Kanye West Says He Has ‘Issues’ With Jesus: ‘Them Prayers Ain’t Working’

Kanye West says he has “issues with Jesus” right now.

During a recent interview with Big Boy, Ye was asked about the ongoing Vultures era in comparison to other chapters from her career, namely the preceding Jesus Is King and Donda rollouts that saw him leaning fully into a profanity-censoring Christian aesthetic. In fact, according to Ye, he at one point considered also removing sentence enhancers from Vultures 1 but was convinced to reconsider by Ty Dolla Sign.

“You know, I have my issues with Jesus,” Ye said around 10 minutes into the extended interview, released Friday. “There’s a lot of stuff I went through that I prayed and I ain’t see Jesus show up. So I had to put my experience in this world, my experience with my children, my experience with other people, my experience with my account, my experience with my brand and my experience with the level of music that I was dealing with in my own hands.”

As Ye further detailed, his biggest grievance when it comes to the topic of prayer, generally speaking, is that it can be used as a way of not actually doing anything. Ye also gave multiple examples of how he sees prayer alone not leading to desired results.

“The main thing that really that I don’t rock with is it’s just always like, ‘I’mma pray for you.’ And it’s just like, you can actually physically do something yourself too, more than just pray,” Ye said. “We’re so in this mentality that that’s all that needs to happen but we ain’t praying our way out of prison. We ain’t praying our way out the abortion clinics. We ain’t praying our way to get our land back that was always ours after gentrification, after the Harlem Renaissance and Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. Them prayers ain’t working.”

Elsewhere, Ye pointed to a recent moment in his life during which he “had so much to do” that he “ain’t had time to pray.” As previously reported, the interview also sees the 24-time Grammy winner discussing the continued impact of his 808s & Heartbreak album at length while also naming multiple artists as direct examples of his influence. See more above.

At the 2021 Grammys, Ye took home Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for Jesus Is King. While the album is no doubt the most directly Christianity-focused of Ye’s catalog, it’s far (very far) from the first time matters of faith have taken on a starring role in his music. As far back as “Jesus Walks,” much of Ye’s most lauded work has not only explored feelings of faith and doubt, but has also provided the definitive soundtrack to the space between the two.

While the spirit of Vultures is decidedly different, its commercial success is on par with prior Ye entries. After spending back-to-back weeks atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, the first title in Ye and Ty’s planned trilogy is now at No. 3.

What’s that scripture? Faith without works is, what? Dead. Welcome to the Bible, Kanye.