Kanye West changing his name to 'Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West' won't be the weirdest thing he has done
Kanye West. The man. The rap star. The maybe-president-of-America at some point in a surrealist future. There’s something about him that evokes intrigue, not just because of the things he does, like considering renaming himself “Christian Genius Billionaire Kanye West”, but because of how often and how serious he is about those things.
West has always been a bit of an enigma. But in the last couple of years, it feels like he has been getting weirder every time you refresh your Twitter feed. On November 7, at the 2019 Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York, he said, “When I run for president in 2024 we would have created so many jobs I’m not going to run, I’m going to walk.”
Coming from anyone else, this would be considered a joke. But not from West. In October, he said in an interview, “There were times where I was asking people not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album.” This, coming from a man whose 2019 song 'I Love It' had the line "I'm a sick f**k, I like a quick f**k".
But West has recently gone through a spiritual transformation. From his new album ‘Jesus is King’ — a gospel album of sorts; as gospel as rap can be — to his decision to make only spiritual music from now, or banning his daughter North from wearing makeup, to measuring his marriage in "dog years", his actions beg the question, “Is something up with Kanye West?”
Or in the words of Snoop Dogg, "I smoke weed. Weed don’t make you do that. What the f**k is he on?”
Last year, West implied the slavery of African Americans was a choice. He said, "When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice," adding, "We're mentally imprisoned." His support for Trump (some have even called it a bromance) has also been a widely debated issue.
Earlier this year, he said, "You’re black, so you can’t like Trump. I ain’t never made a decision only based on my color. That’s a form of slavery. Mental slavery." Writing for The Outline, Drew Millard sums up West quite well: "If it’s impossible for you to separate the antics from the artist, I understand. Before social media, Kanye was an artist who made great music and sometimes did crazy shit in public; now he’s the guy who does crazy shit in public and occasionally releases a record here and there."
But it is his newfound spirituality that's intrigued everyone more than all his other antics. Speaking to Vox, Janja Lalich, a cult expert and a sociology professor at California State University, said: “It’s got the early trappings [of a cult], I guess we could say."
Lalich added that it’s also a cult warning sign when the leader of a religious movement makes a habit of “associating himself with higher religious figures and principles.” Of course, with West, it could also be an elaborate prelude to his next big act, perhaps, finally running for the White House. And he just might do so.