressed that the ability to use the image of God is one of the greatest parts of his religion. “What’s awesome about Christianity is that we’re able to portray God. We’re allowed to draw an image of him. We’re allowed to make movies about him. In other religions, you’re not allowed to do that,” he explained.
“One of the things that I wanted to really get across with that, is that you can have a relationship with Jesus, you can talk to Jesus.” Kanye said of his intentions, suggesting that this was his own way of expressing his relationship with God. “In the same way someone would have a “Jesus is my Homeboy” [t-shirt], this is the way I would express it.”
“Anytime the word Jesus can be used more in our lives, it’s a good thing. Even it’s the title Yeezus.” he said. “With my heroes, people want to be like Mike, I want to be like Christ.”
The Chicago rapper then got into why he chose the name “White Jesus” for Christ’s appearance at his concert. “It’s funny because you hear the term “Black Jesus” all the time, but you never hear the term “White Jesus,” he explained, and later joked, “You know it’s just some Kanye West shit really.”
Finally, Ye spoke of the classism present in some of his interviews, but said he has his own way of greeting the patronizing questions. “Even when you’re in certain magazines, it’s still like a dinner for Schmucks situation. Are they inviting you to be a part of your situation, or are they inviting you to laugh at your tooth. We have our thing that every time we do it, we give them the “White” voice.”
Watch the full interview below.
