Former billionaire and serial creative Kanye West has shared more of his polarizing and controversial views, but this time he’s telling the world that he now sees himself as God.
The once self-identified Christian, who even produced an opera titled “Mary” at Lincoln Center based on the Nativity, appeared on Justin Laboy’s new podcast, “The Download.”
He wove his deification delusion into the conversation often, first mentioning it during a conversation regarding the Black vote. He would return to his God complex theme while talking about his success or how Drake “signed his soul to the devil.”
“We got a problem with his political opinion, he’s out of control, he’s bipolar, he’s anti-Semit — whatever they want to call somebody to try to get people to not listen or take away the influence,” West told the podcast host.
“I’m God, you know what I’m saying? I’m back here again. I’m letting y’all know what it is it’s like it’s not,” he said within 14 minutes of the interview. “I’ve returned.”
Laboy says, “There you have it, Ye is the GOAT,” to which Yeezy quickly responded, “Just change the ‘AT’ to a ‘D,'” spelling God.
The host says, “Hold up,” and starts nervously laughing.
Initially, it seemed that Kanye used the divine name colloquially, joking that rappers like Rick Ross, “They call me, you know. I’m sitting up there sitting in heaven and s—t and then they say ‘God, Come hop on this and s—t,’ and it’s like here we go, the voice of God.”
But then the former Roc-A-Fella artist seemed to stray from his Christian roots that were on display when he launched his Sunday Service series in 2019. While talking about the reason why he dropped his new single “Vultures” on Feb. 10, 2024, he explained that he chose that day because “astrology” told him that “was a good date.”
“You just can’t deny astrology. People gone give you all these dates for whatever religion they want to shove on us and sh-t, but you just can’t just follow the dates when God s—t come… that’s what it is,” he said.
When asked if he has a goal to ever perform at the Super Bowl, yet again the “I Am a God” rapper said something that many Christians would consider it blasphemous, asking, “Who sets the goals? Who says you want to be like Christ or Mike?”
By the end of the interview, West, a father of four, insisted that he really was the divine one, removing all speculation.
“I’m going just tell you some real simple s—t. God runs the world. I am God. I run the world. Let me make that very clear, all right,” the “College Dropout” said in part.
The Shade Room did an audit of all the times he said he was God, and many of that outlet’s 29.2 million followers were outraged.
“How did you come from praising God to you being God ? Bro don’t play with GOD,” one comment read.
Singer Tyrese checked in writing, “It was really nice knowing you bro,” while one person added, “This is not the same Kanye who accepted Jesus.”
The criticism also leaked onto X, where one user said, “He was once a God’s child, his devoted follower but now he has abandoned his beliefs. RIP Kanye West I hate this Ye West guy.”
“KANYE WEST CLAIMS THE KINGDOM AS HIS. YE, YOU CRIED WHEN YOU RAN FOR #President. GOD WOULDN’T ALLOW THAT TO BE SO, YEAH YOU THE GOD OF THE #rap #Industry BUT, NOT A BLACK LEADER,” one person tweeted.
“Dear @kanyewest , YOU AIN’T GOD BRUH!!” another X user wrote.
Dear @kanyewest, YOU AIN'T GOD BRUH!! #Ye #Yeezy #HipHop #BoomBap #GodOverMoney #MenaceMovement pic.twitter.com/5J0C2nOqiI
— || DāTiN || (@Datin_TripleD) April 24, 2024
Others wanted clarity, “God like creator of the universes? God like made is God’s image?
God like the best in an area of expertise?”
“He def trolled yall with that Gospel album and yall ate it up,” another wrote, inferring that he has thought he was God all along, a sin in the Christian church.
When Kanye’s Sunday Service debut it was all of the rage and heralded as being the next wave of worship for many — merging traditional Christian values through interpolated pop and R&B songs. Gospel artists celebrated the movement, including greats like Yolanda Adams, who added a caveat to her endorsement: “As long as the message of hope, inspiration and encouragement is coming out, it’s not any different than what happened in Mahalia’s day.”
During that time Ye would announce he was going to stop performing rap songs because it was the “devil’s music.” He took it a step further, and after dropping his “Jesus is King” album, that he would stop making all secular music. It won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.
That was short-lived. Ye’s very next album, called “Donda” after his mother, was filled with secular artists, including The Weeknd, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Travis Scott, Lil Yachty, Baby Keem, Playboi Carti, Jay Electronica, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Roddy Ricch, Ty Dolla Sign, Fivio Foreign, Lil Durk, Pop Smoke and Young Thug.
“I’ve said it before, but Kanye is unstable and mentally broken. Since Donda left his life it’s really sad,” said one person on IG.
In addition to the former drug deals, the gang members, the drill rapper and multiple artists with ongoing criminal cases in the courts, West also recruited Marilyn Manson, an artist who has burned Bibles in his performances and called himself the “Antichrist Superstar.” Manson was seen during this period participating in prayer circles with Kanye and Justin Bieber.
Many started to see Ye abandon his staunch religious views and practices, but few of his peers called him out. In 2022, the former Adidas partner was going through a divorce from his then-wife Kim Kardashian. At the time, she started dating Pete Davidson, which Ye did not like and put out much of his frustrations in a song titled, “Eazy.”
“The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God called him “corny” when he rapped, “God saved me from that crash, just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
“I thought Kanye’s bar to Pete was corny as hell. I thought it was corny. I didn’t like it … What happened to Jesus? What happened to God?” Charlamagne asked. “You weren’t even cursing on your records and now all of a sudden you wanna beat up Pete Davidson.”
Now Ye can tell the “Brilliant Idiot” co-host what happened to The Most High, he became him in his mind.
